Simple Machines Community Forum

Simple Machines => SMF Team Blog => Topic started by: Joshua Dickerson on November 28, 2009, 01:50:17 PM

Title: We're Working on the Customize Site!
Post by: Joshua Dickerson on November 28, 2009, 01:50:17 PM
Hello all you SMFers!

I want to let you know that there are big changes being worked on for the customize site and the Customization Team is very busy. We've seen a lot of issues with our current site and are working to fix them. We've listened to what you've been saying and even what our own Customizers have been saying.

Let me give you some information about the current state of affairs. The Customize Site is actually three "sites" - mods, themes, upgrades. We use 3 different set of files for each, sharing a couple of files. The database is the same but very few of the tables are shared. Then we also use the tables and database from the community forum to get stuff like the member information. We use a board to discuss the customizations in private. That board also serves as a center for any PMs you send to the SMF Customization Team member. This isn't actually a member, but a pseudo-member. The customization team controls this.

As you can see, I identified some problems already. One of them being the back-end. We are going to start by sharing as much as possible between all of the customization types. That will make the site run faster and smoother - which you may or may not notice but Derek (the server admin) and Sleepy (the site admin) should. It will also make it a lot easier to do updates and add new features to the site - which you will definitely notice.

Another thing you won't notice immediately is how we check customizations before approving them. Currently, everything is checked by a qualified Customization Team member. We review it to ensure there are no major security flaws, the coding style is along the lines of the SMF coding style, no queries in templates, no templates in source files, etc. This takes a lot of time when you're talking about some of the bigger customizations and even with a lot of small customizations it takes a very long time. Throw a big customization in front of the queue and it becomes a huge bottleneck. Throw a customization with a lot of errors or a lot of talking back and forth with the Customization Team and the author in the front of the queue and you're talking an even bigger bottleneck. So, we want to combat this. We want to streamline the process.

One thing you will undoubtedly notice are the new features we have planned:

Now, to the harsh reality. These changes are going to take some time. You may have noticed that we are getting kind of slow with approving customizations. We may slow down even more. A lot of things are going on in the dark that will be uncovered in due time. I just ask that you are patient. Hopefully you'll like what you see.
Title: Re: We're Working on the Customize Site!
Post by: JovanT on November 29, 2009, 06:40:03 AM
Wow, this will make life a lot easier for all customizers. I can't wait to see all these options implemented.
Title: Re: We're Working on the Customize Site!
Post by: ოկtђ on November 29, 2009, 07:13:59 AM
Nice works ;)
Title: Re: We're Working on the Customize Site!
Post by: Nibogo on November 29, 2009, 12:11:31 PM
Great ideas, I really like the FAQ, Changelog and the Bug Tracker, but maybe you can add archived versions. I know that we can have a lot of files  in a mod but maybe the user don't know what should download and what is a old version.
Title: Re: We're Working on the Customize Site!
Post by: Arantor on November 29, 2009, 12:12:13 PM
Interesting idea that.
Title: Re: We're Working on the Customize Site!
Post by: ethankcvds on November 29, 2009, 10:47:55 PM
Cool more features for me to work with in the future.  Though take your time while your working on this.
Title: Re: We're Working on the Customize Site!
Post by: Zoric on December 28, 2009, 05:49:54 PM
wow nice  :) :)
Title: Re: We're Working on the Customize Site!
Post by: aymenbnr on January 02, 2010, 04:00:36 PM
nice job,keep up ;)
Title: Re: We're Working on the Customize Site!
Post by: Forbs on January 04, 2010, 08:43:38 AM
nice job smf :D
Title: Re: We're Working on the Customize Site!
Post by: SoLoGHoST on January 06, 2010, 01:36:51 AM
Wow, just now seeing this topic.  This is Great News!  I can't wait to finally see it in action!

Cheers :)
Title: Re: We're Working on the Customize Site!
Post by: live627 on January 06, 2010, 02:33:11 AM
Greatly looking forward to the new site. I have many of the speified features on my mod pages and they are getting long. Different tabs for each section would be good.
Title: Re: We're Working on the Customize Site!
Post by: Özgür on January 24, 2010, 01:17:14 PM
Great news. I see it just now. "Translations" is what i wanted!
Title: Re: We're Working on the Customize Site!
Post by: vbgamer45 on January 24, 2010, 02:14:54 PM
Quote from: Daydreamer on January 24, 2010, 01:17:14 PM
Great news. I see it just now. "Translations" is what i wanted!
Me too I get some many translations for all my mods but it is so hard to organize and keep track which translation works for which verison