The Road to Beta

Joomla 4 has been under development for a very long time now and the first alpha release is now almost two and half years ago (17 Nov 2017). The vast majority of the work has been done by just a handful of people and they are all close to (or have reached) burn out.

These are my personal views and opinions gathered from my involvement in the development of joomla 4, the available public information and experience of participating in taking Joomla through 5 major releases

Definitions

Alpha Release

This is an early technology preview. It should contain all breaking changes but things can still be added and removed

Beta Release

This a general release for review. It must contain all breaking changes and be feature complete (no new features can be added after a beta release). It will probably still contain bugs and will not be suitable for mainstream use.

Dot Zero Release

This is the first release. It is available for general use.

Dot Zero Dot One Release

This is the first bug fix release. It does not contain any new features. It does not have any breaking changes. It does have bug fixes discovered since the Dot Zero release.

Dot One Release

This is the first feature release. It can contain new features. It does not have any breaking changes. It does have bug fixes discovered since the Dot Zero Dot Previous release.

Where should we be at now?

All breaking changes have been made and documented
All new features have been created and documented

We should be polishing in preparation of the first Beta Release

Where are we at now?

API & Underlying Code

• Namespacing
• Prepared statements
• Web Services
• Deprecations
• Documenting above

Accessibility

• Admin Interface
• Site Interface
• Acknowledge that Accessibility can always be improved

Admin Template/UI

• Tested
• RTL
• Mobile
• Template Manager complete
• Expectation of further issues created during wider beta testing phase

Site Template/UI

• Tested
• Blog layout changes documented and completed
• RTL
• Mobile
• Expectation of further issues created during wider beta testing phase

Installation

• UI complete
• Language Install
• FTP Install
• Sample data plugins for J4

Upgrades

• Tested
• Document known issues
• Expectation of issues created during wider beta testing phase

Translation

• Infrastructure for delivering translations
• Pro-actively engage with translation teams to encourage completion

Web Services

• Working as a basic technology preview and will always need ongoing development
• Documented

Content Security Policy

• Working
• Documented

Mail Templates

• Extend to all core mails
• Address html/plain text issues
• Finalise the UI for creating texts

Media Manager

• Review
• Documentation

External Assets

• Finalise
• Update
• Define version policy
• Let them know and engage

Alerts/Popups

• Complete autodismiss
• Finalise design
• Static alerts/notices

Security

• Full private review

SEO Review

• Ensure following current needs

How do we get to Beta?

• Acknowledge that a Release Blocker is not the same as a Beta Blocker
• Set a HARD deadline and If a proposed new feature is not committed by then flag as Postpone to 4.1
• Review list above and ensure that every item has been adopted by at least one person AND that they are actively working on it
• Using the github trello boards for this will really help

Elephants in the Room

## Alternative Admin Template
Set a HARD deadline and if it does not satisfy the established requirements by then it will unfortunately not be able to go into Beta

Workflows

There are several relatively minor issues open on the tracker. They all relate to UI and not underlying code. They are open because a few people have insisted that it is replaced with a completely different codebase so no one wants to waste time fixing the open issues on code that will be replaced.
The reality is that the people insisting on these workflow changes have not documented them anywhere on this tracker (or at least I could not find them) so no one else has been able to work on them. The time that this should have been addressed was 18 months ago not now
To the best of my knowledge there is no new code under development for this. .There is a mention of a team working on this in the October Production Department meeting minutes and that this team has written a plugin but there is nothing further after that reported anywhere
There are three choices
- Fix outstanding issues with current code and accept some people don’t like the architecture
- Revert the workflow commits and release with the old workflow - this is not a simple quick task as it touches a lot of areas. It will also be very hard (perhaps impossible) to add workflows in a later release due to backwards compatibility issues
- Set a HARD deadline for this new codebase and if not ready go with the other options

Post Beta

After the first beta we then need to apply the same rigidity in order to move to a Dot Zero release.

Triage all new issues

• I don’t like it - is not useful - every issue must have a concrete suggestion or closed
• If it is a new feature suggestion then flag as Postpone to 4.1

Documentation

• Ensure that user documentation is ready not just developer documentation
• Create Joomla 4 Training videos

Certification

• the exams should be able to be written at this stage

Completion

Life gets in the way of contribution. It’s a fact and we must acknowledge that. So if you can not honour a commitment there is no shame but it must be re-allocated. This can not be left to “thinking” someone is working on it. This needs to be actively and continuously reviewed to ensure nothing falls through the gaps.