More Official add-ons

[Dadparvar]

Hi,

There are a few facts:

• Official add-ons are more trusted than 3rd party add-ons
• Normally Official add-ons are alive whenever Xenforo itself is alive.
• Official add-ons are updated as far as Xenforo is updated.
• Official add-ons are 100% supported and all their features are 100% integrated with the core.
• developers are always ready to add support of Official Add-ons to their own add-ons.
• and ...

with this being said, and with another fact that XF2 is coming with better core, there is a question here:

• Why Xenforo is not selling New Official Add-ons? (a few example add-ons)
  • Social Groups
  • Events (Calendar)
  • Shop (or better to be Marketplace, not just a simple shop)
  • Blogs
  • Portal

Its a long time since the day we didn't see any new official add-on (or better to say, any big feature)

Thanks

 

[RichardKYA]

XenForo

developers

time

is

100%

on

XF2

since

XF2 is coming

with this being said

there is

not

time

for

New Official Add-ons

I believe you answered your own question

 

[Dadparvar]

I believe you answered your own question

that was nice and funny

But let me add another facts:

• Its clear that I'm a fan of XF at this time
• and its clear that XF developers are busy to prepare XF2 for years
• But its also clear that all other forum softwares (like IPB) are also working on their new versions, but have more official add-ons
• and also this is again clear that the more official add-ons, the more ideas for 3rd party developers, then the more add-ons and featrues, and the more customers, and the more ... (which I think a few of them, if not say all of them, are XF's goal)

Anyway, I know how hardly XF's developers are working on Core and the time may not let them do more things, but again I started this thread to get some feedback. IMO, some features are must have, and by "must have" I mean "better to be official add-on" (a simple example => Calendar or Portal)

 

[Davyc]

Understandably the focus right now is honing XF2 and getting it to finished gold standard for general release. After that, there will most likely be a prolonged period of fixing bugs and tweaking the core when it goes into the wild and all those unforeseen's raise their heads. After that, it would be good for the developers to create more official add-ons and the new core should help them to simplify (not that I imply that add-ons are simple to develop) the creation process and speed up releases.

+1 for Events Calendar - I realise it's not everyone's 'must have' need fulfilment, but there are many out there that could use such an addition
+1 for Portal - something that pushes new content to the front end that can be divided into relevant sections and make use of live update to keep it fresh
+1 for a Marketplace add-on, perhaps an extension to the resource manager - there are probably loads of people out there wanting to run a shop (digital downloads as well as physical goods)

Not sure about Blogs or Social Groups, I'm sure some people would like them as official add-ons.

One you missed off the list - a decent CMS add-on.

These are all available now as third party add-ons and many are made and supported by some great developers who deserve to be supported, so there is a downside to this idea in that it would be taking their bread and butter off the table; this is the bit that I don't like, especially for those who have been 100% loyal to the platform.

Effectively this would be taking XF away from just being a forum to a suite of programs all interlinked. There is a possible solution and that would be to involve these developers who already supply these add-ons in the creation process and give them a cut. Similar to the way Chris D had his media gallery integrated into the official family of add-ons. Whether this is feasible or even viable is something best left to the business side.

Good ideas, but they need some serious thought time to iron out possible flaws and creases in the concept ideas.

 

[sami simo]

Blogs

Official add-ons are fine, they are well supported, but this comes with a price: Features are limited.
UBS is a great Blog addon, with good support, and it offers more functions than any official addon will do. just my opinion.

 

[Dadparvar]

UBS is a great Blog addon, with good support, and it offers more functions than any official addon will do. just my opinion.

This is exactly my opinion too. I think what @Bob did is something that even if a Blog official add-on comes, will not be like bob's until few years
but something like Events (or Calendar) I think should be Official (so that lots of add-ons start integrating themselves with it)

 

[Taylor J]

• But its also clear that all other forum softwares (like IPB) are also working on their new versions, but have more official add-ons

Those other forum softwares (like IPB) have also been around way longer and have had the time to make those apps. And iirc the last app Invision Power made was either pages or their commerce system which were added years ago. They also have way bigger development teams.

 

[James]

We've already seen that third-party addons are of a high standard and have every opportunity to be wrapped into the core. Chris developed his Gallery as an individual and that got taken on, and so did he. Next time XF decide to expand their team, who better to ask than developer(s) that already know their software inside and out?

My point is that you shouldn't not use an add-on because it isn't "official" or first party. Maybe next year they'll approach Bob about his Blog add-on and hire him too.

 

[TPerry]

And iirc the last app Invision Power made was either pages or their commerce system which were added years ago. They also have way bigger development teams.

And Pages got crippled from their earlier version in this latest "update" with features removed.
Their Commerce package is... well, let's just say it was refactored from what they use to sell their stuff (like their hosted IPS services) with and provide support for. Like really.. I don't think I need a hosting package to sell for my pipe site - but that's one of the hard coded options in the package and cannot be disabled. It's not like they wrote it specifically as an IPS add-on for general use. If they had of, then it would be a true commerce package and allow you to have members also set up stores and process payments through THEIR payment gateway instead of forcing everything through yours... not to mention the fact that the "store" items can only be set up via the ACP by the admin.
I have a classifieds add-on for IPS that would allow your members to sell items on there and process the payments through Commerce - but not going to do it because ALL payments (and charge-backs) would go via my payment processor(s). The only way around it is to hold the sellers funds until the period expires for charge-backs... and that would go over like a lead balloon.



People need to realize.. XenForo is primarily a forum software (and probably one of the best ones out there) that are graced with some very good 1st party add-ons. The desire for 1st party blogs, commerce package, etc. will add to the developers overhead... and who do you think pays for that? I'm sure if the market would support it, they have it planned down the road to expand, but right now with XF2 in the wings I imagine it's "all hands on deck" to get it ready. Then they have the other 1st party add-ons to work on.

One of the nice things about XenForo is the upfront and renewal prices (not to mention the great support).

 

[Alpha1]

Things that I would like to see is core features and addons that further enable/empower addon developers. The former seems to be exactly what the XenForo team is aiming for.
I do not need Xenforo to create a store addon, but I do hope for features, frameworks and helpers that will enable developers to create e-commerce/commercial addons.
I do not need XenForo to create a social groups addon, but I do hope for features, frameworks and helpers that will enable developers to create mini community addons, to mix & match content and to add group of members to content.

I do hope to see an official bug tracker and Q&A addon, simply because its so desperately needed for the xenforo.com resource manager.

 

[Robust]

I don't think XenForo should try to create so many official add-ons where the marketplace is unable to target higher risk/higher reward areas. My opinion is probably biased, though.

XF has a much smaller team than IPB. Having so many official add-ons would mean they have to expand the size of their time quite drastically.

 

[Alpha1]

XF has a much smaller team than IPB. Having so many official add-ons would mean they have to expand the size of their time quite drastically.

It goes without saying that more functionality (addons or otherwise) equals more work/manhours which equals the need for more staff.

 

[wang]

It goes without saying that more functionality (addons or otherwise) equals more work/manhours which equals the need for more staff.

I think that it is time that they did that, adding more staff. And a few additional add ons, like a blog or cms, would not hurt either. It will make xf grow and expand even more imho.

 

[JamesBrown]

UBS is a great Blog addon,

Could you point me to that? Cheers

 

[Alpha1]

Could you point me to that? Cheers

Its currently private. I assume that it will be publicly released in due time just like Article Management System (AMS), Showcase, Sportsbook, etc.

 

[JamesBrown]

Thanks I already own Showcase and SportsBook so I know where to look.