Is This Bridge Joomla 1.0.x Upgrade Proof?

[Tim_Olaguna]

I've been tinkering/developing a website for about a year now (I'm retired and not getting paid for it so no big rush) based on Joomla 1.0.x and SMF 1.1RC1/2.  During that period I have tried two bridges and two versions of Community Builder (BC).  But now I am using only Joomla 1.0.10 and SMF 1.1RC2. 

The two are not currently bridged.  I and some friends post stories and articles on the Joomla portion and interested viewers are invited to register and comment in the SMF portion.  I understand this is an approach used by the folks at hxxp:www.joomla.org/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,1/ [nonactive] .  The two major utilities (Joomla & SMF) are conceptually linked and in fact use the same MySQL database.  But membership is separate.  Folks who are members of both must log in separately to each.

This is not ideal.  But I feel it has been critically important to keep abreast of each of the most recent versions of Joomla.  Many of their upgrades were for security reasons as well as performance enhancements.  Most upgrades were accompanied by recommendations to upgrade the software immediately. 

The problem over time was that other legs of my site's "platform" often could not keep up with Joomla's upgrades.  One or more of them usually "fell down".  Components failed and/or required new upgrades of their own in order to work with the latest Joomla upgrade.  This meant I had to wait for components to be upgraded before spending a lot of additional time uninstalling the old components, installing new components, and reconfiguring everything again (like rebuilding login menus).  And sometimes those "upgrades" introduced new problems of their own which required additional fixes and hassles.  I came to feel I was being required to spend too much time on system support and too little time on site content development.  That's why now I no longer have CB or bridge features.

This latest bridge sounds exciting and much easier to install.  But what if Joomla comes out with a version 1.0.11?  Or a 1.0.12?  Will I need to delete and install another version of this bridge in order to use the new Joomla version?

I realize 1.5 is a major upgrade which would require a new bridge version.  But that's a different matter.

[Orstio]

Because I can't guarantee nor predict what changes will be made in future versions of Joomla, I can't promise that changes will not be required to make the bridge compatible with them.  I do have faith that even if I can't keep up with the changes in Joomla, there are others here that would make sure their sites were working and post up code fixes for others as well.

As you are aware, Joomla 1.5 is a whole different story.  I've been playing around a bit with the SVN, and, while it has the structure to do a whole host of great things with integration, it also essentially disables a few things that are very basic to integration.  So, I'm still not sure if that's even feasible:  It wouldn't be much of a bridge if it had a whole host of advanced features, but the basic wrap/login/register doesn't work. 

[Tim_Olaguna]

Thanks a bunch, Orstio.  I appreciate your time and reply.

I now think I will try this bridge on my test site.  If all goes well I'll put it on my "production" site (ok, maybe "public hobby" site is closer to the truth) and just freeze further infrastructure development until 1.5 is out of beta, generally considered stable, and you have a new bridge for it.

Thanks so much for your long dedication to this project.

[tcp]

Posting for cross referencing purposes.

hxxp:forum.joomla.org/index.php/topic,85231.0.html [nonactive]

tcp