The new version 4.4 has few new features, but reflects the evolving development process. Longterm users know that VirtueMart is developed in a rapid prototyping and KaiZen philosophy style. So if we develop a new feature, our testers sometimes have 10 new test versions a day. On the other hand, we try to evolve the code without hard breaks. For example developers can use the same function to get a category tree, but the technic behind that function drastically changed over the years. No stone was left unturned.
A known joomla ecommerce component announced last weeks, that they stop development. Of course some eager developers created a fork, but they will run into the same problems as the prior developers. And these problems are similar to our problems, in that it is not enough to just keep the core development paid and ongoing, we must as a community also keep our 3rd party developers and encourage new ones to join us.
Lets create a VirtueMart for Joomla and Wordpress
If we manage VirtueMart on Wordpress we can increase our ecosystem drastically. Years ago, I already managed it to see the sample products on Wordpress. To bring VirtueMart alive on WordPress I need people who are at best 3rd party developers for it and who can help to make it a round thing. Furthermore users who know Wp and are willing to test. And finally people who want to setup a real store with VirtueMart and Wordpress.
There are 2 main reasons, first we have competitors in the joomla area, compared to 12 years ago and Joomla base itself is shrinking. It is not simple to gain insight using just the download numbers, but I think it is possible to see a trend. Btw, our download numbers were horrible after providing the new installer only for members, because the members downloads are not counted with our redmine system. So yes, it is fragile. Back to Joomla downloads, there are a lot things to consider, for example joomla 4.4 has not a lot downloads, because on the same day they released j5. For example j4.4.9 has only a bit more than 65k updaters. But j4.4.8 has a bit more than 100k. Of course a lot updated to j5 already.
But the trend is,...
- Joomla 1.5.26 (last joomla 1.5) was downloaded as installer more than 1 Million times and 800k Updaters (ca 1,6 Million pages), Lifetime 4 years
- Joomla 2.5.28 (last joomla 2.5) was downloaded as installer more than 450k and 1,6 Million Updaters (ca 2 Million pages), Lifetime 2 years
- Joomla 3.10.12 (last joomla 3) was downloaded as installer just 50k but 1 Million Updaters (ca 1 Million pages), Lifetime 9 years
- Joomla 4.3.2 (last joomla 4 without j5) was downloaded as installer just 50k and only 250k Updaters (ca 280K pages)
- Joomla 5.1.4 (last joomla 5.1) was downloaded as installer just 50k and only 100k Updaters (ca 130K pages) 3 years old
- Joomla 5.2.0 (last joomla 5) was downloaded as installer just 20k and only 80k Updaters (ca 90K pages), 1 years old
People loved Joomla 1.5 so much, that they installed the last version more times, than updating. But you can assume that most updaters to joomla 5 are just people who used joomla 4 before. So I think that there are less than 1 million joomla pages left (compared to the aproximate 3 million maxium)
and in prior times we also had more mirrors in local communities. Yes I did not count the downloads from, for example the german community page. But I doubt the numbers are very different. It is clear to see that the joomla community is sick of "general updates".
From my point of view it is very old school to change the architecture for a major new version. When I grew up with computers, it was a typical problem that old programs just did not work on new operating systems. Windows 3.1 software did not work on DOS, and Win95 software may stopped working on WinXP. The Linux world was not better! But with the time, it changed. Nowadays you can assume that a win7 program works on win10. The same for Linux. But somehow, in the joomla world,... But I still have great hope, that Joomla 5 is the standard for the next 10 years, but not like Joomla 3 (which had core changes until j3.5, so for us it was just 5 years). A system lives by the 3rd party developers joining. The lower the maintenance costs the higher the chance that people use it in the long run. On the other hand there must also be new opportunities for 3rd party developers to earn money. At best with new features and not just maintaining old ones.
