Call for a cooperation - Joom!Fish

[apostoloff]

My name is Ivo Apostolov and I am part of the Joom!Fish team. We are currently in process of development of Joom!Fish 2.0 Stable, which is expected to run in a native mode for Joomla! 1.5.

While for Joomla! 1.0.x and VirtueMart 1.0.x I was able to identify most of the issue and to offer solutions to the users how to solve their problems, with VirtueMart 1.1 and Joom!Fish 2.0 it is becoming more and more complicated to solve all issues from "one side" or by "one person".

It is the current situation, while Joom!Fish is aiming to achieve compability with all extensions running in both native mode (easy part, as the fish is designed to do it), but as well as with extensions running in legacy mode.
It is becoming more complicated, when we have extensions running "like" native in Joomla! 1.5, but actually these utilize a lot of reformed 1.0 code and using some kind of own legacy.
I think that VirtueMart is an example of such, where while it runs on 1.5, it is not actually a 1.5 "native" extension.

My suggestion is to create a common forum for both projects (either here or at the joomfish forums), where me (plus the jf devs) and one/some of the vm devs could analyze the issues and resolve it in future releases. It is the situation that we currently have opened a forum regarding the integration of JF (still in 2.0 beta)and VM 1.1. (see http://www.joomfish.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=1073&p=4286#p4286).

I think with such cooperation, it is just the case that:
- Both projects will benefit.
- Users will benefit most.

Some of the current issues we have are:
- Not all VM tables have unique ID field (which is more or less required for JF to translate these)
- DB calls are not always handled through the Joomla! framework
- Some settings are saved in files, which are not possible to be translated/managed by JF (i.e. different payment methods with different languages - something essential maybe).

I am ready to help with what I can we will need the VM team as well.

[jikey]

is some 1 still working on this ?

[aravot]

Ivo, we wanted to keep Joomla 1.0.x and Joomla 1.5 compatibility in VirtueMart 1.1 hence some legacy code however we would like to make VirtueMart 1.1 and Joomfish compatible or visa versa so we are open to suggestion we can not change much in VirtueMart 1.1 but if you read our roadmap we can be more flexible in VirtueMart 1.2 but not by much because we still want to keep Joomla 1.0.x and Joomla 1.5 compatibility.

VirtueMart 2.0 is complete rewrite and will be Joomla 1.5 only.

Any suggestion or help (we are short handed) is welcomed.

[apostoloff]

Well Peter,
Suggestions that would not break any compatibility, but are more or less required for Joom!Fish to work:
- All tables to have unique ID field - this might require certain changes in the DB structure, but has no impact on compatibility.
- IDs are called in the SQL queries, otherwise in certain circumstances Joom!Fish is unable to complete the proper mapping. This would have about 0 impact on performance.
- All DB queries are done via the standard Joomla! database function (whatever in legacy or 1.5 native, we still support both). This would not break compatibility.
- If VM is using own cache system, this should have the option to be turned off (if there is such). JF 2.0 has build in cache that compensates the standard one, but does not break any compatibility. JF suffers a lot with the standard Joomla! caching as well as custom caching by other extensions.
- Language handling should be via the legacy - i.e. $mos_Config_lang (if not using 1.5 JText system) - it appears that 1.1 uses own handling of this. I don't know how much this is achievable.

Some other points, that could be useful but not required:
- Using ini files for languages, instead of PHP. We implemented that in JF 1.8 that works on Joomla! 1.0 with adding a library. So it will impact compatibility, but it is not impossible.

It is of course, your choice to build the VM in the way you want, but my personal opinion is that development (not maintenance) for 1.0 is a milestone that maybe delays the development. Of course this is just an opinion.

If you need any support in making both extensions work, I would be glad to help to the maximum of my possibilities.

[aravot]

Hi Ivo,

Could you please point out the specific tables/queries that need IDs and our ps_DB uses Joomla DB functions again could you please point out places where we don't.

Thank you.

[apostoloff]

Hi Peter,
tables will be easy.
Queries ... not that easy (will try to find time to review it), I need to go through every each query.
Another question arises here, how VM is handling the proper language load? Does it use some kind of own legacy load as it basically does not requires the legacy plugin?

[Soeren]

Hi Ivo,
VirtueMart 1.1 loads its language files based on the "legacy name" defined in the language files for Joomla!
So the english language file "en_EN" uses "english" as the legacy name and VirtueMart loads its english language files.
See /classes/language.class.php, function "load".
The name of the language is determined in the file compat.joomla1.5.php.

ciao, Sören

[apostoloff]

Hi Soeren, I just identified that.

While, not having a lot of time recently, started re-creating one by one the issues I saw earlier.

1. Table: jos_vm_product_attribute_sku - this one doesn't have unique ID field, which basically makes it impossible to be translate if there is more than one attribute SKU per product

2. See the screenshot, the recently viewed products category (the list once clicked on the main VirtueMart menu link, if the user browsed before) is not translated. VM 1.1 has a lot of changes in the code and it is a bit hard for me to get it exactly from where it comes, but it is most probably a LEFT JOIN, where the category ID is not specified.

When more are identified, will be posted here as well.
Most of the stuff is really minor (well, DB change not really).

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[ssnobben]

Hi Ivo apostoloff   ( off topic )

I - and others? have a problem to create an account in Joomfish site. Maybe you are not aware about this b u t there is no chance to get in contact with any of you bcs there is no contact info anywhere.

Just so you know why you not get any new members in you site! 

[servlet]

J! 1.0.x / OFF

in many countries forums about J! 1.0 are closed and VM 1.0 too


Иво добре си го е казал