[Vtigercrm-developers] about new template manager (Vtiger 6.4)

Tue Nov 10 18:08:55 GMT 2015

We reported the following errors already:

1. The new layout mechanism doesn't work because there's no
vtiger_layout table - it's enough to just go to the configuration and
you can see the errors [" Table 'vtiger_layout' does not exist "] 

2. Layouts can't be installed because an error pops up- "Invalid File
provided for module import! Try Again", it's due to the fact that
there's no layout installation mechanism [you can add it using vtlib,
but it doesn't work with the normal installer]. 

3. You don't validate the extensions for files while installing layouts
from the store, which is dangerous!' 

as well as:

4. Loading checkAndConvertCssStyles styles should be rebuilt- if there's
no CSS file in the new layout then it loads it from the main layout. 

5. Loading checkAndConvertCssStyles styles should be rebuilt - to load
the appropriate style file, depending on how the layout is set in the
configuration in order not to enter the full path to the styles eg:
'~/layouts/vlayout/modules/Migration/css/style.css', 

6. Javascript loading should be rebuilt (checkAndConvertJsScripts) in
order to work properly if there is no JS file in the new layout then it
loads it from the main layout. 

7. Loading image files should be rebuilt - now it always loads from
vlayout, and it should load from the layout set in the configuration,
eg: Vimage_path('summary_Contact.png') 

8. Style loading for different skins in the system should be rebuilt,
now all of them are taken from vlayout.

9. Loading files using full paths to TPL files should be removed, and
replaced with a universal mechanism that will detect which file to load
and from where, depending on the layout, eg:

 	* a) <script type="text/javascript"
src="layouts/vlayout/modules/Google/resources/map.js"></script>
 	* b) <img src="layouts/vlayout/skins/images/rss_add.png" />
 	* c) <img src="layouts/vlayout/skins/images/{$PACKAGE_INFO.imageName}"
alt="Vtiger Logo"/>
 	* d) <link REL="SHORTCUT ICON"
HREF="layouts/vlayout/skins/images/favicon.ico">

10. Loading files using full paths in JS files should be removed

 	* a) imgContainer.prepend('&nbsp<img width="13px" title="(call)"
alt="(call)" src="layouts/vlayout/skins/images/Call_white.png">&nbsp');
 	* b) imgContainer.prepend('&nbsp<img width="14px" title="(meeting)"
alt="(meeting)"
src="layouts/vlayout/skins/images/Meeting_white.png">&nbsp');
 	* c) jQuery('#countValue').html('<img
src="layouts/vlayout/skins/images/loading.gif">');

11. Multilayout support should be added for Links (vtiger_links).

>From what I remember, multilayout support was the only new feature in
6.4v, it doesn't work and can't work ... because it's not finished. The
new functionality is not something that has been carefully designed,
thought through and created according to the MVC logic. I wrote this
many times already and I'll repeat again: cleaning up layouts should
start from updating to Bootstrap 3. Unfortunately, updating the layout
to Bootstrap 3 takes not weeks, but months of work [it took us 3
months], this is due to the fact that some JS libraries that Vtiger uses
don't work properly with the new BS3 version; and those libraries that
work often have several hundred open errors, select2 for example.

@Federico
I'll be blunt. I don't think you have enough knowledge to be able to
properly update Vtiger to Bootstrap 3. It results from many aspects,
above all that it requires extensive programming knowledge, a ton of
work, high-quality code, and even more money in order to be able to work
freely. I respect the fact that you shared a free layout for Vtiger, but
it's low quality, it's not responsive, it's not compatible with the
standards. This is partially caused by the fact that you don't have the
possibility to introduce the changes you'd want to introduce. I suggest
focusing on quality, rather than quantity, though :/ . I don't remember
who enumerated what should be changed to support multiple layouts, if it
was you, then you must understand that system changes aren't so simple,
these are complex mechanisms that depend on many factors. I haven't seen
any changes from you that could be added to the core of the system,
especially your layout. Don't get me wrong, I don't mean to insult you,
but you're in a place where we were a year ago and I know how much
energy, time and money it costs to do something on your own. Build
something next to Vtiger is pointless, would be better if you made your
own fork without looking at Vtiger ... it will give you wings, but at
first it will complicate your life.

@Prasad
You do have knowledge, I don't know who now deals with the open source
version, but I suppose it's studen. Maybe it could be worth it to let
someone with some knowledge work there? If you don't know where to find
solutions, just take a look at some major projects like Joomla,
Wordpress - their layout support mechanisms are really well designed. We
added multilayout support and a new layout to our system, you can test
it here: https://gitdeveloper.yetiforce.com [9] and review the code
here: https://github.com/YetiForceCompany/YetiForceCRM/tree/developer
[10] [It's still being tested, but it works!]. It took us ~ 10h to
introduce all fixes, you should be able to do it in 8 hours. Claiming
that it will appear in v7 in 8-12 months is ignoring the community and
feeding them malfunctioning solutions.

