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Latest XenWord Roadmap

LPH

Flight Director
Flight Instructor
Roadmap
XenWord is under incremental development. A DevLog describing the current focus is available. Above all, the direction of the plugin may change as knowledge is gained.

Current Version
XenWord 3.x is the currently available release.

Pre-Alpha
XenWord 4.x is being developed from scratch.

Planned XenWord Versions
✓ XenWord 1.x = Washington (initial releases)
✓ XenWord 2.x = Adams (strengthen integration on WP side)
XenWord 3.x = Jefferson (strengthen integration on XF side)
XenWord 4.x = Madison (XenForo 2 Compatible)
XenWord 5.x = Monroe (strengthen XF2 integration with WP side)

Jefferson (version 3.x)
Major features
-----------------------------------------
1. All WP widgets available in XenWord (WP side) to be available on XF side; for example, new blog post sidebar
2. Promoting an XF discussion thread to a WP blog post.

Maintenance releases

-----------------------------------------
1. Improve XenWord settings panel to select forum titles instead of entering forum ids
2. Fix Featured Forum Widget
3. Integration with Showcase and XenGallery
4. Improve video tutorials
5. Enable Metaboxes Extension
6. Tying together of comments in a better manner. I'm really disappointed on how comments cannot be done through the WP admin panel... because the comment_id is wrong. It's something really needing to be fixed.
7. Another annoying problem is getting redux framework to load properly so it does not interfere with a theme using redux framework.
8. Another maintenance release will require all of the WP widgets to be coded to use more XF methods and classes rather than hand coding. These are the version 2 widgets. Many require XenForo template changes.
9. The Redux Framework config file needs to be re-written to match the way the developers changed their config file. The old way is still recognized but I'm assuming this will eventually be an issue.


Madison (version 4.x)

Major features
XenForo 2 will be released in 2017. XenWord 4 will be the compatible version. Please read the XenWord 4 announcement thread.

Monroe (version 5.x)

Major features
1. There is an extension that was purchased so that a metabox is created within the WP post table. This allows the admin to switch on or off the creation of a thread per post. I pushed this one back to Madison simply because it's something that would be nice -- but not necessary until after better integration is achieved.
2. This is to tie together the logins together. I picture one login page allowing someone with only a WP account to create an XF account.

So this would require figuring out a login page as well as associating a WP with an XF account. The WP REST API is going to be helpful here.
Stylesheets should be built to improve the administration and public facing widgets.

Feature Suggestions:

Please feel free to make suggestions to improve XenWord. There is a suggestions forum dedicated to discussing the plugin. Priority is given to items liked the most.
 
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Gracie

Dogs Times Writer
Three other non-code changes include the use of Asana, bugtracker.zoho.com, and WPIDE.net.
 

LPH

Flight Director
Flight Instructor
The feature set is pretty good now. It does what it is designed to do. Only problems are various bugs that need squashing.

Missed responding to this earlier. I apologize. It's been on my mind but not addressed to your legitimate concerns.

Bug fixes are a constant with each release. Some bugs are deep into the chosen means to create the comment, the early choice to use get_avatar rather than a filter, or the core basis of the plugin to use a new table field rather than meta keys and values. it's also a matter of my learning :)

The showstopper bugs are being fixed: for example , the activator bug was painful. It's now fixed.

The lingering issue remains the switch over to using add_filter:

PHP:
add_filter( 'get_avatar', 'xenword_avatar', 10, 5 );

The file needs plenty of attention.

Non-showstoppers are also being addressed: The lack of an error check on the discussion link is partially fixed. The main issue is the rendering of the comment_form by the WordPress theme.

I let @RLL fuss with avatars lately while I addressed the discussion link bug and fixed the activator. With the partial fix, I plan to turn my attention to the avatar bug showing up in WordPress 4.4. For now, anyone can simply use 3.0.0.06 and click on the Gravatar option in settings--> discussions.
 

dethfire

Baby Penguin
XenWord Professional
Love the speed of development now! Is there a guess on when a stable version will be available?
 

LPH

Flight Director
Flight Instructor
Love the speed of development now! Is there a guess on when a stable version will be available?

Short answer
"When it is ready."

Long answer
Coding seems to flow at times and can take a life of its own ...

Someone asked me to describe the change, and it's pretty simple. First, I'm feeling better. Second, I'm on vacation and have time to work through ideas. Third, I started writing out the code in comment form first then filling in the specifics with the code.

The development will probably slow down on my end as I must gear up for teaching spring semester and still have to move into my new home. The good news is that @RLL is making progress with learning PHP. I suspect he'll be able to contribute soon and this will help out tremendously.

The comments bug is still annoying but think the array_diff is going to be the key to getting the XenForo threads written to the comments and commentmeta table. Once this bug is fixed then the code will become beta and I plan to lock in the features for 3.0.1 -- but things always change.

The development log, though, is an idea to show the progress rather than leaving the work in the dark. This might give a different feeling, but remember I used to release a new version once a week. The 3.0.1.02 is release 95, not bad for 2.5 years.

Happy Holidays
 

LPH

Flight Director
Flight Instructor
Updated the roadmap to cross out ideas that are done. Jefferson features are almost done !

I did not update the features to add for Madison (Release 4). The suggestions forum is going to be very important for determining the new features. Currently, login work is scheduled for Madison. The direction WordPress took after 4.7 release is a little bothersome -- but -- development of XenWord will move forward.

The major feature to complete now is the thread promotion. Yikes ! I've thought about different ways to accomplish this without getting into a nonstop circle and haven't decided on a path yet.
 
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