Welcome!

[nancyg]

Hello All –

Have you ever found yourself looking for a feature or an add-on module that just isn't available? We've created this new forum for our community members to share ideas about extensions, add-ons and other features that they would like to have to extend the current product offerings. It is a way to connect community members who want to contribute with those who have ideas for additional functionality.

All ideas are welcome! Contributions encouraged!

Best,

Nancy

[rdanner]

Ok… I would expect to see this area rocking and rolling with suggestion having been live for almost 10 days!  I know there are a lot of wants and desires out there!!  Let's get some ideas up here and start discussing them

I heard a number of wants (and offers to contribute) this week in DC including Open ID integration.

One integration that I would like to see is Quercus (or some other) Java based PHP implementation for both the template processor and the script processor. PHP is the dominant programming language on the Web today.  Not everyone likes PHP but almost anyone and everyone can program in it.  Javascript and Freemarker are drop dead simple for the most part but not everyone knows them.  I can't tell you the last time (or any time) I saw Freemarker listed on a resume.  It's a shame Quercus is not licensed under a more permissive license or I think we would see extremely broad adoption for it within the java space. 

I have just a few concerns with the integration:
* first that because of the licensing (Quercus is GPL) and that makes it hard to redistribute even inside a GPL product like Alfresco because it forces ones hand when it comes to selling custom licenses to those who are uncomfortable with GPL or want to OEM the software. 
* Second the plugin could be distributed as an AMP which would eliminate any license concerns, however, as an AMP php would become a second class webscripts language
* having more than one language for webscripts and templating fragments the available component base (IE: you can use these components over here but you'll have to install the AMP over there.)

So while I think PHP would be a great addition to the alfresco suite and would really lower the learning curve for the platform and make it easier on the HR department when looking for candidates I can see it also brings up a number of issues… which is why I am bringing it up here.  What do you think?

[t_broyer]

* Second the plugin could be distributed as an AMP which would eliminate any license concerns, however, as an AMP php would become a second class webscripts language
* having more than one language for webscripts and templating fragments the available component base (IE: you can use these components over here but you'll have to install the AMP over there.)

FYI, a year ago I started working on rewriting the ScriptProcessor to use JSR-223 (only available Java 6 onwards, but that soon won't be a problem any more, as Java 5 is in end of life transition period) and thus allow different scripting languages in Alfresco, including but not limited to webscripts (the initial goal was to support Python, to ease migration from Zope/Plone).
I sent my "work in progress" to Paul Holmes-Higgins and David Caruana last year, and reminded Dave about it in Munich 2 weeks ago, so JSR-223 support might come in a future Alfresco release (fingers crossed).

So while I think PHP would be a great addition to the alfresco suite and would really lower the learning curve for the platform and make it easier on the HR department when looking for candidates I can see it also brings up a number of issues… which is why I am bringing it up here.  What do you think?

I would really dislike having PHP support in Alfresco (but isn't it already there?), because it mixes scripting and templating (just like JSP and ASP for what it's worth), while WebScripts aimed at clearly and cleanly separating those (kind of MVC).

Actually, I disagree with you when you say:

PHP is the dominant programming language on the Web today

I'd rather say that JavaScript is the dominant programming language on the Web today, and FreeMarker far too easy to learn to be a blocking criteria as far as hiring is concerned.