Joomla's Contact Component Show Date of 2006

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webdevtim
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Joomla's Contact Component Show Date of 2006

Post by webdevtim » Thu Nov 15, 2018 11:38 pm

Should this be uninstalled?

Is that Date the date when the component was first added to Joomla?

How can I see the dates of the latest updates to components installed in Joomla?
Last edited by toivo on Fri Nov 16, 2018 5:56 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: mod note: moved from 3.x Extensions on request

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Re: Joomla's Contact Component Show Date of 2006

Post by sozzled » Thu Nov 15, 2018 11:47 pm

webdevtim wrote:
Thu Nov 15, 2018 11:38 pm
Should this be uninstalled?
What is "this"?

webdevtim wrote:
Thu Nov 15, 2018 11:38 pm
Is that Date the date when the component was first added to Joomla?
Where are you seeing this?

webdevtim wrote:
Thu Nov 15, 2018 11:38 pm
How can I see the dates of the latest updates to components installed in Joomla?
That's a good question. I think (without knowing if this is the correct answer) the information is logged by the Joomla! Update component in the file ../logs/1.joomla_update.php.

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Re: Joomla's Contact Component Show Date of 2006

Post by Webdongle » Thu Nov 15, 2018 11:52 pm

If you use Components >>> Joomla update ... then all the Joomla core Components, Modules and Plugins will be up to date.
http://www.weblinksonline.co.uk/
https://www.weblinksonline.co.uk/updating-joomla.html
"When I'm right no one remembers but when I'm wrong no one forgets".

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Re: Joomla's Contact Component Show Date of 2006

Post by sozzled » Fri Nov 16, 2018 12:06 am

Perhaps this screenshot from the J! 3.9.0 backend, using Extensions » Manage » Manage (filtering on "contact") may help?
j3x_contactExtensionsList.png
The list shows all the extensions installed for "contact", the version numbers of the latest versions that were installed on the website and the dates those extensions were updated by the developers. The dates have nothing to do with when the extensions were installed.
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Re: Joomla's Contact Component Show Date of 2006

Post by Webdongle » Fri Nov 16, 2018 1:08 am

I thought was the install date.
http://www.weblinksonline.co.uk/
https://www.weblinksonline.co.uk/updating-joomla.html
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Re: Joomla's Contact Component Show Date of 2006

Post by sozzled » Fri Nov 16, 2018 4:11 am

The date comes from the XML file in the <creationDate> definition; see documentation https://docs.joomla.org/Manifest_files#Metadata
Last edited by sozzled on Fri Nov 16, 2018 5:57 am, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: Joomla's Contact Component Show Date of 2006

Post by webdevtim » Fri Nov 16, 2018 5:16 am

OK,

Name -> Contacts, Location -> Administrator, Type -> Component, Version -> 3.0.0, Date -> April 2006, Author -> Joomla! Project, Folder -> N/A

So yes that screen shot identified what I was talking about.

Image

From the logs I found only this entry for contacts

2016-03-22T05:07:11+00:00 INFO 71.80.178.27 update Ran query from file 3.5.0-2015-10-30. Query text: UPDATE `#__menu` SET `title` = 'com_contact_contacts' WHERE `id` = 8;.

I will run Components-> Joomla Update to make sure I have the latest.

Thanks

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Re: Joomla's Contact Component Show Date of 2006

Post by Webdongle » Fri Nov 16, 2018 9:16 am

sozzled wrote:
Fri Nov 16, 2018 4:11 am
The date comes from the XML file in the <creationDate> definition; see documentation https://docs.joomla.org/Manifest_files#Metadata
When a core Component, Module or Plugin is patched then the date in its xml file is rarely changed. So the creation date is usually the date the extension was created.
http://www.weblinksonline.co.uk/
https://www.weblinksonline.co.uk/updating-joomla.html
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Re: Joomla's Contact Component Show Date of 2006

Post by sozzled » Fri Nov 16, 2018 10:38 am

@Webdongle. It depends on who's writing the extension. I use the <createdDate> item in all the extensions that I write to indicate the date when the version was created. Some people use the <createdDate> item to signify when the first version was created. It's irrelevant for the purposes of updating, anyway. The only really important item in the XML file is the <version> item.

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Re: Joomla's Contact Component Show Date of 2006

Post by Webdongle » Fri Nov 16, 2018 2:46 pm

sozzled wrote:
Fri Nov 16, 2018 10:38 am
... It's irrelevant for the purposes of updating, anyway. The only really important item in the XML file is the <version> item.
Yep. The created date is unrliable (for the reasons given) the version number is the important value.
http://www.weblinksonline.co.uk/
https://www.weblinksonline.co.uk/updating-joomla.html
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Re: Joomla's Contact Component Show Date of 2006

Post by webdevtim » Fri Nov 16, 2018 3:01 pm

Thanks, all, I will look at created date as a curiosity from this day forward, and only consider version number as a significant indicator of how current a particular extension is.