The next problem are our free extensions. A lot free extensions vanished, after any big change in the joomla core. When I started with j1.5 there were tons of free extensions for small problems. The next problem is to find a replacement for the old good working extensions. There are still shops running on very outdated joomlas, because the maintainers do not find solutions for already solved problems for Joomla 3, 4, 5.
and here a direct speech of GJC, one of our forum moderators:
"It is pretty obvious to me.. the majority of my direct customs are one person small shops -
they get by but they aren't making big money, normally the shop is a side line or add on to their other activities.
How can I in all honesty come to them and say you must upgrade to J4/5 because it's wonderfully rewritten and uses the latest php etc etc.
When I show them it they hate the admin ( changed just for change ) and they ask sensible questions like is it faster? is it better? will it increase my sales? etc.. and of course I have to say no .. your customers will see no difference if I build the template the same as u have now but you get to use extra clicks to reach anything in the admin.
My host offers 1 click php 5.2 to 8.4 .. they tell me all phps are "hardened" and that they are happy to offer these versions for the foreseeable future.
I also do a lot of migrations for web agencies that of course really push their clients to upgrade..
I have never yet found a client that liked the new admin or thought anything was any better after the upgrade ..
all it did was cost them a lot of money with the suspicion that it probably wasn't necessary ...
I bet when J6 swings around they will tell the agency where they can stick it... "
So in short, our customers dont see any added value by a new joomla core. And new features of Joomla dont need a new core. Joomla 5 itself is super! But Joomla already lost a lot ground against the simple working solutions. Joomla should stop reinventing the wheel all the time. There is so much that the Joomla community could do to enhance joomla without touching the core (except bugfixes). I think, almost any new feature for normal users could have been done in joomla 1.5 as well. For example versioning, better media uploader, and so on. So Joomla should take a break and care for documentation of the code and use the current core to develop new features.
Just while I am writing this article, I want to add an image. I use "Insert Image", but I cannot upload in this dialog and I need to enter some path? Then I used "Images and Links". There you can upload an image. Then I set the image for the content page, looks awful. I need class to prevent floating. So I use the generated link there to use again "Insert Image" and can now copy paste the path. To make this better we do not need to change the core, just the editor and that is a typical example.
Of course, all the architectural changes and usability changes are made to make development easier and the code faster, cleaner, more robust, and so on. But all these cool things can't show their value if it changes when it's just starting to run.
But, as I explained the last news, we should have peace against adjustments for the next 3 years at least. We could stand still and wait, but I think we should push forward. I suggest to develop VirtueMart for WordPress. That would open the VirtueMart ecosystem to a lot new potential users. I know that there are Wordpress users waiting for it. Join development here https://forum.virtuemart.net/index.php?topic=152160.0
The new features which round up 4.4.0
New Features
- Use category menu items with manufacturer categories
- Use manufacturer menu items with manufacturer categories
- New optional feature, registration is only available if a product is in the cart
- Added option for ask a question to vendor, could be misused for spam similar to ask a question about a product
- Plugin trigger plgVmOnSendVmEmail can prevent sending of mail completly by returning false
- New plugin trigger for vmError
- Sales report with sku
Enhancements/Fixes
- Added missing trigger plgVmDisplayLogin to bs5-login layout
- Fixed hard coded string "Do you have an account?" https://forum.virtuemart.net/index.php?topic=152097.0
- Grid changes for desktops and styling fixes
- Removed unnecessary VmConfig::getConfig
- Fixed updating of category_categories table
- Router fix productdetail
- PayPal Checkout added check for requested userfields published
- PayPal Checkout, fixed popup plugin with enabled Joomla HTTPS Headers plugin
- Moved ajax function recalculate to an own json file, more compatible to joomla
- User model considers joomla setting for register mail
- Removed unnecessary references
- VmModel set _maxItems to public in product model, set the hidden config absMaxProducts to 400 and fixed that maxItems returned one product too much
- Small fix for product module
- Small fixes for TcPdf and PHP8
- Removed Multi-media upload for other views than product edit.
Templaters
- The logic which decides if registration should be shown is moved to the view.html. Just use the provided booleans
- Enhanced the function for templaters to show register fields and button yes/no and so on