UPDATES 2019!

[shawn_a]

Ok I keep saying this, but its been like 3 years and I have had a hard time getting progress done here, and there last 2(years) have hit me really hard in RL, some sudden medical issues and some new hobbies ( I do electronics engineering now )

I am looking to get 3.4 out the door soon, so that means an actual beta and release candidate, If you use it POST to the forums please and let me know your success!

regarding legacy plugins, I will make a github repo of all plugins and let users maintain patches for them for compatibility with php 7 and gs 3.4, making them subrepos will be too much work , so probably just one big repo.

Please provide a list of plugins that should be added, known issues and fixes private patches etc, and if you want to help!

We also clearly need some site maintenence, so volunteers for site rework and extend rewrite welcome, I am tempted to ditch it and create a package manager only ?

Best luck to all of you in this new YEAR

[sremick]

Thanks for all your hard work. Here are the plugins that I use:

Bootstrap3 Theme Settings
DY Obfuscator
I18N Gallery
News Manager (updated)

[craiga]

Hi Shawn, I and everyone who uses GS on a regular basis really appreciates all the work and effort you and the others put into such a great CMS. I am happy to download the beta version and start testing and provide any relevant feedback.

The plugins I use regularly are:

i18n for breadcrumbs, search, news articles, gallery
Hit count
Multiuser

Hope that helps

Craiga

[flynn]

Hi Shawn,

It is nice to hear news about GS and you again.

I love this CMS, even though I have the feeling that the community has become very reserved :-(

GS is still one of the greatest CMS ever.

I'll download the beta and have a look.

Thank you Shawn, for your tireless effort and dedication.

[Everyone]

Shawn, to date GS is the only CMS that is both truly lightweight and with additional plugins covers every my need and needs of people who I sometimes do webpages for.

As much as I'd like to help with development and site refresh, It's impossible for me to do this right now with my current time constraints.

What do you mean by 'legacy plugins'? I know that some plugins are still actively maintained. If I were to point out at legacy stuff, that probably would be anything i18n from mvlcek, as there are many PHP7 compatibility issues with those plugins, and I think we could safely say these are a must-have. There's also the Custom Menu plugin by Laurence Okoth-Odida, which used to be available in addons, but is not anymore. I still have the sources, but a permission would be required, I guess.

If you're looking for development help, then maybe this guy could do it? He was willing to, after all.

[shawn_a]

There are plenty of legacy that are abandoned, p1contact, multiuser, item manager etc

[datiswous]

There's also the Custom Menu plugin by Laurence Okoth-Odida, which used to be available in addons, but is not anymore. I still have the sources, but a permission would be required, I guess.

You can actually find it on Github (with a mit license):
https://github.com/lokothodida/gs-custom-menu

You can actually find a bunch of other plugins he made there (including some I didn't know exist, like the Elfinder file manager plugin - which actually works mostly). I guess he doesn't support them so that's why he removed them from Extend.

There are plenty of legacy that are abandoned, p1contact, multiuser, item manager etc

There's a newer updated version of Item Manager from Bigin.

[Carlos]

p01-contact has not been abandoned AFAIK.

[Tyblitz]

@shawn_a,

If you have a look at the metalsmith.io (small static site generator) homepage plugins section, this browsable plugin listing is simply a JSON file to which plugin devs can create PR's. As inspiration for future Extend repo.

Time to revive this thread.
Also I thought I saw a Slack channel mentioned somewhere...

[shawn_a]

Cool ill check it out, discord not slack

[Didier9]

Thank you again for such a nice CMS at the right price...

Here are the plugins I am using and could not do without:

Addsense Enabler
DynPages

They have not been customized.

I also have "Send Anonymous Data" installed, not sure if it's working, I hope so...

I am using a couple more but those I could do without and will probably ditch them when I migrate my site to the new server.

[Wolfgang]

Dear Shawn,

I just spend a couple of days testing almost every CMS in the world to import some html5-templates, one-pagers. It only worked out really easy in GS!

Some years ago I made some websites with GS, and now I thought that the project is not developed anymore. Please don't give it up! It's still one of the lightest CMS and there are so many plugins, everything runs smooth. Even for a non-professional. And there is a solution for every problem.

If I may give one suggestion: The design of the backend and the homepage look already a little bit oldfashioned, not very lifely. But don't worry, no work, half is already done: Today I found the Light Admin Theme, and it's so beautiful and modern! Why don't make it the default admin theme?

Thany you for all the time and efforts you are doing, and all the members too. It's highly appreciated! (Would even pay for this CMS ;-)

Take care!

Wolfgang

[Wolfgang]

During my research for the "Best CMS" I noticed a few things:

- If the first impression of the website is not good (too slow, old layout, bad user-experience) you will not give a second chance.

- If you don't see what are the strenghts and differences to other solutions (USP), it's just like any other.

- If a CMS is not on the reviews and lists like "Best CMS 2019" it's difficult to find it.

At the end my favourite was Pagekit. It has a modern, clean website and backend. It failed only because of difficult file structure and there is no possibility to have more layouts in one theme. Some pros: Installation of themes and extensions from the backend (you only see what fits to your version); very sorted "marketplace" (why not charge for some high quality add-ons?)

One thing would also make a difference: To pack some recommended plugins together with the core, so that after installation you already have a ready system.



I really would like to see GS again on a higher position, according to it's worth and value!

