Elxis 5.x development

[bledi]

HELLO
I would also prefer to have a real archive system for articles, elxis 4 has it but is global archive..not allowing to choose which article to send to archive.

thanks

[Sam]

Buongiorno
è possibile avere una copia di installazione sul server del CMS Elxis 5 per poterla provare?

Grazie.

--------------------------------------------------

Good morning
Is it possible to have an installation copy of the Elxis CMS 5 server in order to try it?

Thank you.

[datahell]

Elxis 5.0 is under development and not yet available even as a BETA version.

[Sam]

Ok!!

I look forward to new developments .....

Thanks.

[bully]

It's maybe a stupid question:
Why we still need to distinguish between modules and components?
As from users perspective, there would be very little yo NO-need for this differences, as there is no really a difference visible, when installing/enabling .... and if still, then a note [m] or [c] would not suffice?

I want to clarity: I like Elxis, how it works and develops, but still a number of things, I can't  find any answers, but like to understand

[datahell]

I am also a fan of simplicity and, ideally, I would prefer to have just 1 type of extension but it cannot be done without loosing functionality. Also this would change dramatically Elxis features, you wouldn't be able to do the things you do now. I will explain the purpose of components, plugins and modules below and I am sure you will understand. Note that there are also other type of extensions like Search Engines, Authentication methods and Templates. There are also third party components that have their own types of extensions.

Components.
Each time you visit a page in an Elxis powered web site a component is responsible to answer your request. Every time, on every click, 1 (and only) component responds to your request. Which one? Elxis finds out which component to trigger by analyzing the URL. This process is called routing and there is a special library for this purpose, the Elxis router. Here is a sample URL:
http://www.example.com/shop/something/
Elxis router sees that after the site's base url (example.com) a segment called "shop" exists. It checks installed components and finds out that component com_shop (Open Shop) is installed and so it forwards the request to component com_shop. Component Open Shop will continue analyzing the URL afterwards.
Without components Elxis would have no pages!

Plugins
Plugins are special type of extensions ONLY for component Content. They work by replacing blocks of code with html code within article's text area.
Example. You type: [gallery]something[/gallery] and the gallery plugin replaces it with an actual image gallery.

Modules
Modules have not their own URLs (pages) like components do. You cannot call a module from the URL. Modules are html blocks (like boxes) that usually are been displayed around the main part of the page which generated by the component. They usually contain supplemental information, navigation, or provide special functionality (login, change language, menu, etc). Modules can be displayed to all or to specific pages generated by the components.

If modules didn't exist then in case you would like to display something on the sidebar this should be done by the component. So the component should have the functionality to generate anything you want in the side column for example, create site menus, display login form etc. And this functionality should exist in ALL components. So if you wanted to display the weather in the site column of your site on a page which lists component's Open Shop products then Open Shop should have the weather functionality built in! Strange thing for a shop application, right? By having an independent extension type, the modules, you can display what ever information and provide additional functionality to any page, in any position, regardless of the page's main contents.

[bully]

OK, great. Whilst I as a user understand, that there might be technical differences, I agree fully on this one, but as for the "user" itself, the maximum done is:

• install
• configure options
• tampering with (at least I do quite frequently)
• finished
• uninstall

Ib fact, I am often confused, was it a module or a plugin .... and modt of the time, I am just searching for the right group.
In short: I was hoping to skip a lot of  searching, because I am lazy by nature

bully

[datahell]

Elxis 5.x development progress so far.

The administration components are almost complete. They all have been converted to the Elxis 5.x style. Only the following still need work:
- EDC browser
- Administration dashboard
- Frontpage designer
- WYSIWYG editor (if we changed it we must re-create the plugins intergration system and also the media manager).
- Administration template.

The rest administration pages are Elxis 5.x ready!

I post 2 screenshots from the list of articles page which is the last section finished. The first one is as seen from a desktop computer and the second one is the same page as seen from a mobile phone.

