Noobish questions by a newbie.

[underk]

Hi guys! I got some questions!

How can I be added to a project? For example the french translation of the core seems outdated(not sure if these guys are still around), so I would like to contribute and create a github for it.

On the same subject, how do I translate a project and share it "the correct way" with the community? I don't know either where to find those translations.

When a release breaks the API, how much time the old version will be supported(security fixes)?

And I wonder if this CMS would fitt for my bigger projects: Is this "safe" to use this CMS for websites needing to last 4+ years, without having to do an extreme rework of the site to continue using it(e.g: major version breaks "all the things", must recode half of your code and pray for other modules to be stable before your version becomes unsupported *cough*drupal*cough*)? I understand the needed to evolve, but I prefer it in a way less radical(like using deprecation or any way making it less painful).

Last thing: I'm impressed by this friendly community, it really makes me want to use this CMS!

(oh and by the way: "The IP.Chat room limit has been reached. You will not be able to join the chat room until some users first leave.", I think it would be nicer to use the freenode webchat instead )

thank's for your time!

[teppo]

How can I be added to a project? For example the french translation of the core seems outdated(not sure if these guys are still around), so I would like to contribute and create a github for it.

Try contacting those who made current version via related forum thread, http://processwire.com/talk/topic/926-french-fr-fr/. If they're no longer around, you could always release your own version anyway.

On the same subject, how do I translate a project and share it "the correct way" with the community? I don't know either where to find those translations.

Translations can be found from modules directory, see http://modules.processwire.com/categories/language-pack/. If there's an outdated version there, you'd have to either find the original author or ask Ryan for help with this.

When a release breaks the API, how much time the old version will be supported(security fixes)?

I'm afraid that this is really a question to Ryan, but as a partial answer: so far I can't remember hearing of any security issues with PW, so there's not much data to base this on, but I would expect all affected (and still available via GitHub etc.) versions to be fixed if one was actually found. If not by Ryan himself, then definitely by someone else around here.

And I wonder if this CMS would fitt for my bigger projects: Is this "safe" to use this CMS for websites needing to last 4+ years, without having to do an extreme rework of the site to continue using it(e.g: major version breaks "all the things", must recode half of your code and pray for other modules to be stable before your version becomes unsupported *cough*drupal*cough*)? I understand the needed to evolve, but I prefer it in a way less radical(like using deprecation or any way making it less painful).

We're rebuilding some sites with PW that were originally built almost a decade ago.. so I would definitely answer "yes" here. In our case 4-5 year lifespan is very common and I honestly wouldn't have even considered PW if I thought that was a problem.

Minor versions (as in 2.1, 2.2, 2.3) tend to be pretty big updates for PW, though I don't think any of them has really broken anything big time -- I've updated sites successfully from 2.1 => 2.2 => 2.3 without having to rewrite any code at all. Ryan has definitely made these updates pretty painless, trust me (just take a look at this thread, where version 2.4 compatibility with 3rd party modules was discussed.)

On the other hand I would still recommend taking the approach of only updating sites between those if there's a need for it. It would be nice to always have all your client sites (especially if you're hosting those yourself, like we are) at the same (and latest) version, but honestly speaking that's not always meaningful. If there's something in the next minor version you really need, then by all means update.

There have been proper update instructions for these jumps that you really should read first, though switching from 2.2 to 2.3 pretty much only meant replacing core files with new ones and so on. Updating from 2.0/2.1 to 2.2 was a bit more complex, I believe, as 2.2 introduced whole language support system - we probably won't get that kind of stuff all the time..

Keep in mind that PW is nothing like WP, where unattended site becomes a black hole of security issues in a few months. As I mentioned before, I haven't heard of a single, fatal security flaw so far and I've been around for a while.

Last thing: I'm impressed by this friendly community, it really makes me want to use this CMS!

(oh and by the way: "The IP.Chat room limit has been reached. You will not be able to join the chat room until some users first leave.", I think it would be nicer to use the freenode webchat instead )

Oh but we do: http://processwire.com/talk/topic/1109-processwire-irc-channel/

thank's for your time!

No problem - and welcome to the forum!

[underk]

Hi, thank's a bunch for your nice answer!

Translations can be found from modules directory, see http://modules.proce.../language-pack/. If there's an outdated version there, you'd have to either find the original author or ask Ryan for help with this.

As I don't see any module translation I guess then all translations(core + community modules) goes into one topic(e.g: http://processwire.com/talk/topic/926-french-fr-fr/)? All into one github project?

Keep in mind that PW is nothing like WP, where unattended site becomes a black hole of security issues in a few months.

ahhh well, I guess I passed too much time worrying about my sites getting hacked with drupal/wp.

I find it nice how we handle the switch from mysqli -> PDO, it's reassuring. I guess breaking some little things in 2.x versions will make PW3 less hard to upgrade to(at least I hope ).

Oh but we do: http://processwire.c...re-irc-channel/

I think this need to be the default, it would be nice to be more than 5 .

thank's for your warm welcome and the time you took for answering me!

[ryan]

How can I be added to a project? For example the french translation of the core seems outdated(not sure if these guys are still around), so I would like to contribute and create a github for it.

I would go ahead and create your new translation and post it as a follow-up reply to the existing one. If there's no response from the original authors (like pulling updates into the existing one) then we could just make your new version the current version linked by the directory. 

When a release breaks the API, how much time the old version will be supported(security fixes)?

We don't usually break the API with new releases, though did have to in the 2.0 to 2.1 release. It may also happen in the 2.4 to 2.5 release when we switch to namespaces. There isn't any end-date to support of past versions. If some security issue turns up, It'll go into all current versions that we offer as downloads. For past versions that don't have active development branches, we would provide a file replacement or patch. To date, there have not been any security issues, so it's never been up to test. But it's always good to have a plan. 

And I wonder if this CMS would fitt for my bigger projects: Is this "safe" to use this CMS for websites needing to last 4+ years, without having to do an extreme rework of the site to continue using it(e.g: major version breaks "all the things", must recode half of your code and pray for other modules to be stable before your version becomes unsupported *cough*drupal*cough*)? I understand the needed to evolve, but I prefer it in a way less radical(like using deprecation or any way making it less painful).

We are very shy about changes that break things, so would version the API if behavior of some core functions changed from version to version. This is one reason why I think PW is a good/safe long term solution.

The problem that I've run into with WordPress and Drupal is that I can't leave old versions of them running because the site is only as secure as it is up-to-date. Old version of WordPress/Drupal = insecure (not to mention the plugins). An installation of one of these products becomes a permanent relationship with the client as you have to continually keep it up-to-date, in the same way you have to keep filling up your car with gas or it stops running. This is not the case with ProcessWire. I still have 7+ year old versions of ProcessWire (aka Dictator CMS and PW1) running sites perfectly fine. I could upgrade them, but there isn't really any need to unless the client needs some new feature present in a newer version of ProcessWire. Being able to install a software and trust that it's going to keep running on it's own for a decade or more, without my intervention, is worth a lot. 

[underk]

oh wow it's a complete new world for me then, 7+ years with the other CMS I used is just impossible without constant updates and/or many code rewrite. I guess I can now stop being paranoiac and understand that I can let an older version run without being hacked ^^.

I guess this is a benefit of PW being a "little" (active) community compared to the big CMS wich are targeted all the time.

Well then, this is exactly the CMS I need for all my project , I wish having found it before! The more I learn about it, the more I like it.

Thank's for your answer, it's nice that you are very active in your forum .

I would like to "mark solved" the topic with the two answer I got but I guess I can't, thank's to both of you!