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When should code be in mods vs main code base? Type of page »  Developers documentation

To Mods Or Not To Mods

To Mods Or Not To Mods

Please help improve this page with factors for/against have certain code in mods.

Overview

As of end of 2017 / early 2018 the new Feature Packages was implemented in Tiki and the mods feature is finally getting to be retired. Thus this page is mainly staying for historic reasons.


Please follow up here for the packages feature:


Here a number of links regarding the story behind Mods:



In systems like Drupal or Joomla!, most of the available functionality is available through 3rd party modules, extensions, etc (different systems have different names). You need to install separately. In TikiWiki, it's the opposite. Most of the functionality is built-in and you decide to activate or not. Both approaches have their pros & cons. You can read more about the Tiki Model and http://pluginproblems.com/

As with many things, it's not always black & white. There are many shades of gray. The criteria below is intended as a guide to help developers decide is something should be "core" or "mods". Please improve/debate these!

License

If code is not compatible with LGPL (see:LibLicense), ask for relicense/dual license. If not, goto Mods.

Usage/popularity

Popular stuff should be in main code base. Very specific things in mods.

Size/complexity of code

Large external libs? Do we really want to add several more megs to the package?
But if it's a few dozen lines of code, is it really worth the overhead of the mods installer?

Stability / Is it maintained?

  • If a feature is not yet ready, mods can be a good place to experiment. Once it goes into core, people expect that there will be a clean upgrade path (You can also put in core, and tag as experimental). See next point about DB.
  • If a feature is buggy, it can better in mods. However, features tend to improve if they are used and people report bugs, contribute fixes, etc.
  • If a feature is being phased out, mods can be a place so it's still available to the very small number of people that still need it. Once people have data in a feature however, it's very difficult to phase out. See next point about DB.

Does it involve affecting the database?

Does your code make many changes to data in core db tables? This could be a sign (though not necessarily) that it should be part of core rather than mods. Icon packs, themes and most wiki-plugins don't affect the database. So mods is OK.

Level of version dependency

Please see Dependency hell. If code will work for sure in 1.9.x and 2.x, or so long as it is clear that you depend on a certain version, Mods is fine.

Reliance on 3rd party code, available to shared hosting

Something which depends on a piece of software which is typically not found on shared hosting should generally go to mods.

Translation

Things in mods tend not to get translated.

Security

If something can be potentially unsafe, better to send to mods.


So, again, there is no black or white. Just use common sense and consult with others. Some things like Tiki Maps depend on Mapserver, which is not available on shared hosting. On the other hand, it is maintained by Franck and he prefers it be in the core. So Tiki Maps is part of the core. Also mods did not exist when Tiki Maps was created so it may move in mods eventually.

Keywords

The following is a list of keywords that should serve as hubs for navigation within the Tiki development and should correspond to documentation keywords.

Each feature in Tiki has a wiki page which regroups all the bugs, requests for enhancements, etc. It is somewhat a form of wiki-based project management. You can also express your interest in a feature by adding it to your profile. You can also try out the Dynamic filter.

Accessibility (WAI & 508)
Accounting
Administration
Ajax
Articles & Submissions
Backlinks
Banner
Batch
BigBlueButton audio/video/chat/screensharing
Blog
Bookmark
Browser Compatibility
Calendar
Category
Chat
Comment
Communication Center
Consistency
Contacts Address book
Contact us
Content template
Contribution
Cookie
Copyright
Credits
Custom Home (and Group Home Page)
Database MySQL - MyISAM
Database MySQL - InnoDB
Date and Time
Debugger Console
Diagram
Directory (of hyperlinks)
Documentation link from Tiki to doc.tiki.org (Help System)
Docs
DogFood
Draw -superseded by Diagram
Dynamic Content
Preferences
Dynamic Variable
External Authentication
FAQ
Featured links
Feeds (RSS)
File Gallery
Forum
Friendship Network (Community)
Gantt
Group
Groupmail
Help
History
Hotword
HTML Page
i18n (Multilingual, l10n, Babelfish)
Image Gallery
Import-Export
Install
Integrator
Interoperability
Inter-User Messages
InterTiki
jQuery
Kaltura video management
Kanban
Karma
Live Support
Logs (system & action)
Lost edit protection
Mail-in
Map
Menu
Meta Tag
Missing features
Visual Mapping
Mobile
Mods
Modules
MultiTiki
MyTiki
Newsletter
Notepad
OS independence (Non-Linux, Windows/IIS, Mac, BSD)
Organic Groups (Self-managed Teams)
Packages
Payment
PDF
Performance Speed / Load / Compression / Cache
Permission
Poll
Profiles
Quiz
Rating
Realname
Report
Revision Approval
Scheduler
Score
Search engine optimization (SEO)
Search
Security
Semantic links
Share
Shopping Cart
Shoutbox
Site Identity
Slideshow
Smarty Template
Social Networking
Spam protection (Anti-bot CATPCHA)
Spellcheck
Spreadsheet
Staging and Approval
Stats
Survey
Syntax Highlighter (Codemirror)
Tablesorter
Tags
Task
Tell a Friend
Terms and Conditions
Theme
TikiTests
Federated Timesheets
Token Access
Toolbar (Quicktags)
Tours
Trackers
TRIM
User Administration
User Files
User Menu
Watch
Webmail and Groupmail
WebServices
Wiki History, page rename, etc
Wiki plugins extends basic syntax
Wiki syntax text area, parser, etc
Wiki structure (book and table of content)
Workspace and perspectives
WYSIWTSN
WYSIWYCA
WYSIWYG
XMLRPC
XMPP




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