SMF bridge for Joomla discontinued

[shawn122]

I've been around lurking on the forums trying to digest all the forum posts concerning this GPL change.  Inactive is the operative word...lol....

I think both CMS are great and was just providing an option to users should they choose to go that way.  Losing SMF I believe would be somewhat of a blow. 

[AmyStephen]

I've been around lurking on the forums trying to digest all the forum posts concerning this GPL change.  Inactive is the operative word...lol....

I think both CMS are great and was just providing an option to users should they choose to go that way.  Losing SMF I believe would be somewhat of a blow. 

It certainly would be a blow. Joomla! and SMF have made a great combination for many end users. The teams are working on it...hopefully a solution will emerge.

Rolaids are recommended for proper digestion of those particular posts. It is, of course, a tough transition, but will prove to be good for the J! project and community, I am certain. It is *good* seeing you, thanks for popping out of lurk mode.

Amy

[chette]

Losing SMF I believe would be somewhat of a blow. 

Ugh. Same here. Our team is just waiting with bated breath regarding the decision of SMF to continue or not with the SMF bridge.

I will be totally heartbroken to leave Joomla. However, our main site has grown to the point that we are more dependent on our forum than on our CMS.

[AmyStephen]

I will be totally heartbroken to leave Joomla. However, our main site has grown to the point that we are more dependent on our forum than on our CMS.

Chette -
I'm sorry, I thought you knew? Joomla! is like the Hotel California - "you can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave." 

I was a lot more concerned about this until Andy Miller (rhuk) stepped up on the phpBB3 bridge.

I can confirm that RocketWerx is indeed working on a non-invasive synchronous/asynchronos joomla1.5/phpbb3 bridge.  Work is progressing well and we're currently have about 75% of the functionality done and working.

This will likely be a better fit for our community - it's the world's most popular forum - it's GPL - the project is organized into working groups like Joomla! - the development life cycle is longer, more thorough - phpBB3 is looking good and they are at RC4, hoping this turns gold. It's probable the release dates will be close on these two products.

Plus, you will be needed to update your template tutorial for v 1.5. That's another reason you'll just have to hang around!
Amy

[shawn122]

Are talks ongoing with SMF?  From my understanding things have stopped..
I could be wrong...

I used phpBB before then switched over to SMF.  Luckily I doubt I have any major sites requiring integration between a forum and a CMS...I will just stick with Joomla 1.012 and SMF 1.1.3 and see where this takes me.

[AmyStephen]

Are talks ongoing with SMF?  From my understanding things have stopped..

Hm.  Have not heard that. Where did you see this? Last statements I have heard from both teams was that they were talking. It sounds like SMF is waiting for J! to propose solutions - I don't think they are digging for answers, but I had understood they were willing to consider ideas.

So, what's up, Shawn? Gonna have to give us more than that! 

Amy

[Sundog_AK]

Shawn: 

Just as a FYI,  the JSMF bridge at JoomlaHacks.com was just patched to allow use of Joomla 1.0.13.  So if you want to wait things out with the most current Joomla security fixes, this may be the only way to go for the moment (short of coding our own bridge).  I have been running SMF 1.1.3 and Joomla 1.0.13 with the patched bridge for a couple days and it seems to work fine with SMF (no login issues, etc.).    I have used this bridge from the beginning but have no particular allegiance to either (whatever works is fine by me).  The patched files are buried a bit in the forum, so see this link for patch (you must download the main bridge separately) http://www.joomlahacks.com/component/op ... pic,4174.0

Based on everything I have read, I do not hold out any grand hope that SMF and Joomla will resolve their issues any time soon.  Having used phpBB, I have no plans to go back down that path.    So like you, I will just hang out with 1.0.13 to see how things settle out with the new versions of Mambo and Joomla and how support from 3rd parties pans out. 


Cheers,
Chris

[shawn122]

Sadly I used Orstio's Bridge...so no updating for me.  I am not sure if any updates for Orstio's bridge will be made for Joomla 1.013 ?

I downloaded phpBB3 RC4 and just installed on a test server...it looks pretty slick I must say.  It takes awhile to get used to a new Administrator interface though.

I also don't believe SMF or Joomla will work out their differences...that boat has already sunk.

@ Amy

...its been a busy year to say the least with no signs of letting up.  I have always been on the forums... just not posting.  Joomla 1.5 is looking great but as to the status of the 3rd parties... well...lets just leave that for now.  The community has been through a lot and hopefully things can get better.

[AmyStephen]

Thanks, Chris - good to hear.

The community has been through a lot and hopefully things can get better.

Yes, we have and yes it will. Nice to see you, Shawn.

Amy

[fulltilt]

YOU JUST KILLED A VERY IMPORTANT PART OF YOUR COMMUNITY

That includes me. Every website I build is a Joomla/SMF integration.

After spending literally years learning the ins and outs of combining the two, I may now have to put that behind me and choose another CMS. Basically this is a massive waste of effort for me.

I understand the issues but it still sucks 

Perfectly put storman, I'm in much the same boat myself.

[Slack]

What a shame.  It looks like the negotiations have been declared dead. My sites are SMF forums first - so most likely it will be back to Mambo for me.

