[from 02.02.2022]
Version 4 of our favorite CMS brings a lot of new things to the Joomla! world. The developers of extensions must first prepare their code for this still young major version.
After JoomGallery was no longer developed, Manuel Häusler and Alwin, among others, came together as JoomGalleryfriends.
How it came about, what plans they still have and how they got to Joomla! You can find out who came by yourself in our latest interview.
We hope you enjoy reading the interview!
Manuel and Alwin, please introduce yourself briefly?
Answer Manuel: Salü, my name is Manuel Häusler and I am 28 years old. I live in central Switzerland and am a full-time mechanical engineer. As a research employee at the EuroTube Foundation, I would like to contribute my part to the realization of a Hyperloop in Europe. I also have a casual company (tech.spuur.ch) with which I live out my hobby, offer Joomla! websites and develop extensions. I appear in the Joomla! community as Elfangor93. The nickname comes from a book series called “Animorphs”, which really fascinated me in my youth. In it, an alien named Prince Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul gave a group of young people the ability to transform (morph) into animals and indirectly saved the earth with this technology.
Answer Alwin: My name is Alwin, in the MrMusic Joomla forum, I am 58 years old, married and have two children aged 11 and 13. Joomla! or the JoomGallery are my big hobby. There is usually not enough time for other things.
How exactly are you both familiar with Joomla! came:
Answer Manuel:
Like many people here in Switzerland, I am active in various clubs with which I spend a large part of my free time. Since I've always had a flair for computers, I was soon promoted to IT supporter and webmaster in these clubs. So when I was 16 I took over and maintained the first club websites, back then still using static HTML code and some CSS. With the redesign of our Boy Scout website in 2013, I worked with Joomla for the first time! came into contact. Over the years, this website has taken on more and more functions in the club until it became a kind of club administration. Among other things, the website also had to have a photo gallery to capture our adventures. In the course of this I came across JoomGallery, which met my requirements except for one small thing. Through the JoomGallery forum, together with “MrMusic” (I didn’t know Alwin personally at the time), I was able to introduce this last missing function to the gallery. Since then, the JoomGalerie has been able to sort images according to the date they were taken (EXIF date) ;-).
Answer Alwin:
When a friend of mine needed a website, we created it with “Netobjects Fusion” and the “Namo Webeditor”. Later, when it came to regular maintenance of the data, I looked for a system with which “normal users” could also enter the data. That was at the beginning of 2008, when Joomla! 1.5 just released. After a short training session, I was impressed - in addition to the expandability - by the ease of use, which has also gradually developed over the years. When it comes to extensibility, there's practically nothing you can't do with Joomla! could implement. Every now and then you have to help with some CSS or an override, but it's great that such options even exist.
It is certainly somewhat unusual to take a closer look at a component that is no longer maintained. Alwin, what was the reason for “founding” JoomGalleryfriends?
Answer Alwin:
There was a private “static” website with lots of images where it was quite time-consuming to add new images. To make the whole thing easier, I started looking for a gallery extension. After trying out a few, I found JoomGallery to be ideal. The developers at the time answered all of my (“stupid”) questions in the forum with incredible calm and patience. That was really impressive for me. Later I wanted to support people and provided support myself in the JoomGallery forum. As the developers gradually withdrew, the question arose as to what should become of JoomGallery. In order to continue the project, I created the website joomgalleryfriends.net in 2019 (by the way, the name is derived from “apachefriends”). But without the support of “Erftralle” (one of the old developers) and Manuel, this would have been a hopeless undertaking.
Manuel, I saw that you are currently working on version 3.6 in your free time. What exactly does this update contain or what are the problems that will be fixed?
