Elgg as a composer dependency for 2.0

I have an outstanding pull request I need feedback on. This addresses my biggest painpoint with Elgg at this point.

https://github.com/Elgg/Elgg/pull/8431#issuecomment-115400232

In particular, I need confirmation that people are OK with the feature for 2.0 (i.e. is anyone inclined to block this even if I iron out the remaining Travis failures? Any major reason not to do this that I'm blind to?).

It does two basic things:

- allow installing elgg at vendor/elgg/elgg instead of root of web app
- if that is done, use root directory for site-specific modifications

There are some bc implications for plugins that use elgg_get_root_path and/or CONFIG->path to access core's filesystem directly. And we need to decide on what to do with core plugins.

This could also affect our release scripts/process slightly so it'd be good to get this approved and checked in so I can make sure that process stays smooth for 2.0.

Anyways, feedback appreciated. Elgg 2.x is coming so soon! I'm really excited about a lot of the improvements we've made, but this is definitely a remaining sore spot that would have to wait until 3.0 if it doesn't get checked in soon. I would hate to see that happen.

  • I am submitting this PR tonight (~10pm Los Angeles time). Please chime in if you have any final comments.

  • Sorry for being a "dummy"

    Will Elgg 2 be as easy ( or even easier) to install like the previous versions ?
    If yes then great. If not :(

    All recent versions of Elgg could be installed with just point and click, very fast - just a few seconds. Smooth and free of any problems or without the burden of any other "dependencies" - both on localhost (without internet connection) for testing as well as cpanel based installation. Plugins need not be added everyday or need to be upgraded everyday - so all was good.

    Ease-of-use with most necessary "features" ( features in core is not a sin to most of us) already in core made Elgg really useful and fast to deploy. With most organisation/entities becoming facebook-only there is dwindling number of users downloading scripts like Elgg, Drupal, WP and making own sites - so if difficult for new users or if not "backward-compatible" (see this for example) for existing users, the use of such scripts may further go down.

     

  • +1 @ kanha

    I could not install the master version - github Elgg2

  • @kanha -- The initial ramp-up experience will continue to be straightforward. Any rough edges should get ironed out during the 2.0.0 alpha/beta releases. Composer greatly improves the experience for those comfortable with command line. We will appreciate your feedback during the pre-releases to ensure that the experience for those used to installing-from-zip remains positive.

    @dranii -- I'm not sure what you tried, so it's hard to comment. Elgg hasn't been trivially installable straight from github for some time now, though, so that's nothing new for 2.x.

  • I get error message or alert message - so I cannot proceed further with install. I think previous beta or full versions had no problem - click, click and click - install done !

    Just curious to know what about those who are not 'comfortable with command line' - will the install experience be same for them? Thanks a lot.

  • OK. I'd still need more details to understand what the problem is. In any case, Elgg 2 is not ready for prime time just yet.

    Patience appreciated. The freeze date is this weekend. I'm hoping we can get an alpha out by then that people can play around with to see what they think. This will be rough still, though. **Not for the faint of heart.**

  • I have spent many absorbing hours with various Elgg versions testing, tweaking and many more such stuff with Elgg on localhost starting from an easy install *without* having the need to connect to the internet (after downloading the zip file).

    I am curious to know if the same can be done with Elgg 2 (specially the install of Elgg 2). Having patience and great appreciation for the wonderful work being done by the Devs.

  • Published releases of Elgg can be used just like you are used to (with the zip file). However if you are testing with the latest versions from github you will need to use composer. After next weekend i expect there will be a zip file for Elgg 2.0 Release Candidate 1, so it would be great if you are able to test that!

  • It will be 2.0.0-alpha.1 but yes, we'll run all the composer commands for you and zip up the result.

  • @evan shouldn't it at least be beta? alphas allow for features to be added

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