Archive for January, 2011
Nooku Server loses 40% weight
Last December we announced our plans for Nooku Server, a multi-site and multi-lingual distribution of Joomla 1.5. With the help of our community we created a diet for Nooku Server and defined a roadmap.
For the first alpha we are focusing on implementing the key ingredients of our diet. Most of the work involves removing legacy code, legacy libraries and doing clean-up. In the past weeks we have been making steady progress.
- Core extensions: All the components, plugins and templates that didn’t made it into our list have been removed
- XML-RPC: XML-RPC support has been removed
- PDF: PDF support has been removed
- Legacy: Legacy support for Joomla 1.0 and PHP4 has been removed
- Security: All assets (css,js,images) have been moved to the media folder
- Libraries: Legacy libraries have been removed
- Performance: Hit support in Content and Weblinks has been removed
- Mootools: Mootools has been upgraded to 1.2 including the compatibility layer
- Framework: Nooku Framework has been added
With most of the refactoring completed it’s time to weigh the result. I have done a code count today to compare the code bases of Joomla 1.0, 1.5, 1.6 and Nooku Server. I used Ohcount, a little command line tool that is also used by Ohloh to do code counting.
We have made Nooku Server a whooping 40% lighter in code size. Yes, you read that right, we removed 40% code and we added a whole new framework at the same time.
Here are the detailed results:
A roadmap for Nooku Server
With Nooku Server’s diet established, we now have a good idea of the work that needs to be done. A next step in the process is to define a little roadmap.
Over the next 4 months, we are going to be rolling out alpha releases implementing the key ingredients as defined in our little diet and at the same time adding key features.
We will be working towards releasing an alpha about once every four weeks. This gives the following roadmap :
- Alpha 1 : February
- Alpha 2 : March
- Alpha 3 : April
Under ideal conditions Nooku Server would go beta in May 2011, right in time for JAB11.
Our development flow will be focused on maintaining the stability of the Joomla 1.5 core. Scope for the alpha releases will be kept very limited in order to avoid scope creep. For each alpha we will focus on one major feature or task.
Creating a diet for Nooku Server
A little over a month ago we announced our plans for Nooku Server, a multi-site Joomla 1.5 distribution. Before starting to integrate new features in Nooku Server we are giving the Joomla core a thorough code, features and performance review.
Joomla 1.5 core feature survey. To get a better idea of the features used, or more importantly not used in Joomla 1.5, we did a little survey with very interesting results. Almost 250 people filled it out, big thanks to all of you who did!
Results
1. Which Joomla core features do you use ?
You can find the result here. If we would apply the 80/20 rule the only feature that you really need and use is ‘Content’. All the rest of the core features is used less then 80%. If we turn the 80/20 rule around and we check which features are used at least by 20% of you, we get the following list:
- 82% – Content
- 68% – Search
- 46% – Contacts
- 34% – TinyMCE
- 32% – PDF rendering
- 29% – XML-RPC support
- 28% – Newsfeeds
- 22% – Banners
Still an interesting list. You are not using LDAP, Gmail or the XStandard editor at all. You also don’t use any of the core site templates, nor do you require build in help.
2. What is the number one feature you are missing in the Joomla core ?
You can find the result here. If we look at the features you are missing most we get the following top 3:
- 20% – Multi-site
- 18% – Improved permissions
- 13% – Multi-lingual support
The most interesting is that improved permissions, which is the major new feature for Joomla 1.6, is not the most needed feature. Instead most of you are looking for multi-site support.
Based on the results of both questions we can conclude that what you really need is not a CMS but instead you are looking for a flexible, customisable, multi-site and multi-lingual web application platform. And that’s exactly what we are going to build!
Nooku Jam Lugano
Together with our friends from Beyounic we are organising the first Nooku Jam of 2011 in beautiful city of Lugano, Switzerland on the 19th of January 2011. The University of Lugano has kindly offered to host the jam on their campus.
Nooku Framework is considered by many as one of the most interesting developments in the Joomlasphere of the last two years. Not only because of the spectacular code reduction (up to 80%), but also for the many features that were previously unavailable to Joomla and PHP developers:
- Near-zero-code HMVC
- REST architecture
- Object Relational Mapping
- Out of the box security features
- Extensibility through CoC, DI, Mixins …
- Extreme re-usability
If you are a Joomla or PHP developer looking to learn how to build better Joomla extensions faster you don’t want to miss this. Thanks to our sponsors the event is completely free. Don’t wait and register now!
Happy Nooku Year !
This is my first blog post of 2011, so first things first: happy N(ew)ooku Year to all of you! The beginning of a new year is an ideal moment to reflect on the past and also look forward to the future.
The year of you
2010 was the year of the Nooku Community, we’ve build some great new resources to help you collaborate, discuss and build Nooku-powered extensions :
- The Nooku Developer Portal. We launched our new developer portal . The place to go for developers: you can find our code, bug trackers and activity streams.
- The Nooku Mailing List. We made the mailing list public, as well the community-maintained wiki. The place to go to ask questions or find information on how to get started with Nooku.
Growing an open community
We adopted the GPLv3, LGPLv3 and AGPLv3 license and announced our Nooku Contributor Agreement. Both changes are forming the cornerstones on which we are growing Nooku as a truly open community of co-developers.
They also herald our ongoing commitment to the values of Free & Open Source Software (FOSS) and reflect our beliefs that having diverse copyright ownership leads to a deeper mutual trust and an assurance that the playing-field remains equal for everyone involved.
Jamming in Rotterdam with Nooku
On Saturday, 11 December 2010 Joomla integrators and PHP developers gathered in Rotterdam, NL for the first Dutch Nooku Jam.
View all pictures on flickr.com/nooku
The jam, perfectly organized by Nooku community member Herman Peeren, was completely focused on Nooku Framework. Nooku is hot! This was once again demonstrated by the speed at which registrations for the event came in! For some people it was their first encounter with Nooku Framework, for others it was a great way to finally meet fellow Nooku community members face to face.
In the morning lead architect Johan Janssens gave a general introduction of the Nooku Framework. Johan explained how the framework was born, how development is done and how the community is getting involved. He also explained the vision for the future and not to forget what benefits Nooku brings to Joomla extension development.