[bully]

It looks nice, definitely a better look

[datahell]

The current status of Elxis 5.x development.

Elxis 5.x administration panel is ready and fully functional (and mobile friendly!).
New administration template (Onyx)
New exit pages have been designed (login page, site offline page, error 404, error 403, etc - Note: mobile version setting and related exit pages are deprecated)
New Elxis installer (simpler, better, faster installation)
Almost all Elxis libraries and helpers were updated/improved
All modules, plugins and components improved/updated
All language files updated
CKeditor removed and replaced by Jodit editor
New form creation library "elxis5Form". (the old elxisForm updated and kept for backwards compatibility).
Elxis 5.x standard CSS classes use the "elx5_" prefix (old "elx_" css classes either removed or kept for backwards compatibility).
Elxis 5.x for each user keeps the latest 10 clicks on the site which are visible on user profile (requires Manager/Admin access)
Improved user messaging system (message threads support / private conversations)
Improved user bookmarks system
New extensions installer, improved extensions manager and EDC browser
New translations manager
Added new form elements and XML parameters
New menu item type "onClick" (execute javascript action on mouse click or on touch instead of visiting a page)
Improved plugins manager
Exis does not use JQuery anymore (jquery kept for backwards compatibility)
New built-in javascript lightbox windows with MediaBox (instead of Lightbox)
Elxis designed/built-in modal windows in pure CSS/javascript
Elxis designed/built-in page loader
New pagination/navigation (using "htmlHelper" instead of the deprecated "Navigation" library)
Module "mobile front" removed (module IOS Slider will also be removed)
Component "Languages" removed
Improved Elxis Defender with exact trigger rule report
New default frontend template ("Five" - under development)
Auto rename administration and repository folders during install
Auto generate htaccess file during install
Auto generate and support for microsoft web.config file during install (IIS servers)

The above are only a few of the changes in Elxis 5.x. Although Elxis 5.x does not bring too many new features it is a full redesign of the Elxis interface. Most new features will come later with the Elxis 5.1 and 5.2 releases. On February 2019 version DEV1 was released (private release). In about a week version DEV2 will be ready for testing. After DEV2 we will perform some final tests, last improvements/additions and fixes if needed and release Elxis 5.0 to the public. Stay tuned!

Current version: Elxis 5.0 Uranus [DEV] rel 2187

Screenshots (click image for actual scale preview)

[xmanhattan]

Hello Datahell,

I would like to ask if it is possible to have some sort of note insertion for admins to insert a message regarding the use of a control panel program function.  I don't know if this can be done for Elxis 4.x  as an add-on but may be for 5.x.

Example:
an Elxis installation is fully functional except for email, so in the user administration the super admin leaves a note that displays
New users added here by admins must inform them of their temporary password verbally

This might be useful for admins to leave a note for regular users as well.

Thank you for all of your great work!

[datahell]

Hi Peter. There is a module available for this purpose titled "Sticky notes"
https://www.elxis.net/edc/administration/1.html

[bully]

Is a BIG WOW effect.
Just trying to (re-) build a site in it. So far very impressed



bully

[chongbing]

@datahell

Tailwind CSS: Low level, utility-first framework
https://tailwindcss.com/

I hope that the next version of Elxis will have a big change in this respect.   

[datahell]

There is a problem with all the css, javascript frameworks. They say: why to write CSS/JS while you can do what you want "much easier" with our framework? But they dont say that:
- You have to learn their framework, which sometimes is harder than the original language.
- From the time you start using that framework you will start forgetting the actual language and you are stuck to their framework.
- Such attempts usually die after some time. Then what? You will have to get back to the original language or learn something else. And the software you already have will become deprecated.

My recommendation is to use only the original languages, this is where the true power and knowledge is for you. Learn Javascript, not jquery. Learn CSS, not bootstrap, tailwind, or whatever. Personally I can do anything with pure CSS/JS/HTML. Why, for example, to use a 100kb javascript library for a slider while I can do it with a few lines of code by myself?