Update on jReviews 2.0 development

April 14, 2008 at 12:15 AM

Hi everyone,

I know you are all eager to know what's going on so here it is:

1) Development of the new version is 95% done. There's a new MVC framework in place and the code has been completely re-written except for a couple of legacy files I'll convert after the first beta release. I have tested it with J1.0, J1.5 and Mambo 4.6.3 and it works great.

2) The functionality remains pretty much the same with some minor configuration changes. For example, the blogjoomla template settings will be removed and just a default view will be used that will blend better with the rest of the site. Maybe a few others as well. I'll know better once the beta is ready for release. Even though functionality is the same, the flexibility the new framework provides for customizing the code and the themes is a great improvement over the current version.

3) I have hired someone with great, no, amazing design skills to put together the new theme for jReviews, so at least the frontend interface will be nicer looking and better designed CSS-wise. The theme is almost complete, with only a few views (pages) still to be completed and tweaked. The administration will remain ugly looking for now ;).

4) Initially only the dashboard module will be released. The advanced search module and all other modules/plugins will be released at a later date. The same with addons. This all represents a great amount of work and I will do it, but it will take a bit of time. I need to make sure that any major issues with jReviews are resolved before releasing the rest of the portfolio of extensions.

5) Still to do also is packaging and testing installation in the different platforms. As simple as this sounds, it's really a very time consuming task.

First I'll release it to a few users that have been very helpful in the past at finding bugs and once the major ones are caught and fixed, I'll release another beta version to all licensed users. Based on feedback and bugs, I'll release the trial shortly after.

My hope, not promise, is to have this ready by the end of the month.

Thanks everyone for your loyalty and patience!

April 14, 2008 at 08:30 AM