Tiki Packages vs built-in
Starting in Tiki18, there is a new option for Tiki dependencies: Packages. Given this new option, what are the criteria to pick one over the other?
There is a tiny overhead for site admins and developers to use Packages. But it's so tiny that it should not be factored in the choice.
Reason to use Packages
- To get around license issues
- Use up a lot of disk space (like mPDF)
- Dependendies that have other dependencies (including apps or utilities that may not be in PHP)
- Niche use cases
- SAML and also because it requires Mcrypt, but this dependency will be removed in next major version of php-saml
- Dependency on something that is not commonly available on shared hosting
Reasons to have it built-in
- Small
- Appropriate license
- Commonly used
- Used by many other libs
- Works on all hosts (ex.: just PHP)