Not This Year
November 24, 2009
A month ago I showed off my EE2 compatibility roadmap. It stated that Matrix will be ready to go on December 1st.
And now, in true EllisLab fashion, I’m here to tell you that it’s not gonna happen.
The roadmap was based on the assumption that I would have access to EE2’s new field API in early November, and would have ample time to port the fieldtype over. But we are now a week away from EE2’s release, and I still haven't seen that API. (I forgot what happens when you assume…)
In other words, I haven’t even started yet.
I’ve received confirmation that the API will be present in 2.0, but it’ll be private. So I’ll start playing around with it at that point, and have a chance to provide some feedback before it goes public.
Beyond missing the Matrix release date, I’m not yet sure how much this will impact my roadmap. But with the holidays approaching, I’m not going to try to get anything out this year.
13 Comments
Paul Burdick
November 24, 2009 at 4:19 pm
Not sure how to phrase this any better, but you have my sympathies. I am extremely frustrated, as we cannot even get our EllisLab certified Add-On finished for release because of hooks missing. Honestly, if I had total discretion I would probably wait until 2.1 to convert any of Solspace’s modules, just to ensure everything was stable.
Christopher Kennedy
November 24, 2009 at 4:46 pm
Sorry to hear about that. Hopefully everything picks up after the holidays. Until then, I’m perfectly happy with your Add-Ons that you have for 1.6.8!
Hambo
November 24, 2009 at 4:55 pm
I’ll be rocking EE 1.6.x until the middle of next year as it fits our client’s needs very adequately.
As EL mentioned, 2.0 is a soft launch so I’m expecting people to start their CI projects at that point. By the time 2.1 is out (by June 2010?) I think we will start to see the old switcheroo from 1.6.x for most of us Pro Net members.
In the meantime, if some more simple sites can be done then yes I think 2.0 will be the way forward so we can start familiarising ourselves.
It’s worth waiting for well developed add-ons rather than rushed to meet the self imposed deadline stuff.
Mike
November 24, 2009 at 7:01 pm
Kudos to you for sticking to your guns and not rushing. You and Paul are two essential developers that make EE what it is and it’s sad to see the frustration. I know when I got my EE2.0 Beta invite back in the last beta round in October, I was *completely* shocked to hear they were launching anything on December 1. Soft launch or not, what I’m seeing from 2.0 is pretty far from completion.
As a fellow developer, I’m pretty frustrated in general with waiting around for 18 months for what I’ve got in front of me. I’m a PHP/MySQL developer and use CI as my framework of choice. I decided to go with EE as my CMS of choice due to the fact that it was going to be written on CI and decided to hold off writing any extensions until I saw what 2.0 was all about. Now I feel like I’m still going to be waiting at least another six months to feel comfortable developing anything.
At least 1.6.8 is solid and I feel perfectly comfortable using that on projects.
By the way, Brandon, have you ever considered doing “corporate licensing” for Wygwam so that I can include it in a custom build and not have to acquire a license each time. I know CKEditor and CKFinder offer this. I guess it would be the toss up between higher quantity, lower price or higher price, lower quantity, but I would probably be willing to pay $250 up front for 10 licenses or something.
Can Berkol
November 24, 2009 at 11:54 pm
I haven’t seen a single software development project that was able to follow the set timeline.
If you need extra hand on development let me know.
Derek Jones
November 27, 2009 at 8:00 pm
The custom field API on which planned development did not begin until just recently (it was originally going to be created for 2.1 or even 2.2), justifiably pushes your and other custom field developers’ schedules back.
As Hambo made reference, December 1st, we’ll launch the public beta, so you and other developers should have ample time to get your own products release-worthy in time for the full release (2.1).
This period will also be helpful in that users who choose to use 2.0 Public Beta will undoubtedly be comprised primarily of people already familiar with ExpressionEngine and willing to work with support, file bug reports, etc. which are the type of users that are desirable for testing your own add-ons.
And to be fair to the EllisLab development team, some developers (friendly glance at comment #1 included) did not fully avail themselves of the opportunities provided during the developer preview this summer, only raising specific questions or concerns a few weeks ago, making it much more difficult for us to react to third party developers’ legitimate needs in a reasonable amount of time.
Though I don’t think that we, developers, or users should be surprised or panicked by delays in either the APIs or third party development; it’s all quite normal in software development during major architectural shifts.
mr.user
November 28, 2009 at 2:52 am
D. Jones, Ellislabs has been singing that “song” for a long time now regarding EE 2.0. And that song is pretty much “played out.”
Brandon Kelly
November 28, 2009 at 9:44 am
Thanks for the comment, Derek. For the record, I certainly don’t hold anything against you guys here. I’m supremely grateful that you’ve made the effort to get the field API into EE 2.0 at the 11th hour. The only reason behind this post was to (un)set expectations.
Jack McDade
December 2, 2009 at 11:51 am
It is what it man. Travis and I have set a date of March 2010 for Structure’s arrival to the 2.0 scene, but that’s barring any unforeseen obstacles, such as what you’ve encountered. The general buzz online seems to be “Forget 1.6.x! I’m going all out on 2.0 any day now!” Well, it just ain’t gonna happen. It will be sometime before all the devs and their top add-ons are all on board. Get comfy, community.
oh-do-tell
December 4, 2009 at 1:48 pm
mr. user,
So I assume you have some complex full on application transitions under your belt? I assume that while EE 2.0 was being worked on people noticed that 1.6.x was having 100’s of changes, additions, and bug fixes being handled at the same time as the 2.0 development? To keep that in prospective the changes in every 1.x release since 2.x was announced has had to also be made in 2.0.
mr.user
January 2, 2010 at 9:18 pm
@oh-do-tell:
in fact, I do have over 15 years of complex full application development (desktop and web applications) for several large fortune 500 companies such as ups, timewarner, morningstar, first data, to name a few). and we do not take 3 years plus to launch a product. we use an agile methodology to get a product out in a timely manner. we manage a product features, test a product, and take it to market.
Sincerely,
mr. user.
Jae Barclay
January 10, 2010 at 5:53 pm
@mr.user
I’m glad you do. Now if you have something substantiative to add to the discussion I’d appreciate it.
EE 1.6.x has, and will continue to serve overwhelming majority of our clients throughout this calendar year. Sure, I’d love to have Brandon’s super add-ons to be available for our first couple of 2.0 projects, but our clients know the risks and will venture forward.
Mike Hughes
January 10, 2010 at 5:58 pm
I’m just glad that it’s finally out and Ellis Labs are doing their thing. Looking forward to EECI2010!
Jae Barclay, small world! How are things going for you all in 2010?
Mike