Thread

Many wonder what’s taking us so long with 2.0.  Hopefully this little walk through code conversion will help answer that question.  Rewriting all of ExpressionEngine to a new architecture is a time consuming process, there’s just no way around it.  It’s not glamorous work, and we have a very small team of developers who carry many duties in addition to programming ExpressionEngine 2.0.

Continue reading…

Uh ... it’s a monster, and you are about to take victory. don’t give up the fight.

btw: is there no vision when 2.0 COULD BE PERHAPS be released? will it be in 2009?

anyhow: thanks for your good work - i am convinced you will generate a product that will rule the market.

I can’t imagine that rewriting process.  Just rebuilding small apps in CI takes a lot of work.  I can’t image doing all of EE.

Still, would love to have it sooner than later.  At least when it does come out I will have had more time to learn CI 😉

Derek,

I am long-time customer (i.e., a license buyer) not a developer. Thanks for taking the time to provide an update in regard to EE 2.0. Two questions, if you can (apologies if they have been elsewhere asked and answered).

1. Are you still on a path such that EE 2.0 will be a somewhat harmless upgrade from 1.6x? I will soon start an expensive site relaunch in EE 1.6x with a commerce overlay. If my new site can be easily upgraded to 2.0 when it arrives, I will be a happy camper and the particular timing of EE 2.0 doesn’t matter to me. I just don’t want to finish my new site in Dec/Jan/Feb, and find that EE 2.0 will require me to re-hire developers. I know, I know you have to plan for the version that currently exists. But from a buyer standpoint, you don’t still want to fall on the wrong side of bad timing. I’d just love to hear that EE 2.0 will be “upgrade aware.”

2. Does the following remain (roughly) your sequence: EE 2.0 followed subsequently by Commerce 2.0, such that Commerce 2.0 could be a long way off?

Thanks for great work, David

If I read between the lines you are admitting this will be a 2009 release.

I am not so concerned about the delay, major work takes major time, and the method in which you are approaching what is effectively a total rewrite of the code base seems to be borne of best intention.

While front end display is still best of class, I am becoming more concerned that the backend functionality may be lacking.

I run a fairly simple front end EE based site, but our backend management of images is becoming difficult. The photo gallery under the 1.x branch is not brilliant, and no matter how many free or comercial plugin’s or extensions we experiment with our image management is concerning us. Image management needs to be a core feature in EE2.0.

We are currently working on a complete rewite of our site to try and simplify our image handling which is slated for live status late Jan / early Feb 2009. It will be the last EE based update if image handling is not addressed in ee2.0.

We love the simplicity in how we can extract our info from EE into a front page. We are having real trouble keeping our backend in any coherent structure.

Keep up the good work Derek, we all appreciate the time you took to update us with your process, and we feel your pain. But I can see now, more than ever, why it’s so important, and why it needs the attention you’re giving it. I’m still very excited to get my hands on it when it’s done!

Selfish question that doesn’t need to be answered… is there any chance of 1.x getting the control panel face-lift if 2.0 is still a ways off? It’s so damn slick i’m just really excited to sell it in to clients.

Keep it up! I’ll buy you a case when it’s all said and done 😊

Okay so I just read that post and I think I just lost half my brain as it popped out of my ears!!

All WAAAAAAYYY too over my head to even know where to start reading that post!!

I’m positive that what you are doing is going to be fantastic though and will give ExpressionEngine the power to do even more fantastic things for many more years to come. I know that lots of people keep on asking for more and more information as to when the new version will be out and all that but can I be the first to ask you to stop? It’s just that it all went WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYY over my head (think I might have mentioned that before 😉 )!!!

😉 😊 😉

Anyway keep up the great work we definitely appreciate it.

Best wishes,

Mark

The introduction at SXSW was what most everybody thought was just a means of creating a buzz to launching the final product, not a bad thing.
The reality that it was just the vision and projection of what the product could be when the code was knocked out (read long process) has been the stickler for the ee insatiable appetites out there.
Thanks for the peek into the lab Derek, if you have any problems hit it with another shot of whack-a-mole@!
thanks for following through on the Friday projection date. 😊

Derek I think the new coding style is a good change and using CI is even better for understanding how to extend EE. I also don’t envy you a full rewrite having done that for big website before.

