Elgg and GCconnex collaboration

Hi,
  I work with the team that is developing GCConnex.  GCconnex is the internal social network for all Canadian public service.  GCconnex is based on Elgg 1.12.  We are currently on 1.12.9.

https://github.com/tbs-sct/gcconnex

It's like a distribution of Elgg with all the plugins we have enabled on the site.  We are currently moving Issue tracking and the main code repo to Github.  I also would like to change the installation to enable all the right plugins from the start..  We want to make inviting for people to collaboration with us.

We will also soon add a gccollab repo also based on Elgg for collaboration between public servants and schools. https://gccollab.ca/login

We want to know how best to collaborate with the Elgg community.  I was reading the conversation about "Elgg at a crossroad" and we might be able to help backport features into 1.12.  We are planning on moving to version 2, eventually.  We have also developed a responsive theme based on Bootstrap and WET-BOEW that could probably be used for Elgg, with a few changes.  We could also help fix Issues on Github.

We would very much like to be a part of the team to discuss and set big goals for Elgg.
 

  •  Hi Sébastian,

    good to hear your intentions on opening up your code to the public and looking for collaboration on code. The best thing for you would be to reorganize how you install your code. You should be switching to composer for the installation of Elgg and all the third party plugins. This removes the burden of maintaining the code in your own repository. I would also suggest to separate your custom development into separate repos. Just treat them like a third party plugin. This way there is 1 master repo (your distribution), that is the repo you use to install/update (take a look at https://github.com/Elgg/starter-project). Plugin maintenance should be taken place in all the different plugin repos. If you are still on 1.12 you should make work of moving to 2.x, however, depending on your own schedule, you could also skip 2.x, because the plan is to release Elgg 3.0 in Q1 of 2017.

    "Elgg at a crossroad" was a discussion about the future of Elgg. Elgg wants to move forward... backporting features to 1.12 is counterproductive. If you get rid of the code (or the way you organized your site) that forces you to stick to 1.12 you will gain more, instead of trying to stay on 1.12. Collaboration will probably not be happening on 'old' code... makes more sense to do it on 'new' code.

    Please let us know what is holding you back from upgrading... even better if these reasons are code/Elgg related you can report Github issues for that.

    Maybe you could also share how you would like to see the collaboration on gcconnex take place... How do you decide what needs to be done... is there room for discussion/design, or do you want people to hunt down bugs in your own code... Is the collaboration a volunteer job or is funding available? Maybe something like http://www.bountysource.com/ could be interesting (bounty on github issue)...

    All together i am very happy you are sharing and reaching out to collaborators and are expressing the wish to make Elgg a better project.

    You know what? Maybe a good idea to show how much you like Elgg and the fact that you are looking for collaborators is a good motive to organize an ElggCamp! What about ElggCamp Canada 2017?? Sounds good to me :)

    All the best!

  • Hi Jeroen,
      thanks for you answer.  During the hackathon, somebody mentioned that we should use composer for the installation of plugins, not sure if it was you.  I think we will be looking at that when we move to version 2 or 3.  Maybe it should be the first step before upgrading.  I will share this conversation with the Developers.

    I only mentioned the backporting because it was discussed as a possibility, but we also want to help you with new stuff.

    We are currently transferring Issues and Features to Github and inviting users to submit bugs and feature requests.  GCconnex is internal to the Government of Canada but one we get GCcollab on Github there might be more outside interest from students.  If others want to use it, even better.  We want to promote it as a "enterprise ready" social network.

  • Maybe you (or your developers) should also take a look at the current latest "official" releases of the 3rd party plugins used in your project. I noticed that some work has been done on getting the old versions of these plugins included in your project to work on Elgg 1.12. This work is pointless to a certain extend if newer releases are already available. Maybe it would make more sense trying out the already available plugin releases and in case some issues are still there to make pull request on the official repos. If you fork all the plugins (and Elgg too in case of backporting features) a collaboration will become impossible sooner or later because the code will differ more and more.

  • Thanks guys!  I create Issues on Github to for the things you mentioned: latest plugins and composer

    Looking forward to working with the Elgg team!

  • Hi Sébastien,

    Can you share a demo user ID and password so that I can have a look inside the website.

    Thanks.

  • Hi Rohit,
      unfortunately, I can't share an account with you right now.  But we were discussing this morning about creating a demo site for that.

  • I created this as a start.  It's a GCconnex starter project like the one for Elgg.  I tried to use the original sources for the plugins as much as possible.

    https://packagist.org/packages/smellems/gcconnex-starter

  • I setup a empty GCconnex site as a demo.  This is based on the current version based on Elgg 1.12.9.

    http://www.pchgc.ca/dev/gcc/

    user: newuser

    pass: newuserpass

    Let me know what you think!  I will remove the account if the bots find it.

Feedback and Planning

Feedback and Planning

Discussions about the past, present, and future of Elgg and this community site.