Next version/incarnation of UF

[alexweissman]

For the next big version of UserFrosting, we have proposed the following components:

• Templating: Bootsole 0.2.0 (currently under development) Twig might be the best choice after all - it won't build your tables and forms for you, but it is a good deal less complex and should be easier to work with. Oh well, it was worth a try...
• URL Routing: Klein Slim
• Database ORM: Redbean 4 Custom-built model especially for UF ;-)
• Server-side validation: Valitron
• Client-side validation: FormValidation (formerly known as BootstrapValidator)
• Dependency management: Composer
• Mail: PHPMailer?

Thoughts? Anything we're missing?

[andig]

+1 for composer. If you're in PHP you have to get into composer. The 90ies are over ;)

Would appreciate Doctrine/ORM too.

Update: opauth/opauth would be an absolute must.

[alexweissman]

Yup, I'm starting to realize that everyone uses Composer. As for the ORM, I picked Redbean over Doctrine because it's more lightweight. Then again, it depends on the target audience of UF. Either way, we'll definitely be using an ORM in the next version ;-)

Send me a message through my website if you want to chat more ;-)

[rdmiller]

I'm just starting to work with UF to manage users for some Angular SPAs. I would put admin control over login durations to be high on my list. Thanks for the great work, Alex and all.

Rob
IUB '03

[alexweissman]

Cool, will do! Also, Bootsole is almost ready! This is an important step in bringing UF into the world of modern web development, and will make it tremendously easier for developers to adapt and extend UF for their needs.

Be sure to star it!

[rdmiller]

Do you have an ETA on when 0.3.0 will be ready?

[r3wt]

@rdmiller Alex has begun work on 0.3.0

Its still very much in the stages of R & D, but you can see the progress Alex has made so far:

https://github.com/alexweissman/UserFrosting/tree/slim

[alexweissman]

Yup, it'll be another month or two at least. But, if you have some expertise on Slim, Twig, or RedBean and want to contribute, let me know!

[andig]

I can only add that Doctrine ORM is an excellent product and imho the de-facto standard, I believe more so and with broader support than redbean (my personal experience from looking a both and extensively using Doctrine).

[alexweissman]

Thanks. Yes it is true that Doctrine is a more widely used ORM. However, I chose RedBean because it is "no config" (see http://redbeanphp.com/about). And, not sure if Doctrine does this as well, but it exposes direct SQL querying as well.

One of the goals of UF is to help novice programmers get started, so I am trying to strike a delicate balance between an easy learning curve and best practices of modern web design.

[andig]

Don't want to debate your choice, just for sake of completeness.

However, I chose RedBean because it is "no config" (see http://redbeanphp.com/about). And, not sure if Doctrine does this as well, but it exposes direct SQL querying as well.

Doctrine does both afaik. For a "no config" example see https://github.com/volkszaehler/volkszaehler.org/blob/master/lib/Volkszaehler/Router.php.

Direct SQL is possible as well via the underlying DBAL abstraction ($this->em->getConnection()->executeQuery()).

One of the goals of UF is to help novice programmers get started, so I am trying to strike a delicate balance between an easy learning curve and best practices of modern web design.

Doctrine is definitely more verbose. Maybe it would be possible to encapsulate the ORM-using stuff to make if possible to include UF in Doctrine applications? As doctrine requires annotations, would it potentially be possible to annotate the RB model to work with Doctrine, too?

[r3wt]

Doctrine is slower than Christmas

[alexweissman]

No worries, I think it's good to keep an open mind and have an open discussion :-)

Didn't realize that Doctrine had direct SQL, that's actually good to know. I'm not sure if I want to throw annotations into the mix, especially since I'll already be throwing request schema into the next version.

There will be a layer between RedBean and the UF controllers - if you take a look at the models folder of the slim branch, you'll see DBObject, User, etc. So, something you could do is simply replace those classes with Doctrine-based model classes that implement the same functions. Maybe I could even formally write the model as an interface to make it easier.

[r3wt]

I vote SwiftMailer instead of PHPMailer.

[alexweissman]

Ok, it's basically ready to go - just needs to be documented! https://github.com/alexweissman/UserFrosting/tree/dev-0.3.0