| Chapter 5. Developer Guidelines |
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The file CHANGELOG.txt contains the Changelog for the recent Major version of VirtueMart. For every change you make to the source code you must make an entry to that Changelog.
Please use the date, your dev.virtuemart.net username and the following characters to indicate a modification:
# -> Bug Fix + -> Addition ! -> Change - -> Removed ! -> Note
An example entry could like like this:
06-09-2005 soeren ^ changed this and that # Task #75 [Bug desription] + added feature from request Task #56 [feature description]
Please keep your descriptions as readable as possible. A lot of people are following the changes and are interested in understanding all changes and their consequences.
If you had to make a change to the database schema, please indicate those changes with extra emphasis. Because you're not the only one working on a development version, please add all queries which are necessary to update a database to comply with your changes.
^ ## Database structure changed ##
ALTER TABLE jos_vm_order_user_info ADD `extra_field_1` varchar(255) default NULL;Please read the section „Database“ for all notes about the database and its scheme.
All PHP code written must be compatible down to PHP version 4.3.0.
As there is no „real“ database abstraction in Joomla!, VirtueMart is compatible to MySQL only.
All SQL queries must be compatible with at least MySQL version 4.0.
Joomla! is the CMS of choice for VirtueMart. While VirtueMart 1.0.x isn't compatible to Joomla! 1.5.x (but only Joomla! 1.0.x), VirtueMart 1.1.x is compatible to both - Joomla! 1.0.x and Joomla! 1.5.x (native mode, legacy mode not required).
Future Versions of VirtueMart will only support Joomla! versions higher than or equal with 1.5.x.
VirtueMart 1.0.x/1.1.x supports Mambo versions from 4.5.1a until 4.6.3. Mambo versions < 4.5.1 are not supported.
Mambo and Joomla will be developed in two different directions. This process will someday lead to the effect that components written for Joomla!, won't work on Mambo 4.6.x (or higher).
VirtueMart will keep track with the Joomla! development
All HTML code used in files must be XHTML compliant. This
means syntax like "<br />" instead of
"<br>" and using quotes for attribute
values: <div id="myid"> instead of
<div id=myid> and using lower-case tag- and
attribute names: <div>..</div> instead of
<DIV>...</DIV>.
Javascript can be used in the frontend (is NO problem at all in the backend and for all administration pages).
But in the frontend all functionality that is used by a customer must also work with Javascript disabled! This includes Javascript-based category trees (always also include a <noscript>Non JS code</noscript> section for people who have disabled Javascript).