Hi There

Can't find the 2.0 Forum anymore? Where did it go?

.. and what is the status of 2.0 release? It puzzles me that 1.x branch receives a lot of code love, updates, new features, gsoc, etc. while it's very quiet around the 2.0, which is supposed to be in the pipeline.. the feature gap between 1 branch and 2.0 just seems increasing, that can't be a good thing.

Please share some honest information about what is happening.
Last time I asked, 1½ yrs ago, I was assured that 2.0 was 'alive and kicking', but it doesn't seem quite right.

Best regards
Anders

I had the same question a couple days ago, and from what it sounds like in the LiveChat IRC room, there just isn't enough human resources to produce a stable 2.0 version

It's written in CakePHP, as I understand it, and I saw the Demo (which, IMO seemed a little too ajaxy). I'd be curious to take a look at the code and see how it was designed in the MVC pattern, mainly how they defined the model.

What are your thoughts on LS2? are you a developer? designer? survey creator?

Thanks for sharing that info, timbee.

Even If it's a question of human resources, it still seems odd seeing so much effort directed at the 1x branch -- all those hours of coding, fixing, enhancing and adding functionality could have been spend on the 2.0 version.

btw.. let me say that I fully appreciate this is open source, and I acknowledge the great work by the LS team, to the benefit of all of us...

However -- whatever your priorities or strategies are, and for what reasons they are so, I think you should be frank about them, and let the community know what is _really_ going on with the 2.0.

I do code, not for a living though, and I have some ideas for ls. One thing that has been holding me back is the uncertainty about which track the project is taking.

I don't want to write anything for a soon-to-be deprecated 1-version, when a 2.0 - based on a solid framework - supposedly is in the pipeline. I suspect others feel the same. In short I think the ls team is doing LS a disfavor, halting their own project, by not informing the community what is going on.

So come on out, and share some honest insight on the issue..

Best regards
Anders

I think it's safe to say LS2 is not active,
the most recent LS2 archive (2.0-beta-1-build7935) on SourceForge is dated a little over a year ago (2009-11-20)
You should try to install it and see if it has enough features to do a basic survey. I'm going to try over the weekend hopefully.

We are currently discussing this issue at our developer meetings.

The current alternatives seem to be:

a) Find enough ressources to release a first Limesurvey 2.0 stable version and then implement features and question types step by step.
Somewhen support for 1.x will stopp then.

b) Restructure the current 1.x code and switch to a framework like CodeIgniter (www.codeigniter.com). Then also improve the outdated user interface.

Some issues to keep in mind when discussing this:
1. There are only very few human ressources to take care of Limesurvey 2.0 and only some very few developers are familiar with the code.

2. You have to get familiar with cakePHP before being able to work on 2.0.

3. Version 1.x has lots of features and is really stable. Plus there is a huge community. So why not extending that version?

4. Code of version 1.x is not very well structured, hard to maintain and doesn't use OO or other design patterns much.


Feel free to ping us from time to time to get the latest news. We will also post that on our homepage once a finakl decision was made.

When are these meetings? Can I sit it on one of them?
Perfect reason for switching to a mature framework. and the fact that 1.x code is relatively stable means there's no rush exactly.
That sounds like a good plan, get the basics working that meet 75% of peoples needs. then work on additional features for more advanced surveys.

The meeting is at Tuesday evening (for us Europeans), 20:00h GMT if I remember correctly. You can ping us some minutes before the meeting at our chat: www.limesurvey.org/en/support/live-chat

Just introduce yourself and ask if you can attend.

@mazi
Thank you for your clear answer. Much appreciated!

All points (bot pro and cons) are very valid, and I understand the dilemmas involved.

I hope you will make a wise decision.

My two cents on the matter:

The 1x branch is working, and it's backed by a bunch of capable developers who probably know every corner of that old code. Thats good.

The bad part: I think that everyone who has looked into the code will agree that its out-dated and messy. It's very hard to extend and you can't do it without changing the 'core', a nightmare to maintain between updates, as you state.


A new php-framework could spur the development of the platform and invite contributions at an whole other pace. The old code is many years behind coding best practices -- it lacks the attractions and benefits of a framework based approach .. maintainability, easy reuse of code developed elsewehere, logical structure, plugability, etc. The old code base is NOT attractive to potential new php developers and its difficult to implement new ideas.

in short: it wont last!
Imho you HAVE to shift to a framework if you want to keep LS 'alive and kicking' for the future. The old track will lead no where.

You are probably perfectly aware of the above points. In fact I think it was such reasons being stated back in the day, when 2.0 development was proposed.

So it all comes down to a question of resources and coding preferences in development team

We have seen that a decision wont work unless the team makes a collective commitment to a new framework.

I just hope that the development team as a whole would find it interesting to make the shift to a new framework, and see the personal benefits from learning the new tricks.

Thats my 2 cents. Whatever you decide, you deserve applause for the work you put into LS.

Best regards
Anders