What is new in elgg 1.8?

Version 1.8 Kevin Jardine London Elgg Meetup 23 November 2011

What is Elgg? Frameworks Applications Elgg ? PHP Cake Ruby on Rails Zend Framework Content management systems WordPress Drupal Joomla PhpBB Photo gallery

Elgg: hybrid
not a framework - you can install it and it does a lot immediately without additional coding
a bit more specialised than a general CMS
comes with a core set of plugins to create a functioning niche social network
certain functions (eg. friends) are built into core
but far more extendable than a specific application like WordPress

Elgg's strengths
Rapid development
Ben Werdmuller's original goal: “Elgg should do nothing”
Means that it can be extended in almost any direction by plugins
You need to do very little to set up a plugin and then Elgg implements a large set of default behaviour
Implement non-default behaviour by overriding

Elgg 1.8
Major goal: make Elgg easier to theme
Complete reworking of CSS and view system
New user interface
Many deprecated or altered functions
Breaks most existing plugins in exchange for more functionality
Elgg does more automatically than ever before

Examples of default behaviour
elgg_view_entity() works (sort-of) with no additional coding - uses title, description and tags fields if available
elgg_list_entities() creates full listing pages complete with pagination
elgg_register_entity_type is all that is needed to make the title, description and tags fields of any entity searchable

Menu system
Elgg 1.8 introduces a standard set of Elgg navigation menus, moving navigation away from the previous sidebar focus
site, title, filter, entity, user, topbar, breadcrumbs, footer - many options!
simple tools to add to menus and (since this is Elgg) to over-ride existing menus and remove items
elgg_register_menu_item(), elgg_unregister_menu_item()

CSS
Goal: create a sitewide consistent look and feel
Previous monolithic Elgg CSS file now split into more than a dozen over-ridable component files
Many standard classes for navigation, buttons, form elements - more to learn!
Easier system to add page or plugin specific CSS files but these should be used sparingly

JavaScript
Elgg 1.8 introduces a JavaScript framework built on top of jQuery.
Includes Elgg-specific JS functions like elgg.echo() for language strings and elgg.get_site_url()
elgg_load_js() function for adding page or plugin-specific JS
namespace standards
encourages strict separation between JS and HTML generation

Form management
Elgg 1.8 begins to address one of Elgg's traditional weaknesses - form management
Sticky form system provides a standard way to repopulate forms on error, logout or token timeouts
standard elgg_view_form() system provides a framework for form actions and form over-rides, adds standard XSS tokens
Elgg still needs a more powerful form API in my view

Adding to Elgg's strengths
Elgg 1.8 further enhances Elgg's primary strength as a rapid prototyping and development system for niche social networks
Elgg's default functionality reduces development time and generates a site with consistent behaviour and consistent look and feel

Elgg is not for everyone
Elgg 1.8 introduces even more of an “Elgg way to do things”
You need to like or at least be willing to live with the way Elgg does things
over-riding Elgg's default behaviours can easily customise your site, BUT: over-rides can slow performance, increase development costs, introduce inconsistencies or bugs, and need to be upgraded every time you upgrade core Elgg

Elgg's fundamental issues
Plugins can have unpredictable interactions
Some plugins are better written than others
Like any complex software, core Elgg has bugs
The core developers are extremely responsive to bug reports but are more likely to act on them if you supply a patch
Speed controversy - niche social networks typically prioritise a rich feature set over raw speed

Room for improvement
Notifications are not scalable and are almost guaranteed to white out large group forms.
Elgg needs more rapid prototyping tools like a sophisticated drag-and-drop form builder
Elgg needs more themes (especially free ones!) - hopefully the Elgg 1.8 release will help with this
jQuery UI should be fully supported to allow for richer user interfaces
roles and permissions

http://condiminds.com	348
http://condiminds.tumblr.com	233
http://webgalli.com	119
http://www.condiminds.com	60
http://localhost	28
http://www.socialteam.com.br	7
http://www.webgalli.com	2
http://weejiboo.com	1
http://w.socialteam.com.br	1
http://socialteam.com.br	1

What is new in elgg 1.8?

by London Elgg Meetup on Nov 30, 2011

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What is new in elgg 1.8? — Presentation Transcript