Some ideas to FreeNuke

Nuke Cadet Joined: May 27, 2003 Posts: 8

Hi !

To make FreeNuke a success there must be some design changes.

One of the great advantages of Nuke is its modularity which allows module designers to create blocks and modules.
But the core design lacks of some important features

IMO it should be not necessary for module and addon developers to tweak the core code. This would ease updating and maintaining the core.
That means that important features must be built right into the core or provide interfaces for developers.

A fine tunable and extendable user- group- and rights management is such an important feature. NSNGroups shows the right direction but it goes not far enough. It should be possible to assign 1:n groups to a user and assign distinct rights too (e.g. user1 has rights of group1 and group2 and a special right of editing events)

If a module designer (NSNGroups, EventCalendar etc.) need special rights it must be possible to create them without changing the table design (means without adding fields and tweaking code by hand)
If i can help you to design groups, users and rights please drop me a note.

I’m CEO of a software development company and assume open source as a big chance. But working on it, supporting it, running the servers etc. costs a lot of money. If open source shall be successful you have to bear the costs in mind.

Suggestion: Build a stable FreeNuke core and offer it for those experts who will build their own nuke. On the other hand offer a full featured VKP at a valuable price. I for myself prefer to use software instead of debugging it.
I think a two-direction strategy will be successful because it assures that you will get paid and get no troubles to continue developing. That will give us the security that we can use the right product for years.

I want to use nuke as a CMS construction kit. Installing modules, themes and blocks changes the face of my website – i (as a user or administrator) will not spend time with bugfixing or codetweaking. Therefore it should be an installation function which copies the files to the right directories, calls SQL statements, and sets rights (chmod etc.). Furthermore this function shall be able to uninstall modules and blocks. With a standard directory structure and given filenames that should be not so difficult.

some more ideas to FreeNuke

-) Leave module developing to the module developers – nuke is living from them – you don’t need to develop all for yourself

-) Concentrate on core development – make it stable and quick.

-)Offer some in-deepth documentation on how nuke works (there are some docs dealing with installing but i found no documentation of nuke-core-design.)

-) Coperate with important modules- and addon-designers to ease the use of their code in FreeNuke. IMO the variety and diversity is the key to success (everyone will have his own unmistakeable nuke – but needs a well designed and stable core)

-) Don’t forget to ease theme developing

I don’t want to tell you guys your business but if i can help you to a better working nuke (not really altruistic because i will get a better CMS) don’t hesitate to mail me.

Whish you full success for FreeNuke

Charly

Joined: Jan 31, 2004 Posts: -88

thanks for your interest in FreeNuke, but like I've said in the other thread - it's still just an idea. No work has actually been started on it yet. We're still not even sure FreeNuke is going to progress past the idea.

However, if it does progress, we will keep those ideas in mind.

Also, it might be worth pointing out that modules - on the whole - don't require any core-code modding. It's very rare they do, and it's normally necessary when it is.

AI

General Joined: Mar 22, 2003 Posts: 5233 Location: USA

I have been working on a concept that, if perfected, would allow modules/blocks to be stand alone. The cms would be smart enough to search through the 'personal' library first and if the module is not found then it would go to the core. This methodology would add some overhead but it would make upgrading the core much easier. A logical, although more difficult, extension of this would be the ability to overload sections of the core modules instead of carrying the entire module.

In addition I am expanding the concept to the database layer too. I envision no changes to any core tables. The core tables would be merged in with the conceptual module tables.

I have part one already working. It is not ready for prime time but I am excited about it. Picture it - you add a modified mainfile.php script to your personal library and the core module stays untouched where it is. Nuke's 'engine' discovers a replacement module and uses it. If there's a mistake, just remove or disable your module, leaving the core intact.

Eventually my system would have control tables so that you could have system snapshots table driven by 'release dates', making roll backs extremely easy! All this takes time and to be truthful, I am looking for some support dollars for funding this project to completion. Any takers, er givers Wink

Nuke Cadet Joined: May 27, 2003 Posts: 8

Raven wrote:

All this takes time and to be truthful, I am looking for some support dollars for funding this project to completion. Any takers, er givers Wink

That's what i meant: With fully configured FreeNuke at valuable cost you can enter professional uses and gets the money without disappointing the community.
On the other hand the community gets the security that you (and the team) will develop and provide stable versions in the future.

I assume this as a win-win situation.

ciao, Charly