[Typo3-dev] Call for volunteers: fe extension coordination team

[Elmar Hinz]

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Hi Stanislas,

Stanislas Rolland schrieb:
> Hi Elmar,
> 
>>
>> Let's do the first step forward into a world of extensions that make
>> TYPO3 easy to use, now. Extensions that work well together, extensions
>> that are easy to configure, because they use the same technics and terms.
> 
> 
> I would concur to such objective and would be glad to collaborate to
> this first step forward.

Thank you. I hoped so. Your extensions have a very central position in
the project and a large number of people benefit from them, especially
HTMLArea and FE User Registration.

> I did not know I could become so dangerous!
> 
> The FE User Registration extension has simply been going the way its
> users and sponsors have wanted it to go.
> 

That's probably exatly the reason why. ;-) And it is my personal point
of view!

So let me explain. FE User Registration is mighty and of central
importance. If you setup a project  with FE-Users it is likely that you
will use it. In the result the registrated addresses find their way into
fe_users. Self extended address information fields go to fe-users, too.

If people now develop a new extension based on that inforamation they
build an extension for a DB-Model with a 1:1 user to address realation
in a single table. We had some discussions on this last week. Summing it
up the results is, that it should rather be a 1:m relation between
fe_users and tt_address. It seems that that is the way fe_users and
tt_address were originally intended to use for, the way extensions
should use the database.

Now one part of the developer in fact needs to develop extensions on the
stanislas model cause information is in a new place now. I experienced
that myself. I discoverd other people asking in the lists how to do
this. As soon as this extensions become public extensions we get two
kind of extensions in TER. Both store address in different tables, with
different fieldnames, with different relations. Extensions that deal
with fe-users and their address won't fit together anymore. That would
cover I wide range of portal related extensions. The data of projects
start to get disorderd.

Additionally sr_feusr_register adds address fields to fe_users. Not with
tx_-prefix like it is proposed for usual extensions, but as regular
fields without such prefix. Extending common "official" tables with
official non-prefix fields should be a public decision. It should be a
public plan. It should not be a decionsion of any sponsors. In the
result incompatible fieldnames get in use like firstname vs. first_name.

Now there are many "dangerous" extensions in TER meanwhile. That is not
a good development at all for the reputation of TYPO3. But most of them
are not of relevance for other extensions. sr_feuser_register is.

I fear that we will get two incompatible lines of extension resulting of
two different db-models. Resources and data will be lost. So let's come
together and find a commonly accepted db-model and implement that.

I opend a wiki page on this theme.

http://wiki.typo3.org/index.php/Users_Addresses

Like in the nature of a new wiki page you will find entries from
different people with different points of view. It is still a page in
state of discussion, still not a page that already could give good advice.

Have a good day

Elmar



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