Still No Site in 1.8

Cash - Sixty-nine days ago you told me not to sweat 1.8 difficulties that much - well, I still don't have a site posted in 1.8. It's giving my otherwise very capable developer  fits. I hope future major updates will somehow be more developer-friendly. 1.8 seems to have been released without everything being intact, including plug-ins. Completeness is more important than novelty. 

 

  • The site we have been working on is heavily customized. 

  • Just to fill out this discussion, started by me yesterday, my developer says she wishes that I hadn't sent it, that it's unfair to Cash and Elgg. Well, sometimes frustration produces a helpful initiative. I regard Cash Costello and Elgg highly, for what they have produced and represent in this new era of global communication. But Elgg doesn't come without frustration, especially to new developers/users (even if a developer has the time to work on Elgg unstintingly, which mine doesn't). She says one valid complaint I could have mentioned is that 1.8 doesn't include built-in editing for the front page, while 1.7 did.  That seems to be a significant omission (which I had sensed was the case). I would expect to be spending a good deal of time on the front page, tinkering with my message on what the site's about, but I'm not an Elgg developer, just a would-be user. Yes, I'm new to the open source world, but I don't have an open source site yet to work with and that's a frustration, but one that's only partly due to Elgg's learning curve. 

  • @Dougbed : If you think your site is complex and its difficult to customize elgg by your dev, then why you blame on the product? There are many sites which work on heavily customized Elgg. Ignorance on how to use a tool is not a reason for blaming such a good product (as it says a bad carpenter blames his tools!). Its time for you to either rethink about your project /developer than blaming Elgg or core devs.

    FYI : Elgg 1.8 comes with a module for home page customization. All you need to edit a single file mod/custom_index/views/default/page/layouts/custom_index.php 

    Edit : I suggest your dev to take a look at our wiki or http://www.amazon.com/Elgg-Social-Networking-Cash-Costello/dp/1849511306

  • @Doug: this has become mostly a post-counter-parry discussion ;-) far away from touche
    If you sincerely want to see your 'no-sweat elgg.1.8 website' kinda soon-like,
    my sincere advice for you is to find those forward-dreamers who develop biased
    more by the cliche of 'why not!' rather than 'why?' Please have a look here 
    http://community.elgg.org/discussion/view/594240/the-top-elggsters-tributes and here
    http://localhost/elgg1711/elggcomm.html for some sensible suggestions to start-off-with
    and run-with-it and you aso can have-your-elgg1.8-site-and-browse-it-too !;-P

     

  • Progress breaks old things that weren't done as well as they could/should have been.  This isn't limited to Elgg, try upgrading a Drupal 6 site to Drupal 7 for instance.  Same headaches, I would actually argue it's much harder (their data model is - tables everywhere for everybody!)

  • I am very sorry that your developer is having trouble with Elgg. I do feel that it is necessary to note that the update to 1.8 was and still is completely voluntary. Also, 1.7 never had a built-in editor for the front page. There may be a 1.7 plugin that edits the front page, but the core never supplied one that I am aware of.

    I also agree with everyone else that singling Cash out isn't very nice. 1.8 was made by the core and contributions other developers may have made via bug reports, etc.

    Which plugins is your dev having trouble with? Maybe some of us are already working on converting them or already have and posted them on github or somewhere else. On the most part everyone in the community is very helpful, so she should post issues here. We can't help if we don't know what the problem is. yes, 1.8 is different than 1.7, but that is a good thing. Elgg 1.8 is like windows vista and 1.7 was like windows ME. I've been studying the code like crazy. I learn via voice and via reading the "under-the-hood" code and all the comments that the devs leave. Feel free to drop me a private message.

     

  • This is for Mohammed Aqeel – I appreciated your email, Mohammed, and tried to reply to it but saw that it's "no-reply@elgg.org." That's something else I have to learn about Elgg, the e-mail protocol. Anyhow, it's disappointing that Elgg so far doesn't make it easy for a non-developer to edit a home page. My developer is nearing completion of my site and then I'll be able to get a better handle on how Elgg interacts. I'm looking forward to that. 

  • @Planet Zuda - vista? really? it sounded at first like you were being pro-1.8  :)

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