[Avinash]

Yeah, its too bad things couldn't be worked out. Off to Mambo I go. 

[kai920]

You guys who are switching to Mambo, have you found any good, comprehensive guides?

[Livebox]

Do you mean a guide to migrate to Mambo?

I'm also swithing to Mambo in the near future 

[Slack]

You guys who are switching to Mambo, have you found any good, comprehensive guides?

I have not migrated yet - I'm going to wait till the dust settles a bit on my production site, but have a test site I can experiment with. The guys that have migrated have followed these steps, assuming you have J! 1.0.12

backup both database and files
remove the bridge
overlay mambo 4.5.5 (as Joomla 1.0.x and Mambo 4.5.x are very similar beasts)
run the 4.5.5 to 4.6.2 upgrade (which includes database changes).

The disadvantage and the trickiest thing is to determine are which 3rd party components/modules/mambots will still work or can be reinstalled.  Joomla has enjoyed great 3rd party support, but things may swing a bit the other way as the Joomla GPL interpretation applies to lots of 3rd party plugins.  I know for example Docman does not work with 4.6.2 and the author has stated support only for Joomla. On the other hand he has not updated Docman in sometime.

The advantage is that the Mambo bridge more tightly integrates Mambo and SMF as 4.6.2 added some mambot functionality that developers can use. 

There is another thread on the SMF board where they are talking about conversion options, here:

http://www.simplemachines.org/community ... c=189542.0

[Livebox]

Yes I know...  All ready testing Mambo with the Simplemachines Bridge for a while

I respect the decision of J! and Simplemachines. But I love the SMF board so I have to make an choice between both and I shows for SMF.

[midge]

So Sad,

I think though it is funny that this forum we are using right now is SMF. Why can't people just get along, I can understand both sides of the story but surely there is a happy outcome possible.

Dave

[texas-saluki]

so after reading these posts and the ones on SMF site... seems this is a dead issue unless the red sea parts and we walk two by two

The question I am not sure of does Wolverines (joomlahacks.com) bridge falls under the same "issue"  I have always liked his bridge better since I use community builder on most of my sites also and he has the three way integration

Thanks

Chris

[Slack]

The question I am not sure of does Wolverines (joomlahacks.com) bridge falls under the same "issue"

Have you asked Wolverine?

[Livebox]

Wolverine has stopped developing because he has not much time left for it. Read the Sticky on Joomlahacks.com
The Support and development for the Bridge is very low at this moment 

[texas-saluki]

well.... I found the link

http://www.joomlahacks.com/component/op ... pic,4003.0

so...that sucks... I liked his bridge much better 

looks like the options are going to start drying up... the thing that is funny is I switched to Joomla because of his bridge and Community builder integration.   

plan b 

[Livebox]

Simplemachines is working on a new version of the bridge for Mambo Also with a good CB integration.

[AmyStephen]

Thanks for the update. Have fun and be happy!
Amy

[gsbe]

Wow, this is quite a blow to the Joomla community. Will the forum.joomla.org site continue to run on SMF? There were a number of reasons to choose the solid performance and relative ease of integration with SMF but the biggest was that an official Joomla site used it (even if it is running stand-alone)! It doesn't make a lot of sense for an x.joomla.org site to run an application that can't work with Joomla! At any rate, I'm not usually so mournful but this is really a disappointment to those of us that adopted SMF with the apparent Joomla seal of approval. 

[AmyStephen]

Yes, it is, Graham. Nice to see you.

[pcjunkie]

Well I can see it would be hard for SMF to give up all those user contributions....legally...

my 0.2c

[ehanuise]

And what about the bridging solutions for commercial forums such as IPB or VBulletin ?
I did not pore into the details of joomla/smf/ipb/VBuletin licensing, but

1) I have a very hard time understanding that Joomla team has a problem with the licensing of SMF (which is not GPL compatible, indeed, but is still a very open and permissive license) and not with the commercially licensed forums

2) I have an even harder time understanding the problem arises first with SMF in stead of IPB and /or VBulletin bridges/hacks

3) I'm not even mentioning the huge quantity of plugins/bots/... for joomla that are not GPL. Will we see all of them wither and die one after the other for the very same reason ??

I'm starting up a website that uses Joomla and SMF, and tought it was a great upgrade from PHPnuke/phpBB. Now I'm not sure anymore.
A solid forum is a very important part of any community web site, and joomlaboard is simply not up to the task. It's one thing to have great plans for the future and be careful about the licenses compatibility, it's another to suddenly left your userbase with no solution. 

[AmyStephen]

ehanuise -

If you want integration with Joomla!, you might want to consider phpBB3. Rocketwerx will be offering a bridge to integrates the environments. As both are GPL, license issues can be side stepped. If you have questions about phpBB3 and the bridge, those are best asked in the RocketWerx forums.

Hope that helps!
Amy

[ehanuise]

Thanks for the suggestion, however this sidesteps an actual reply to the questions asked 

Frankly, I'm afraid to see in a short while most of the (non-gpl) external applications/components/... just jump ship because of that license issue.

[AmyStephen]

What were your questions, exactly? I am happy to answer them.

Thanks,
Amy