March 5th, 2014 at 4:07 AM
Many people have recently asked me when the next POC/Alpha release will be out. To be honest, I keep thinking it is only a couple weeks off, but every time I think it's close, I find something else to rewrite. The simple answer is that I'm basically recoding the whole thing one step at a time. I've implemented several new features, including hookable menus and notifications, hookable action, page, and form handlers, modular addons, templates, lang systems, and more to come. This is a pretty in-depth framework overhaul, and not only that, but I need to replace some DB classes, etc... as well. And I haven't even touched the ACP yet. 
Given all of the framework changes, the majority of the existing code needs to be reworked. I'm already well into getting the pages for uploads, categories, etc... and I'm also in the process of rewriting the user management module. I've come to the conclusion that while I won't be doing a complete rewrite from scratch, I will need to take each module and rework it individually. The entire project could take a month or longer to complete, and the actual feature improvements will be marginal. However, once that's done, the code will be much easier to extend, and that is something I'm excited about.
Another concern is with security. Earlier on in the project, I wasn't quite sure whether or not I wanted to use mysqli, or PDO. After having coded much more into the project, I've decided that while PDO might be the smarter approach nowadays, that mysqli is something I am simply more familiar with, and I will thus convert all PDO code into mysqli code for the sake of simpler code and faster development. PDO is gaining popularity for a number of reasons, but mysqli is not deprecated and is still in popular use. Using consistent database methods will make it easier to keep the code secure and consistent.
As for where the alpha stands, once the code is reworked, I plan on finishing a few core features, such as comments, etc..., then on releasing a proof of concept release. It's still a ways off, but I'd like to go ahead and get some code out in the open once I'm able to. Of course github is also probably coming in the future. I'm hoping to complete this sometime in May, but we shall see how it works out. In addition, I plan on launching an official website for it as well. This is something I'm uber excited about planning.
Anyway, stay tuned for more! I'll keep you guys updated as more progress is made.
Given all of the framework changes, the majority of the existing code needs to be reworked. I'm already well into getting the pages for uploads, categories, etc... and I'm also in the process of rewriting the user management module. I've come to the conclusion that while I won't be doing a complete rewrite from scratch, I will need to take each module and rework it individually. The entire project could take a month or longer to complete, and the actual feature improvements will be marginal. However, once that's done, the code will be much easier to extend, and that is something I'm excited about.
Another concern is with security. Earlier on in the project, I wasn't quite sure whether or not I wanted to use mysqli, or PDO. After having coded much more into the project, I've decided that while PDO might be the smarter approach nowadays, that mysqli is something I am simply more familiar with, and I will thus convert all PDO code into mysqli code for the sake of simpler code and faster development. PDO is gaining popularity for a number of reasons, but mysqli is not deprecated and is still in popular use. Using consistent database methods will make it easier to keep the code secure and consistent.
As for where the alpha stands, once the code is reworked, I plan on finishing a few core features, such as comments, etc..., then on releasing a proof of concept release. It's still a ways off, but I'd like to go ahead and get some code out in the open once I'm able to. Of course github is also probably coming in the future. I'm hoping to complete this sometime in May, but we shall see how it works out. In addition, I plan on launching an official website for it as well. This is something I'm uber excited about planning.
Anyway, stay tuned for more! I'll keep you guys updated as more progress is made.