Can I ask why your using some older style or not recommended PHP coding styles?

<?php if (is_array($member_groups)):?>

<?=lang(‘recipient_group’)?>

<ul class=“shun”>               
  <?php foreach ($member_groups as $group => $details): ?>
  <li class=”<?=alternator(‘even’, ‘odd’)?>”><label><?=form_checkbox($details)?>  <?=$group?></label></li>
  <?php endforeach; ?>
</ul>
<?php endif; ?>

* Why the Perl style endif;‘s rather than { }
* and the <?= is recommended to be <?php echo

Small things but maybe they will be noted as to the EE coding style in Developer Extension building documentation.

thanks for hard work

t

Can I ask why your using some older style or not recommended PHP coding styles?

* Why the Perl style endif;‘s rather than { }
* and the <?= is recommended to be <?php echo

I noticed the same thing - particularly the second point, which would limit EE to running on hosts with short PHP tags enabled.  I was surprised to find out that CI can automatically expand short tags.  Who knew?

Are you still on a path such that EE 2.0 will be a somewhat harmless upgrade from 1.6x?

Yes, absolutely.  That critical point for us is another reason we are being so careful and meticulous with our work.  Developers who write add-ons will be required to do some footwork to migrate to 2.0, but we want your data and templates to migrate without requiring any hands-on attention from yourself.

Can I ask why your using some older style or not recommended PHP coding styles?

<?php if (is_array($member_groups)):?>
<h3><?=lang('recipient_group')?></h3>
<p><ul class="shun">                        <br />
    <?php foreach ($member_groups as $group => $details): ?><br />
    <li class="<?=alternator('even', 'odd')?>"><label><?=form_checkbox($details)?>  <?=$group?></label></li><br />
    <?php endforeach; ?><br />
</ul><br />
<?php endif; ?>

There’s nothing “older style” or not recommended about that.  In view files, an important goal is keeping it legible and sensical for people with no scripting or programming knowledge.  These are primarily HTML files, afterall, with PHP only where needed.  Which is easier for a designer or markup guru to read?  The code above?  Or this?

<?php if (is_array($member_groups))
{?>
<h3><?php echo lang('recipient_group');?></h3>
<p>?><br />
<ul class="shun">                <br />
  <?php foreach ($member_groups as $group => $details)<br />
  {?><br />
  <li class="<?php echo alternator('even', 'odd');?>"><label><?php echo form_checkbox($details);?>  <?php echo $group;?></label></li><br />
  <?php } ?><br />
</ul><br />
<?php } ?>

I find the former infinitely more readable.  And:

I was surprised to find out that CI can automatically expand short tags.  Who knew?

Precisely, spot on, Jesse B!

What a tedious task! I’m glad you’re taking the time to do things the right way. Can’t wait to get my hands on 2.0.

* and the <?= is recommended to be <?php echo

@tristanbailey - Using short tags helps keep PHP in the view looking clean. CodeIgniter has an option to rewrite short-tags to normal ones: http://ellislab.com/codeigniter/user-guide/general/alternative_php.html

What a tedious task! I’m glad you’re taking the time to do things the right way. Can’t wait to get my hands on 2.0.

* and the <?= is recommended to be <?php echo

@tristanbailey - Using short tags helps keep PHP in the view looking clean. CodeIgniter has an option to rewrite short-tags to normal ones: http://ellislab.com/codeigniter/user-guide/general/alternative_php.html

we have a very small team of developers who carry many duties in addition to programming ExpressionEngine 2.0

I can imagine that such a huge task, developing EE 2.0, is hard to combine with other duties interrupting all the time. Fast progress can only be achieved if you can focus on the main job. Since EE 2.0 is based on CI and CI has a large community…maybe expanding your team with members of the CI community might be an option, no?

Anyway, keep the faith and take your time.

What amazes me is how you guys get so much done with so few people.  When I’m working on a custom solution, the rest of the site isn’t moving forward.  If I’m elbows deep in work, I don’t have time to update the other people I’m working with on whats going on (but of course I have to so I do it anyways.)  If I’m under the dev cloud, I struggle to keep my bearing on the overall big picture of the project, I have to surface and breath so that I can take a fresh look.  I totally understand and amazed.