Component's not being able to modify IPB's code

[Brandon D]

I've read where several IPS staff members have stated that their components are not allowed to modify IPB's code. May I ask why? In this post I'll talk about the gallery as it's the one I have the most experience with, but this pertains to any of the components.

It can't be a matter of 'our customers may not have x component installed' because it's quite easy to detect if a component is installed. The whole idea of not integrating it within the board greatly reduces the usefulness of these components. Off the top of my head I can think of three suggestions for integrating the gallery within the board that would immensely increase the exposure of the gallery. Changing the "View new posts" link to a "View new content" link that would display new gallery photos and comments, adding gallery statistics to the board footer, and adding a forum category to the forum index that lists gallery categories and their latest information are just a few.

Let me ask you a question. What makes IP.Gallery different from all the other stand alone galleries I could purchase? Not much at all. Give us a reason to want a gallery that is made by the same company that makes the forums we're installing it on.

[.Ryan]

I believe at one point there was a way to integrate the gallery stats into the main footer or am I making that up? You can easily put a link into the board header that says "View Gallery Content" ect.

Depending on what site I am running I would either want the gallery stats to display or exclude them. If you view the gallery there are stats at the bottom along with latest 5 images, ect. Now you could always move that to the front index of your forum if you like with some modifications.

Latest Images

[Brandon D]

Those were just illustrations. The point is there are a huge amount of great feature requests that are being turned down because they involve modifying IPB, which is the part I don't understand.

Like I said, at this point IP.Gallery is pretty much just another gallery. IPS created official components for IP.Board but yet didn't integrate them at all. What we have now is a community that has VERY visible breaks between the board and its components. Everything should be streamlined, with the ability to choose just how streamlined it is in Admin CP. Users shouldn't have to go out of their way to use these components, especially considering both the board and these components are made by the same company.

[bfarber]

Once components start modifying the core produce, EVERY version becomes intimately intertwined with the IPB version in use. Already there are times where a specific IPB version is needed, as something in it is relied upon. If we start heavily integrating the component code into the IPB code, then

1) If we change anything in Gallery, it might require an IPB update.
2) If we change something in IPB, it might require a Gallery update.
3) If there is a bug in Gallery (searching for instance), we may actually need to update IPB to fix the core issue
4) If you don't have the component installed, you still have the code execution
5) This bloats the IPB code for those that don't have the component installed
6) What if we add a new component in the future? The same level of integration is going to be expected, so then we have to update IPB again..
7) We already have 3 components - imagine if each, at it's own stage, had a bug in the search routine and we had to release 3 separate IPB updates just to fix issues with components some people don't have


The idea is code separation. Right now, we can release a Gallery update and it shouldn't affect IPB (in most instances). A bug in Gallery won't affect users not using Gallery. It's simply our policy not to let components modify the core product - in fact we actively discourage modders from doing so too.

A better idea, which is something we're working towards, is in a future version of IPB allowing components (and mods) to hook into the software so that it can do these things you mention (show stats on board footer, or show results in the searches, including view new posts) without modifying the IPB core code.