[TYPO3-core] TemplaVoila ... what to do with it?

[Xavier Perseguers]

Hi Tolleiv,

>> seems that TemplaVoila is (still) a very popular part of the TYPO3 CMS
>> world and I don't think that it is healthy to keep such an important
>> part unmentioned when it comes to discussing the future.
> 
> Absolutely. In our case we use it on all of our sites, so it's
> definitely a critical asset.

Let me second that, virtually any website I know of is using TemplaVoilà.

> My hope - of course - is that it will be maintained as long as all of
> its features are not provided by the Core. I know many people don't like
> TV, in particular because of the way is stores relations (in XML
> structures) - which is indeed bad, but I think it leads those some
> people to not know properly the feature set of TV. I feel recent debates
> mostly focused on BE layouts (now it TYPO3 Core) and flexible content
> elements (still not part of Core, but apparently provided by
> "gridelements", which I didn't test). That's too short. For example, one

I agree that BE layouts allow a lot and I am now using gridelements (in
fact gridelements2) on 1-2 new websites, just to learn and see "how it
is". I must say I like it a lot but I must admit as well that this
changes quite a lot in the way you prepare your FCEs and I'm too new to
gridelements2 (yet) to really judge but as it is still a very young
project, it lacks a proper documentation and as such, starting to use it
as a "TYPO3 integrator" is currently (from my POV) much more challenging
that using TV. But again, the project is still pretty young and having
worked with TV for years, it's just normal that using another technology
for templating FCEs is more challenging than using point-and-click in a
nice Backend editor.

> feature that we use a lot is references. It exists in the Core as
> "Insert records", but TV usability is IMO far superior in this case.

+1!

>> there is
>> no other *active* maintainer other than me atm
> 
> That is definitely a worry. I hope you can keep up your excellent work
> for some more time. Being the author of many extensions myself I know
> how hard it is to keep up with the 6-month release cycle of the Core,
> even if a lot of care is taken about backwards-compatibility.

Yes and I think this is a very important extension for the TYPO3
community, it should not be open to anybody willing to help here. I know
Dmitry was really strict on who could actively contribute and although
it could sound hard, it really was worth the warning as updating TV
should absolutely stay as it currently is: a smooth and peaceful task
for every TYPO3 administrator.

I take the opportunity to thank you for the effort you put in
maintaining this great extension. Just as Francois told, I'm starting to
catch up with my main extensions being compatible with latest TYPO3 and
this is a huge work!

Cheers

-- 
Xavier Perseguers
Release Manager TYPO3 4.6

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