MAB 2019 meeting #2 notes May 2, 2019

Governance
1

Attendees

  • Christian Seel
  • Gauke Pieter Sietzema
  • Mat Jones
  • Ryan Thrash
  • Jason Coward
  • Philip Harvey
  • Gerben van de Kraats
  • Mark Hamstra
  • Ivan Klimchuk
  • Oliver Haase-Lobinger

Agenda

  • Overarching goals to define the core principles for future releases
  • Roadmap including current problems and extension

Overarching MODX Principles

Mark Hamstra started with a discussion about what is MODX? It’s important to understand what sets MODX apart and makes it worthwhile. Without going deep into technical functionality, what makes MODX amazing?

Think of this as a litmus test for considering new (and existing) functionality. If something does not contribute positively to these goals, it’s probably not a good fit.

  • Creative Freedom
    • Any input => any output
    • Integration & Extendable
    • No restrictions on the type of output you generate (HTML, JSON, APIs)
  • Secure by design
    • Keep working on making sure MODX is safe
    • Hard to shoot yourself in the foot
  • Performance
    • Super-fast page loads
    • Handles big traffic
    • Caching isn’t an afterthought
  • User-friendly
    • Modern, accessible, UI
    • Power features for power users
  • Stable
    • LTS/long interval between breaking changes

Meeting Notes

  • Current roadmap available at https://docs.modx.com/revolution/2.x/getting-started/an-overview-of-modx/roadmap (Chris will be updating)
  • Long term support discussion—need to determine how long something is supported, especially for Enterprise users. Possibly maintain X-months after two newer major versions for security only. E.g.:
    • 4.0 – future new Manager and re-architecture (e.g., non-ExtJS Manager and potentially major breaking API changes)
    • 3.0 – current new release in progress for baseline code modernization, features + security with active development. Feature freeze for future TBD, but needs a policy adopted for MODX users and businesses using MODX.
    • 2.x – Security fixes-only with EOL at the end of 12-24 months after 4.0 stable production release. That said, it may still get fixes as people contribute, but no guarantees. Users should begin migrating to 3.x or 4.x ASAP.
  • 3.0 … continue down the current path and freeze features to get the foundation out there ASAP because it’s time. High points that are left to do:
    • https://github.com/modxcms/revolution/projects/3 < update this project board
    • Draft PR in progress: https://github.com/modxcms/revolution/pull/14534
    • Complete style updates
    • PSR-4
    • Complete migration for the Processors (see project board)
    • Getting all the code to use the newly refactored Processors and Core
    • Deal with major BC breakage before the initial beta release
    • QA/testing … with how to test guidelines… revisit GP’s guide
    • A testing site package with major extras, tag combinations, etc.? < Jason/GP
    • Public Snapshot in MODX Cloud
    • Announce feature freeze for integrators/developers
    • Update Roadmap (at docs.modx.com) and move it to a more appropriate location
  • 3.0 … things that are done:
    • New UX and Manager Design
    • Core classes converted
  • 4.x/MODX Next breaking changes: do we deal with migrations tools and change the current templating system/parser? High-level thoughts include:
    • Laser-focus and attention on 3.0 until its release, after which…
    • Adopt as many third-party tools as possible, to encourage feature contribution without having to invent everything … more Lego-like
    • Code, configuration and templates in files with online editing available
    • Test coverage
    • When released, adopt the then-next major release number for “MODX CMS” (whether 4.0 or even if 5.0 or 6.0 or 7.0… no fear of releasing more frequently)
  • modx.org
    • Telling clients exactly what they can expect, the online home for open source community, local user groups directory, MODX news
    • New docs (almost ready)
    • Design based on last MODX Snow-up drafts
    • Needs designers and front-end developers to continue working and someone to lead the development
    • Slack channel #modxorg
    • Content, screen designs, etc: https://www.notion.so/sedadigital/MODX-org-4303fea09e9d49678878f936a07c9087

Future steps/actions/meetings

  • Chris to prepare a new version of the Roadmap document - will be published on old docs or new docs if they are ready by that time
  • Jason working on fleshing out the Revo project board with full list of tasks
  • Gerben and GP will collaborate on a generic site testing kit
    • Lots of nested calls
    • Common Snippets
    • Extras with CMPs
    • Automatic functional testing/screenshots?
  • Ryan publish meeting notes to community.modx.com

Next meetings

Full MAB

modx.org

  • May 9, 2019
  • 14:30 UTC / 16:30 CEST
  • Watch #modxorg for details
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