Branch 6.4

[xillibit]

@Ruud68 : for info i have just created the branch 6.4, this branch drops the support of Joomla! 4.4.x and it allow to be installed on Joomla! 5.2. The requirements has been updated on this branch to follow ones defined for Joomla! 5.x

When the developpement of Php 8.4 will be more advanced this branch will support too this version

[Ruud68]

Thanks @xillibit
Think it is good to discuss some things as to what we would like to add / refactor for this branch.
e. using form / views for e.g. category / smiley / etc. implementing the Core Joomla classes and building on top of that (like we did for the list views categories, users, etc.).
Also remove the BS modals in favor of the new dialog popups that J5 provides (we now have both implemented so this is basically a cleanup)

[xillibit]

e. using form / views for e.g. category / smiley / etc. implementing the Core Joomla classes and building on top of that (like we did for the list views categories, users, etc.).

you mean in backend ?

I had in mind to improve the install part to put back something which has been removed around K5.1 or K5.2 since a change in Joomla! itself. Before after the unpack of kunena package, there was a javascript which make the update of kunena tables since the Joomla! change this has been done when the user open for the first time the Kunena dashboard. Some users forgot to do that...

[Ruud68]

Yes, backend. I think that while in version 6 focus should be on backend stuff, but that is my opinion:)

Updating of tables I do myself in the update script which act on the update function. No JS needed. Need to investigate how it works now to see if we can easily do it via update script.

Maybe we open a discussion topic om the forum asking people what they would like to have changes / added and take it from there.
I think that can also 'spark' the community so we get more testers and possibly developers

[xillibit]

During update they can be mysql queries and/or php script to make specific changes

There are too deprecated thing in Joomla! 5.x used in Kunena will be removed in Joomla! 6.0, like some Kunena classes extend the CMSObject class and that's will need to be changed at some point

[Ruud68]

Difficulty for me is that when years back in the Joomla dev community there was discussion on following the HMVC architecture. I recall Kunena jumping in and adapting everything to HMVC at which point Joomla desided not to do that but started following the MVC architecture.

For me that complicates things as I never got my head around HMVC (not being used in anything else I'm working with).

That makes it a steep learning curve for contributors (at least that is what I experience). So for me it would make sense if we could refactor more into (Joomla) MVC extending where possible Joomla classes and using traits for specific Kunena functions that should be used generic over multiple classes.

I am also active on other forums and when I see what functionality they have / how it looks (discourse, flarum, etc.), then I'm afraid of Kunena lagging behind in functionality / extensibility.

[Ruud68]

Just as another thought. I see two directions in software development: do more with core (basically what the big software vendors are doing: build in more functionality into the core), or do less with core and make core extensible.
I think Kunena would benefit from the do less approach: back to what is basic for a forum and do that in an awesome way. Open Kunena via API's / hooks so that software developers can jump in and easily add (and maintain) functionality.

As an example: Nextcloud. They offer a kick-ass platform and have a very vibrant developers community build that offers apps that add functionality to the core functionlity.

Kunena should IMO become more a platform with basic forum functionality and things like twitter / bluesky / masotdo / etc. integration should come from 'external' devs.

Just a thought :)

I think this is worth a discussion