Application packages ?

[Incremental]

Hi,
Do you plan to document applications export in the Wiki ?
To perform it, it's not difficult, but I would like advices or information about the constraints :

1. Does it works fine between different J! versions ?
2. Does it works fine between different F! versions ?
3. Is it possible to only get the Lists/Forms/Elements without adding a new J! component menu with a Fabrik icon ?
   I would like to design multiple custom applications and import them in my different sites, but I would like to avoid a collection of component menus with the same Fabrik icon

Thanks

 

[rob]

Packages are very much a work in progress so things are still in flux.
As things stand it wont work between different Joomla versions
It wont work between different Fabrik versions (or at least you may well get unexpected results)
3 no - they are installed as components so Joomla will automatically create the menu item, not sure if you could edit the #__extensions database to remove it - this may well cause errors.

 

[Incremental]

It's sad that it's sticked to F versions.
Ideally I would expect something to port at least my Lists and Elements.
As I understand the technical reasons, it would be nice to be able to avoid long and no added value work to recreate elements on a new site.
If I use Fabrik, it's to design my own applications and to avoid searching for components (ccompatibles with my J! version)...
Redoing the development from scratch is not in the way of fast designed sites !

There's no way to import apps in a fresh Fabrik ? (not as a new J! component)
If the Fabrik components can't be uninstalled, what about multiple versions of an app on the same site ?

 

[rob]

Well fabrik 3 and 3.1 just dont work the same way - its not really possible for us to say that packages work between the two of them. In fact what packages do between the two versions have changed as well.
Packages DO port lists, forms, groups and elements in 3.1 - I'd really not recommend even starting to use packages in 3.0.
Due to the db schema we can't allow things to be imported directly into the same db tables as your base Fabrik install, all of the id's would no longer be in sync meaning that the whole thing would be a complete mess.
You can still manage the package lists/forms/groups/elements though - as installing a package will add a 'package' filter to your Fabrik admin views, enabling you to swap to a different package and edit things as you would in your base fabrik install.

what about multiple versions of an app on the same site ?

No idea, as I've said its work in progress, we haven't got the basics fully working, so upgrades is something we have not yet thought about.

 

[Incremental]

OK thanks for the precisions.

 

[pastvne]

I'm quite interested in the concept of packages. For my purposes, I have site A running a version of my Fabrik App. On Site B (my dev/test site) I add new features, add lists, elements, forms or even tweak existing lists, elements and forms. What would be really nice is to be able to deploy the newly developed fabrik bits into an existing fabrik site. I'd want to leave the database content in the existing fabrik site alone. In other words, I'm looking to simplify the task of deploying new versions of my app to existing sites.

Right now, I have to create scripts to selectively export/update certain tables and this works. Just thought I'd throw this out there in case it is useful as the gurus think about what packages may become.

As always, thanks for creating a fantastic component and for the excellent support.

Regards,

Bruce Decker
Colorado

 

[achartier]

+1 for this. The whole feature update to a live site process is fraught with error with the existing process. A more simpler package install/update like standard joomla installations would be a big plus and time saver.