@Alan
After all, they've been developing the system for 12 years, they rebuilt
it to MVC, do you think they don't know and don't understand how it
should work properly? Whoever built v6.0 had a lot of knowledge and
great ideas [we don't know about numerous solutions, we find out about
other solutions overnight]. Adding a properly functioning layout
mechanism is not caused by their ignorance or lack of ideas. They just
no longer develop the open source software.

@All
All of you who talk so much about layouts, I get the impression that you
don't understand that Vtiger will not engage their people to expand the
system. If a change that takes 8 hours is scheduled in 8-12 months,
although it's a change necessary for the layouts to work... then what
other changes will be introduced over the next 12 months?

>From what I see, yet another team gives up [@MYC], and will no longer
build the community, and the people who remain here are those primarily
related to https://marketplace.vtiger.com/app/listings. In my opinion
the open source community was rejected, and only the commercial
community remains [which means vtiger's partners focused on profit],
apparently it has to be like that... 
---

Z poważaniem / Regards 

BŁAŻEJ PABISZCZAK 
_Chief Executive Officer_ 
M: +48.884999123
E: b.pabiszczak at yetiforce.com 

W dniu 2015-11-09 11:24, Prasad napisał(a): 

> Thank you for the order of fallback - which sounds good - I see a gap in our understanding of what Layout refers to. 
> 
> Layout defines the overall UI structure of the application. 
> If the intent is to extend part of it doing with (headerscript or skins is a choice). 
> 
> The structural changes between layouts could be vast and depends on the its feature sets. v7 falling back on vlayout (6.0) is unlikely a choice with respect UI matchup. However, v7 
> itself would have fallback UI for custom module view. 
> 
> Regards, 
> Prasad 
> 
> PS: v7 layout is still under development and being improved. It would possibly be released in other 8-12 months. 
> 
> -- 
> FB [4] I Twit [5] I LIn [6] I Blog [7] I Website [8] 
> 
> On Mon, Nov 9, 2015 at 3:09 PM, makeyourcloud <info at makeyourcloud.com> wrote:
> 
>> Hi,
>> 
>> To be more detailed, I think the right fallback checks for vTiger could be
>> in the following order and should be done for each type of layout resources
>> (tpl,js and css):
>> 
>> FALL BACK ORDER
>> 1 - customlayoutname/modules/ModuleName/FileName
>> 2 - vlayout/modules/ModuleName/FileName
>> 3 - customlayoutname/modules/Vtiger/FileName
>> 4 - vlayout/modules/Vtiger/FileName
>> 
>> Hope this could be a good starting point, I don't want to open another
>> discussion but I would just to clarify that we choose to not directly
>> collaborate with vtiger community team (committing fixes and patches)
>> because we are disappointed seeing how many differences (fundamental
>> optimizations) are present between the ondemand version and our poor
>> opensource version, I think the community could do more and share more,
>> improving the 2 platforms, but we think that this collaboration must be two
>> way, and not just 1 and 1/4 way as it seems to be now!
>> 
>> It would be a really good starting point to share the new bootstrap3 layout
>> present in the ondemand version, so the community could have a base updated
>> layout to work on, also we could define bootstrap3 as the new STANDARD
>> official css framework for vTiger, so there will be no major problems
>> managing the fallback layouts with the purposed solution and the extensions
>> developers could simply update their extension layouts to merge the new
>> bootstrap 3 classes, with the advantage that a module developed for the
>> community edition could be made available also for the on demand version
>> following the same structure.
>> 
>> If there is a remote possibility to share the v7 layout we will start doing
>> some collaboration and warrantee our first one will be the fallback
>> solution, if no one does not do it first.
>> 
>> Kind Regards,
>> Federico Bempensato,
>> MakeYourCloud Development Team - http://www.makeyourcloud.com [1]
>> 
>> --
>> View this message in context: http://vtiger-crm.2324883.n4.nabble.com/Vtigercrm-developers-about-new-template-manager-Vtiger-6-4-tp17848p17863.html [2]
>> 
>> Sent from the vtigercrm-developers mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> http://www.vtiger.com/ [3]
> 
> _______________________________________________
> http://www.vtiger.com/ [3]

Links:
------
[1] http://www.makeyourcloud.com
[2]
http://vtiger-crm.2324883.n4.nabble.com/Vtigercrm-developers-about-new-template-manager-Vtiger-6-4-tp17848p17863.html
[3] http://www.vtiger.com/
[4] http://www.facebook.com/vtiger
[5] http://twitter.com/vtigercrm
[6] https://www.linkedin.com/company/1270573?trk=tyah
[7] https://blogs.vtiger.com
[8] https://www.vtiger.com/
[9] https://gitdeveloper.yetiforce.com/
[10] https://github.com/YetiForceCompany/YetiForceCRM/tree/developer
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