Suggestion: Compatibility Matrix for Extensions

[meadwench]

Hi all,

I've been looking over all the posts on 1.08, and had a thought: Knowing which components/modules/bots/hacks are compatible with the latest version, without having to spend days searching the forum or Extensions would be a Good Thing. Especially since many 'problems' posted here are often 'user-related issues' where a setting change or site check solves the problem.

Would the Joomla wizards consider creating an area where authors of various add-ons could note whether their particular contribution(s) work with xx versions, perhaps somewhere in or linked to the Extensions area? Right now, the compatibility is viewable only on each individual item, and if you've a large number of add-ons (like me), doing the research for your upgrade gets pretty hairy, and in a number of cases is a puzzle, since the Extension upload isn't marked for *particular* versions.

I'm running on 1.07, and am at this point apprehensive about upgrading because I've seen a lot of problem threads. However, if XXX developer of ABC-Module has updated and tested his/her offering against it, having it on the List would show that you're 'safe' (or at least as much as you can be after backing up everything).

I'm thinking something like this:

A table, with versions across the top (say the most recent 2-3 production versions of each branch)
Down the side would be the List of Official Joomla Extensions (i.e., listed in the Extensions section).
Inside would be the extension version for that particular Joomla/Mambo version. If blank, no tested compatible version is available. If filled in, link it to the Joomla Extension entry.

Place this table where registered developers could access to update what versions their extension works with.

I'd be willing to start putting the table together with Joomla/!ambo extensions from the Extensions section, and the version info (based on recommendations from all y'all Wizards as to what is 'current' and 'production').

Is this viable, or even needed? I'm interested to hear feedback. As I say, it occurred to me to ask as I was updating various extensions on my site.....

[gsbe]

To clarify- it seems you are saying that many extensions are compatible with versions of Joomla 1.0.7 and below but many are not compatible with the latest stable 1.0.8 release. Is this it?

If so, I think it will be very difficult for any one person to validate the 525+ extensions currently available in the directory. We've tried to overcome this by having compatibility listed for the 1.0.x series and the not-yet-released 1.5 series. I guess you're asking for a 1.0.8 compatibility icon. Can you provide a quick list of extensions that are compatible with 1.0.7 but not 1.0.8? I'm only aware of a few and would like to know more about this.

[meadwench]

Well, what I've read while researching the viability of upgrading my site to 1.08 seems to indicate that a significant number of extensions are not yet compatible, or have installation issues in 1.08, not a good thing if you're upgradinga  production site. I'm not expecting that they all *will* be, this *is* open source, and most of us have 'day jobs' that demand our time. Not all extensions are *going* to be upgraded, for whatever reason (work, no time, lost interest, etc.)

Likewise, the Joomla wizards are extremely busy just working the core program. I was extremely tickled when they put up the Extensions area (thanks, folks!), which makes it *much* easier to see what is out there, instead of just searching the forums, which is time-consuming due to sheer volume, and distracting for the same reason (keep getting sidetracked by interesting posts!). This sort of attention to detail is what drew me to Joomla in the first place, and why I stay. It is an all-around *excellent* program.

I'm with you, that no one person could possibly validate all the extensions for a particular version. What I'm suggesting is that the *developer*, if he/she is planning to, or already has created/verified a compatible version of their contribution(s) for 1.08/1.5, could verify this somewhere easy to find, like a table or in the Extensions area with an icon or some such. Just putting '1.x compatible' covers a pretty broad range, and depending on the item's use, that extension could *easily* be incompatible with one or more versions in that range.

I don't have a list of 'non-compatible' extensions as yet, I am still wading through all the forum posts to verify each of the extensions being used on my site, and its slow going as I'm also still tweaking my site, setting up extensions and moving content over from the old non-CMS version. Plus I'm customizing a ClickCartPro store which will run with my site, so the research is even slower. A given extension might have 20-50 posts (or more) just on it with 1.08, and you have to wade through an entire thread to determine if *this* problem is a real problem, or just an install error/server error/newbie programming issue/etc. (i.e., not an extension compatibility/coding problem, but a user-specific thing).

It may be that this idea is silly, but I have to say that *I* would love to know by looking at the extensions area listing of an add-on or checking a table if *this* one is good for the version I'm contemplating, whether that's 1.05, 1.08 or 1.50. We've got folks with many versions running here. Another thought would be to be able to search the extensions site based on a particular version (just an idea, I've *no* clue how hard or even *if* such a thing could be accomplished).

Once I *do* verify the extensions *I* use, I'll be happy to put the spreadsheet up here for others. This is what got me thinking that an extension-wide table, verified by the various developers of the extensions, would be good to have.

[gsbe]

I'd like to see a decent sized list of extensions that are compatible with 1.0.7 and below but not with 1.0.8. That will be the only way that I would consider adding this to the directory. The only one that I'm aware of is mosCE but further development on that extension has been abandoned in favor of JCE which is compatible with 1.0.8  and below, afaik.

[meadwench]

I agree, such a list would be good. I'll post my findings on the extensions I use. As I said in my previous post, though, I haven't much time (due to the several projects on the site itself, plus 2 customer sites in the works) to pore over the forum looking up each one that I'm using to verify its use with 1.08, so it may take me a while (hence my suggestion for such a list!). What I've discovered so far is that there are posts for each extension I'm using, and I have to read all of them to see if the problem is overall, or a one-time thing.

I'm not going to upgrade my own site until I've finished researching all posts about the extensions I use vs. 1.08, because I just don't have the time to set up an identical offline setup, cross-test all the stuff I use, and still maintain my production site. LOL....I need a clone....so, I'll be doing my research by reading what others have encountered during *their* upgrades, or applications of extensions on a 1.08 site.

Thanks for the feedback, gsbe!