upgrading to fabrik 2.0b

[cookn22]

I have a couple of questions about fabrik 2.0. My apologies if some of these have been answered elsewhere! (I'm sure the first few are answered somewhere but in my brief search I couldn't find them)

1) How long before a release version?

2) In your opinion, is the core functionality stable enough at the moment to run a site that's very database-driven? (my site is essentially a frontend for users to manage records across several tables in the database)

3) Are 1.0.5.2 custom templates compatible with 2.0b templates?

4) Is it possible to upgrade fabrik 1.0.5.2 site to 2.0b without having to remake/reconfigure all the tables/forms/elements etc...?

5) If question 3 is true, does upgrading make use of the 'export' feature on the table admin page? If so, is there a way to copy over form/table/element configurations if you don't have zlib? (I'm guessing this would involve copying the necessary fabrik tables via MySQL (using phpmyadmin in my case))

6) I make use of some custom classes (extending fabrikForm and
fabrikViewform) that overwrite the display, writeform and render functions with some very minor changes so I can load a fabrik form and get the elements with all the cool fabrik stuff working and stick them into a custom form/table template without the page going haywire. Anyways, is there any chance that my custom classes/functions will still work in 2.0b, or have those classes changed so much that I'll have to scrap/rewrite my code?

I'm very happy with 1.0.5.2 so this isn't critical, but I'd like to try out fabrik 2.0b with basically a copy of the site I'm currently working on to see what's possible with 2.0b and to check out joomla 1.5. But, I'm hesitant to do so if it would require me to set up my tables and forms again and work through a mess of bugs in my custom templates because of the upgrade.

Thanks for all your hard work, fabrik is a sweet app!

 

[cheesegrits]

1) As long as it takes. As with any initial Beta release, we really can't give an ETA, as by definition we don't know how many bugs there are lurking in it. And although we have a couple of wonderful folk working very hard to help us squash the bugs, "sooner rather than later" is about the only answer we can give.

2) No, we don't recommend using 2.0b in any live site yet. Check out the Fabrik 2.0 Beta Test forum, and you'll see what I mean. Bug reports are being submitted and fixed at the rate of a dozen or so per day right now.

3) Not sure, I'd have to ask Rob. I suspect they are broadly similar, but probably do have differences.

4) We will be writing a 1.x to 2.x migration utility, but at the moment it doesn't exist. It'll be the last thing we do prior to the first 2.0 Release Candidate, once Beta testing of the basic functionality is complete.

5) I suspect it won't use the existing export/import, it'll probably be a custom utility that does everything by steam itself. But I may be wrong.

6) You will almost certainly have to modify you modifications, as the code structure in 2.0 is somewhat different.

Bottom line, it sounds like you should probably sit tight for a while before jumping in to 2.0. Although we can always use more Beta testers ...

-- hugh

 

[cookn22]

Ok, cool! It's good to hear that there will be a migration utility. Once I wrap up this current site I'll probably have some time to beta test 2.0!