Answer Manuel:
In version 3.6 I missed JoomGallery functions that I needed in my current web project anyway and wanted to make available to the community. In this project, I'm helping a local photographer publish his enormous photo gallery on his own website and sell digital licenses of his images through it. The JoomGallery will be given new interfaces in v3.6 in order to be able to connect a shop system. In addition, the backend administration is supplemented with some useful functions, which are particularly useful when a large number of images and categories need to be administered. Last but not least, Joomla!'s index-based search! (Smart Search) can now be used to search images in the JoomGallery.
The Joomla! 3 version will be maintained until summer 2023. Your big goal is currently the JoomGallery for Joomla by then! 4 to make it suitable. What obstacles still stand in your way?
Answer Manuel:
I wouldn't say obstacles, but challenges ;-)
The JoomGallery has been available for a very long time. Accordingly, large parts of the code are still created in the old Joomla! style and must be used for Joomla! 4 must be reprogrammed in order to still be able to run. This means a lot of effort for such a large component like JoomGallery with over 30,000 lines of code. Helping hands in PHP development are welcome and can speed up the migration process.
The Gallery is a voluntary project. How exactly can we possibly help or support you with this?
Answer Alwin:
The JoomGallery is a purely open source project and the code is entirely on Github (https://github.com/JoomGalleryfriends). We are a small team that takes care of everything on a voluntary basis: website, forum, documentation, etc. We have neither an agency nor any other organization that supports us. Since the JoomGallery is designed for very large image galleries, it has extensive configuration and management functions, so the code is very extensive and the adaptation to Joomla! 4 a big challenge. Manuel: We are grateful to everyone who supports the project in any way they can. Be it as a supporter in the forum, as a tester or developer on GitHub or wherever added value can be contributed. This is essential for an open source project to continue to exist.
Alwin, what is the best way to reach you if you would like to offer your help?
Answer Alwin:
There are three equivalent channels to contact us: by email, via our forum at: forum.joomgalleryfriends.net or via Github.
Manuel, I met you in the official Joomla! forum. Where else are you “out and about” in the Joomla! community?
Answer Manuel:
I can be found in the German and Swiss Joomla! forums with the nickname Elfangor93, easily recognizable by the icon with the blue alien. I also recently signed up for RingCentral.
What about Joomla! 4 from you? What exactly do you like best about it and what other functions would you like to see in future versions?
Answer Manuel:
So far I have mainly dealt with Joomla! on the code side! 4 explained. In this regard, I am very happy with the new release. I especially like the improved debugging options. Under v3.x I was a frequent user of JDump, whose functionality is now available directly in the Joomla! core – great! In general, I find it very positive that new technologies are gradually finding their way into the code, which makes developing fun. At the user level, I think the web services are the best innovation. This follows the trend away from the server side towards the client. Joomla! It can also be used as a headless CMS together with a mobile app or a progressive web app, which I consider a milestone. I'm wondering how long I'll need the Joomla! frontend...
Answer Alwin:
So far I have Joomla! 4 installed just for testing and scratched the surface a bit. The performance is definitely very good. I'm still having a bit of a hard time with the new backend - but you'll get used to it over time.
Manuel, what do you do when you're not at the computer?
Answer Manuel:
In fact, due to my professional activity and my hobby as a web developer, I am at the computer relatively often. However, like many Swiss, I enjoy spending my free time in the mountains, where I can be found walking or mountain biking in summer and skiing in winter. Music has a lot of meaning in my life. I play in an accordion orchestra and regularly attend live concerts. I have been in the Boy Scouts since my early childhood and until recently I was in an active leadership position. Now I have cleared the field for the next generation and am still helping the PBS (Swiss Path Movement) with the maintenance and further development of its IT infrastructure.
Alwin, where do you hope JoomGallery will be in three years?
Answer Alwin:
In three years? My hope would be that in three years there will be a small team that will further develop JoomGallery and keep it up to date. Then I can retire with peace of mind :-).
Thank you two for the interview!
You're welcome - thank you very much
- Click here to go to the Website from JoomGalleryfriends.net
This INTERVIEW was published on www.joomla.de. All rights reserved by Marco Leichsenring