Community Builder 2.0 Next Generaton announcment

Why BS v3 ?

Because it's significantly better and is being maintained.

You are not using J! core JUI files?

Joomla is using Bootstrap 2, which is end-of-life and not being maintained by core Bootstrap team anymore. It is lacking a lot of great features that Bootstrap 3 offers.

(I am aware of the BS3 grid advantages and icon fonts. But the latter could be achieved in many other ways. i.e. the J! build-in icomoon font)

We don't use Joomla icons either. We use fontawesome which is a lot better than icomoon.

My concern: I guess you are going to add your own BS3 files… and many other extensions incl. the main template are going to load JUI files. Overhead and CSS glitches? Not to mention, some other developers like Stackideas and also Joomlart add there own BS v3 as well?! What a mess, IMHO.

Our Bootstrap 3 and Fontawesome are both namespaced with .cb_template. They will only style CB. In addition to this global parameters are being added to shut off our loading of Bootstrap 3 and/or Fontawesome. What this means is if you've something else loading Bootstrap 3 you can turn off CBs and CB will style just fine, because we are using Bootstrap 3 markup correctly.

Just want to update everyone on what's going on. We're currently working on the Edit pages and replacing them entirely in XML. However, in order to do this we need new custom parameter types to handle some of the usages. One of these new usages is called "repeat". What it does is dynamically repeat a set of inputs so they can be incremented and re-ordered as much as we like. Many of you maybe familiar with this usage in CB Auto Actions, however it being a part of the XML library and generalized means we'll be able to make significantly more use of it throughout CB. Below is a screenshot of current progress.



Note for the future of CB we eventually want to use the XML engine not just for backend, but also for frontend too. Meaning any new features we add to the XML engine will eventually benefit all of CB.

if i may: you dont need just a core improvement, your major need for making a competitive component is:
- a front end entirely "rethinked";
- more interaction beetween users
- better graphic (icons is just a little thing, and i'm afraid of your frontend improvement is about just those little thing, like grid list and square avatar, i really hope i'm wrong)
- avoid every awful js alert() and use a flexible and scalable notification system
- the registration form should be an entity APART: the developers may needs a fields order in registration and a DIFFERENT one in profile page
- an integrated Event system
- the possibility of find users with similar interest (in other words: a Tag system)
- you need an ajax serious integration, for little operations like change photogallery page or add connection button, and so many others, you NEED ajax.
- CB activity is kinda useless for a serious usage: if a user upload 3 photos or edit his profile twice in a row, those records should be merged and well formatted..as every other social component does

this is just a few things..

I think that good code will make a good product so welcome XML both in front and back-end.
But I am also agree with "thewebsurfer" about a better UI and UX and completly agree about registration process.

I also completly agree the thewebsurfert...

If you look at facebook historie then: usability hits function => the success from facebook was speed and easy/slim layout. Other system (friendster for example had more functions...)

Thanks for reminding the main feature of CB 2.0, which is new design and ease of use in the front-end (new UX and new UI).

While we are working on very flexible functionality and engine implementation, which was the focus of Kyle's short update, we are also working on user-experience, design and ease of use. We are boosting further all those aspects in each beta, while keeping upgrading as easy as immaginable.

We will be addressing the great suggestions in details in a separate answer and provide a more complete update together with the next beta 3.