Still would be nice to have a date associated with that version number, because unless I am following the sequence of version closely, I wouldn't know if say Contacts version 3.0.0 is the current version or not or even when it was written, which has significance when considering march forward of PHP from even 7.0.23 to 7.2.3. There were significant changes between those two version and if I knew when Contacts 3.0.0 was last updated, that would give me a pretty good idea if it was at least PHP 7.2.3 compliant.

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Re: Joomla's Contact Component Show Date of 2006

Post by Webdongle » Fri Nov 16, 2018 5:17 pm

webdevtim wrote:
Fri Nov 16, 2018 3:01 pm
...because unless I am following the sequence of version closely, I wouldn't know if say Contacts version 3.0.0 is the current version ...
Yes you would because if you keep Joomla up to date then all core extentions will be up to date.
http://www.weblinksonline.co.uk/
https://www.weblinksonline.co.uk/updating-joomla.html
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Re: Joomla's Contact Component Show Date of 2006

Post by sozzled » Fri Nov 16, 2018 7:46 pm

webdevtim wrote:
Fri Nov 16, 2018 3:01 pm
Thanks, all, I will look at created date as a curiosity from this day forward, and only consider version number as a significant indicator of how current a particular extension is.
If you read the documentation https://docs.joomla.org/Manifest_files#Metadata, it states that <createdDate> can be used by an extension developer as the

Code: Select all

date of creation or release (e.g. April 2006)
There is no hard and fast rule here. As I wrote earlier, some authors of extensions use it for the date when their extension was created and some authors use it for when an updated version was made.

I've written several extensions for Joomla. In order for these extensions to be appear on the JED they must adhere to the Joomla XML conventions (https://docs.joomla.org/Manifest_files). I have a reasonably good understanding of those conventions.

webdevtim wrote:
Fri Nov 16, 2018 3:01 pm
Still would be nice to have a date associated with that version number, because unless I am following the sequence of version closely, I wouldn't know if say Contacts version 3.0.0 is the current version or not or even when it was written ...
It may be nice to know this but, as far as all extensions written for J! are concerned, it would mean that all authors of extensions would be forced to use <createdDate> in a particular manner. <createdDate> is just a text string; there are no rules relating to the format of the date or whether the string should even be a date. The documentation is simply a guide about how the item might be used. As far as determining whether a version of an extension is the latest or not, the <version> item is the key piece of data.

webdevtim wrote:
Fri Nov 16, 2018 3:01 pm
[The date] ... has significance when considering march forward of PHP from even 7.0.23 to 7.2.3.
The date is insignificant. Most extensions written for Joomla work just as well in PHP 5 as they do in PHP 7. There may be special usages within PHP that apply to some extensions but these usages are relatively uncommon across the board. The Contacts component is a fairly straightforward package; it follows the MVC paradigm and, therefore, it works with all versions of J! 3.x; there's even an outside chance that Contacts v3.0.0 would work with J! 2.5.

If people are really interested in the technicalities involved with the development of the Contacts component they may follow its course at GitHub. I don't have enough spare hours in my day to trawl through GitHub to see what changes may have been made since the component was first released for J! 3.x or when specific changes were implemented. Suffice it to say, Contacts v3.0.0 was the latest release for the component but I couldn't tell you the date when it came out; probably around the time when J! 3.0.0 was released (27-Sep-2012).

I don't use the Contacts component with any websites that I own—waste of my time, really, because it's often a source of time-wasting emails that are generated from it—but some of my colleagues and clients have asked for my help with it. I can say, probably without fear of contradiction, that while the standard Contacts component included in J! 3.x may not be the bees' knees, the best contact component that people could use (if they insist on having a contacts form on their websites), Contacts v3.0.0 ("dated" April 2006) works with PHP 5.6, PHP 7.0, PHP 7.1 and PHP 7.2.

The date (as shown in the extension manager) is irrelevant. The version number is relevant. In the screenshot I posted earlier (from a stock-standard, almost-"vanilla-flavoured" J! 3.9.0 website running on PHP 7.2) Contacts v3.0.0 is the version installed and it works. To ensure that my websites always install the latest versions of software, I use the Joomla! Update component. If people don't use Joomla! Update to update their websites, that's their problem if they aren't sure what are the latest versions of core J! CMS extensions installed on their websites.

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Re: Joomla's Contact Component Show Date of 2006

Post by Webdongle » Fri Nov 16, 2018 8:32 pm

Image
http://www.weblinksonline.co.uk/
https://www.weblinksonline.co.uk/updating-joomla.html
"When I'm right no one remembers but when I'm wrong no one forgets".

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Re: Joomla's Contact Component Show Date of 2006

Post by sozzled » Fri Nov 16, 2018 8:52 pm

@Webdongle, yeah, I know. Boring as bat-guano isn't it?

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Re: Joomla's Contact Component Show Date of 2006

Post by webdevtim » Sat Nov 17, 2018 2:33 am

OK, OK, OK, OK. I get the idea.

Webdongle, that animated gif expresses exactly how I am feeling right now.

When clients log into the back end and they see all those old dates, however, they sometimes freak out.

It threw me as well, because I had gone through and updated everything and was puzzled why I was seeing old dates. Did I do something wrong?

Now that you have explained it, I get it. I will just have to also explain it to clients who like to see 2018 for all the "Created" dates.


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