[Zuluru] Zuluru 3

[Greg Schmidt]

Many of you are aware that I've been working on a new version of Zuluru
since this summer. I thought I should give an update on how things are
going. There's nothing of any particular urgency in here, so if you don't
have time to read it right now, put it aside, but please do try to make time
to at least skim it sometime soon.

 

First, why a new version? And why Zuluru 3 instead of Zuluru 2?

 

Well, Zuluru is based on the CakePHP framework, which provides things like
the database interface, HTML generation, security, and many of the other
low-level pieces that any web-based application needs. When I started
Zuluru, CakePHP was at version 1.3. A couple years ago, CakePHP v2 came out,
but it didn't really add anything that Zuluru would benefit from, so I
basically ignored it. Earlier this year, CakePHP v3 was released (they're
now up to v3.2), and this version *does* add a lot of stuff that will
benefit Zuluru. It's faster; it supports new versions of PHP; it has
improved tools for installation, updating and security; database access is
*tremendously* improved; it's easier to create "plugins" and use plugins
that others create (which means it can be less work to add new features);
and much more.

 

So, this calls for a new version of Zuluru, and I've opted to keep the
Zuluru version numbering in line with the CakePHP numbering. Plus "3" is a
way cooler number than "2" when it comes to product names.

 

Now, all this great CakePHP 3 stuff mostly comes at the expense of breaking
backward code compatibility in areas like reading from the database
(including the format of the data that is then fed into algorithms), writing
to the database, and generating output (combined, this is, perhaps
obviously, about 95% of what Zuluru does), so it's not even close to a
trivial "drop-in" replacement. Basically, almost every line of code needs to
be changed, and Zuluru is around 100,000 lines of code, so that's a lot of
changes! They provide a tool to help with converting from older versions,
but it is pretty limited in what it can do, and my initial estimates of how
much work it would be to complete the project have proven to be very much on
the low side.

 

Along the way, I have made the decision to really embrace some new features
of CakePHP 3, rather than basically just having a v1.3 app that runs under
v3. I'm also making the interface more mobile-friendly in a number of ways,
and making substantial improvements in some administrative areas that I get
a lot of questions about. In the long run, I am confident that this will all
be the best course, but it does mean that it's taking longer again to get to
a release.

 

Currently, I have completed most of the easy stuff (list, edit, view,
delete), plus the majority of the "under the hood" support libraries
(including a bunch of very cool JavaScript stuff that tremendously
simplifies a lot of things in that area, and means that the interface will
be slicker than ever). In doing these pieces first, I've learned a ton about
how the various important pieces of CakePHP 3 work, and probably know 95% of
what I need to finish the project. I'm now into the harder parts, like
roster management, attendance tracking (both now mostly done), scheduling
and registration, and work on these is proceeding quickly and smoothly
thanks to all I've already learned.

 

That said, I'm not giving any estimates at this time of when it may be
ready. I've already gone past a couple of earlier estimates, and the project
occasionally has to be put on the back burner to let me work on other things
for a bit; I'm not being paid for this project, after all, but the bills
still need to be covered, and Zuluru is not (yet!) bringing in enough money
for me to work on it exclusively.

 

If you'd like to help out, there's a few things you can do:

 

1.     I'll be needing testers eventually to go through functionality with a
fine-toothed comb. I'm testing as I go along, but sometimes I later make
changes to some common code that will break something that was already
tested, so the whole thing should get a once-over when I get close to done.
If you're interested in this, drop me a note.

2.     If you'd like to help financially, there's a "donate" button on
zuluru.org where you can send me a little something to help out. Any such
donations decrease the time I have to spend on other projects, which
increases the time I can spend on Zuluru, and speeds up the v3 release a
bit.

3.     It's free and easy to post a review at
http://www.capterra.com/sports-league-software/reviews/144991/Zuluru/Zuluru/
new  This will increase my visibility on their listing page, which should
translate into more clients, which means more money, which (like #2) means
more time to work on Zuluru.

 

Also, for those whose sites are not hosted with me, you should:

a)     Update your site with the latest changes I've made to Zuluru 1.8, as
I've fixed a number of little bugs that I've come across while working on
the new version.

b)    Get yourself mentally prepared for the migration to Zuluru 3 when it
does come out. If you've made any customizations, those will need to be
re-done manually; the new version will be a complete code replacement, not
an update, so there will be no automatic way to handle these. I will be
offering my services to do this update, probably at a flat fee of something
like $250, if you prefer to go that route.

 

Those who are hosted with me already have the latest 1.8 changes, and your
site will be updated to v3 at no extra cost as part of the service I
provide. We'll discuss what timing works for you when the release is ready.

 

Of course, anyone that wants to can keep using v1.8 as long as they want to,
but it will no longer be supported with bug fixes or new features once v3 is
out.

 

Thanks for reading! If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, you
know how to reach me!

 

Greg.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://zuluru.org/pipermail/announcements_zuluru.org/attachments/20151112/a6fee9a1/attachment.html>