[Carlos]

A list of the best flat file CMS: https://www.cmscritic.com/flat-file-cms/ - GS among them

[Felix]

A list of the best flat file CMS: https://www.cmscritic.com/flat-file-cms/ - GS among them

I went full circle and tried all of them. GS makes most sense in backend and freedom to use your own php.

[kylebuttress]

Get Simple is my goto for a fast simple and easy to use CMS. Plus it has a heap of themes and plugins, as a bonus the plugins are pretty easy to build and deploy. This is the win win win for me.

[hameau]

Hello Shawn,

I'll +1 to everyone else who finds GS just great. Lovely to work with and easy to support website owners.

These are the plugins that I use:

• user-management
  
• i18n_base
  
• i18n_navigation
  
• i18n_search
  
• i18n_gallery
  
• i18n_specialpages
  
• i18n_customfields
  
• faq
  
• dynpages
  
• pageoptions_auto_open
  
• SpecialPagesExtras
  
• plugin_reorder (essential for SpecialPagesExtras on my hosting)
  
• Imagizer
  
• GSMaintenance
  
• debug
  

I also use Mike Challis's Fast Secure Contact Form (GPL v2), which has now been abandoned by its author, but has some great features (multiple forms, file upload, ...).

[shawn_a]

Thanks hameau!

[acenda]

For me GS has been the number 1 CMS over a few years. 90% websites I create with GS. Just a few WordPress (which is like cutting chicken with chainsaw, as the saying goes).

Yes, the gs-website is not on 2019 standards. Sometimes it's hard to find the needed plugin from the site. Admin-portal looks a bit oldish.

BUT..

It's so simple that my 71 years old dad can use this. Installation is easy. Easy theme creation helps me create pages from designers point of view. Every customer I've made sites with GS has been more than thankful. Even local University's PhD project manager who was frustrated with WordPress.

In my opinion GS is worth keeping alive. Of course I understand that you people do it more or less for free.

Here is some plugins I use frequently. With a few comments:
Multiuser (should be inside gs in the future)
News Manager updated (Great plugin, but little problems with post pictures and social media. Made it work, but picture should be invisible in posts and post list. Only visible in social media og:image)
Events (this is really great plugin, but I had to correct a few things)
Responsive filemanager (I use this all the time. Should be inside GS in the future)
Simplecatalog (Simple and great)
i18N
i18N search
i18N Gallery

[Carlos]

News Manager updated (Great plugin, but little problems with post pictures and social media. Made it work, but picture should be invisible in posts and post list. Only visible in social media og:image)

See here

[multicolor]

Yes, the gs-website is not on 2019 standards. Sometimes it's hard to find the needed plugin from the site. Admin-portal looks a bit oldish.

Always you can use many admin plugins, change layout admin like my plugin or Modern Admin from ChompDigital ,or simple blue from S60Team and more This is no problem in 2019 I think "oldish" design like you name , makes easier for senior.

[Felix]

Yes, the gs-website is not on 2019 standards.

That is just a general statement.  What do you mean by 2019 standards ? PHP7 ?? Please be more specific.

Sometimes it's hard to find the needed plugin from the site.

All the most needed plugins are available:

multi language
custom templates
custom fields
custom components
custom pages
dynamic pages

Contrary to so many "popular" cms systems out there, GS was specifically made to get out of your way
and let you work your way  instead of working a cms system way based on rules. (and hit the walls)

Anything that "would be missing" is already out there as a library, or you simply code your own php or plugin.

I smell an out of the box

[Tyblitz]

@Felix, "The GS website is not on 2019 standard", acenda hinted at 2 specific examples:

It's hard to find the needed plugin from the site. Admin-portal looks a bit oldish.

shawn_a has himself mentioned the GS Add-ons repo is unsafe and needs to be replaced.
The search doesn't work as expected, rating system is not useful (no quality indicator).
I worked on an update to GS Plugin Installer together with HelgeSverre over a month ago, but there's a bug that hasn't been fixed in weeks preventing him from uploading the new version here.

Many of the most popular plugins are outdated (including my own), have security flaws, are unmaintained & incompatible with recent Apache/PHP versions, and many more will become incompatible when GS3.4 is released.

The thing that GS got great (back when responsive websites weren't a thing) is the intuitive UI and the simple page-nav/components/theme model. If you look at the Github issues now, you'll see 42 unresolved bugs, from which 20 are security flaws. shawn_a (and Chris Cagle, founder of GS) have simply moved on to other interests and there's no one with enough time on his/her hands to actively develop it.

TBH at this point I think a complete rewrite would be in order, keeping just the UI, and rebuilding all that unsafe PHP-mixed-with-HTML on a CodeIgniter shell with a templating language (eg. Twig, Handlebars), and also dropping support for PHP5.4-.

[Bigin]

TBH at this point I think a complete rewrite would be in order, keeping just the UI, and rebuilding all that unsafe PHP-mixed-with-HTML on a CodeIgniter shell with a templating language (eg. Twig, Handlebars), and also dropping support for PHP5.4-.

There's no need to rewrite anything, there are already thousands of other wonderfully realized projects waiting to be discovered - and I don't mean an old, poorly implemented crock like WordPress, no - you should just open your eyes and be ready to try something new. But those who have been using the same CMS or plugins for years (because they are convinced that there is nothing better) will scratch their eggs for another ten years and will not discover anything new anyway. That's my opinion ;-)

[Felix]

Correct me if I am wrong here

GS 3.3.15

1) has not been hacked before
2) is compatible with PHP 7.x
3) all mvlcek's plugins are working correctly

Please confirm