Roadmap Version 1.6

Version 1.6 of Hotaru CMS core code is being planned for release in the first half of 2014

Planned features are:

Update

• mysqli library
• bootstrap css framework to ver 3.x
• jquery libraries
• fix all links on admin page for new forums

Add

• FontAwseome 4

Review

• memcache status
• planning on making the Category and Category Manager plugins part of the core code

Bug Fixes


Note: This release will be a short cycle one to bring the code up-to-date for added functionality in version 1.7

 

Thanks
Is this the type of thing you mean for "like a Facebook Page"? The Journals plugin was designed to allow users to post like a diary or journal
http://forums.hotarucms.org/threads/journal-0-6.730/
Here is the demo that was made some time ago
http://journals.hotarucms.org/

Also, I checked and these demos still exist as well
http://vote.hotarucms.org/
http://magazine.hotarucms.org/

Let me know what else you are thinking and we can keep the discussion going

 

If the theme was designed to show both journal entries and other posts then yes they could both show up

 

Would this help with the view count?

http://forums.hotarucms.org/threads/post-views-0-2.847/

 

At the moment, the admin creates pages by loading them into the correct folder structure

Static page
You are able to create and display static pages by saving them in to your /content/pages folder.

The static pages are independent of the theme, so if you select another theme they will still display albeit with the css styling of your new theme.

Static pages which are useful to have on your site may be
​

• • Welcome
  • FAQ
  • Terms of Service

Do you mean for the user to create pages?

 

The feature for users to create a page is not available, but the journals plugin does let users create a post. Facebook Pages normally refer to setting up a brand or group page, which is different to the image you have shown here. Do you mean users can make a post or actually make a page ?

 

Really good thoughts here. I like a lot of these and agree hacks are not the way to move the code forward. We need a real solution for each one.

I think we need to make a few of these part of the core rather than plugins.

I would also like to get a discussion going with some theme designers since any changes to the core will affect the way the themes are put together.

How many people are hoping / planning / trying to design a theme for Hotaru?
Would you like to sell the theme or provide it for free?
What help do you need to make a theme?
What would prevent you from making a theme?

 

These are some of the hot Wordpress Bootstrap themes right now. Something like these would certainly look good on the Hotaru CMS platform
http://www.webafest.com.au/bootstrap-themes-2014/

 

(Gets ready to have his hand slapped for modifying core...)

I've done quite a few mods to core. I understand the reasons for the plugin concept - you want to keep it light for speed and, at the same time, not everyone wants the same functionality. However, the more functionality (plugins) is added, the slower Hotaru seems to get. It also can cause problems (that sometimes took me days to find) because the order in which the plugins execute seem to be extremely important sometimes. (And when you uninstall/reinstall a plugin, things can get whacked because they are then out of order.)

My point being that, given the state of social networking, there are probably many features that are no longer appropriate to consider as plugins (e.g., anything to do with images, user signin, categories, tags, posts, comments, spam, activity and, perhaps, even voting). Too many of these are now so common that it's "cost of entry" just to have a social network.

Additionally, Hotaru query functionality (the base of which appears to be /libs/Database.php) probably has some serious room for improvement. Because Hotaru is designed somewhat piecemeal to allow for plugins, it is very inefficient when it comes to hitting the database. Many plugins (and even core) hit the database (and, oftentimes, the same tables) multiple times when you could do JOINS and only hit the database once. Generally speaking, page handling really needs some work, especially when it comes to hits to the database for pagination. I don't remember the exact numbers but I think I was seeing something north of 500 database hits for one front page load (and that's just for however many records were set to come back for pagination; go to page 2 and you do it all again). After all of the rip-and-replaces I did with queries across plugins and core, I think I'm down now to about 40 database hits for a front page load, and even less for next pages.

Sure, doing things with memcache will likely help speed things up, but it doesn't appear to address some of the core design problems (which may have been appropriate in the early years of Hotaru and the state of social networking at the time). I would guess it's better to hit the database fewer times without memcache than it is to hit it more times with memcache. Granted, all of my core mods will make it extremely difficult for me to consider upgrades. It was a trade-off.

 

I totally agree with you. Whilst a fully modular design was planned initially for Hotaru, social media sites have now staked out a number of basic items that should be in the core. Developers can then write plugins around those basic core items rather than having a plugin based on a plugin based on a plugin type architecture.

My initial thoughts are, I would like to see the following made as part of the core:

• User
• User Signin
• User Management

• Categories
• Category Management

• Comments
• Comment Management

• Images - Something for image upload, crop (basic media services)
• Tags
• Activity for keeping a db record of the activity, although stats using activity data may be a plugin
• Voting
• Pages
• Groups
• Search

Some form of spam services as part of core with plugins able to extend and add to it. I would have to decide which of these to tackle first and insert them into the RoadMap activities, but basically 2014 would be the year of bringing plugins back in to the core in an effort to make it easier for others to program plugins and to also improve performance.

I would like to rework this a lot and reduce the queries down as far as possible. Do you have some test site or data to share on this? It may change as I bring things into the core rather than plugins but if we could collaborate on this I think we can improve a lot more.

My final question is one of demand. Do you think there is still demand for a CMS like Hotaru and is it too late to make these improvements? Have we missed the chance? I can put time into making changes, but we always seem to end up with the same small group of people on the forums rather than any new ones (apart from spammers). Thoughts?

 

Yes, the forum spam deletion method is very easy to use and we can learn from that a lot