Hi all,
I just downloaded JForum 3 from the SVN-repository and have to say that was quite disappointed to look at the code as I expected something more Springish than the current codebase and architecture. It seems that this is more a VRaptor application with Spring based bean-configuration / instantiation. As there is quite little documentation, what would be the best place to start to look and understand design behind JForums?
Why was I disappointed?
Well I have some experience with the Spring framework ecosystem and therefore feel very comfortable taking in use software that is written with same components,
patterns and idioms as others in Spring ecosystem are. It makes my experience smoothier and gives me confidence, since I can quite quickly grasp what is going on in the software and make informed decisions about it. When these traditions are broken or changed, it takes more effort to invest time and cognitive energy to go through the source code and be sure that I really get it.
In any case the code look easy to read and clear - and with little effort it seems to open a bit by bit, even though I would like to have a grand scale picture in my head first, when I start to read the software. That is actually the reason why I do love Spring framework and it's conventions. They really make it easier to get the overall picture of the software, and through the cofnfigurations you get a very explicit understanding on how things are wired. This goes also for Spring MVC and WebFlow.
JForum 3 looks promising, but as the information about the development progress, timetables and releases is very scarce - I will most likely either implement forums with Jforum 2 or PhpBB. As the team is really small, I understand why communication and writing something else than code is not a priority, but at the same time it makes Jforum-project less approachable and makes potential developers also wonder whether they should invest in the project or not. I'll have to still give a better look to version 2 and then compare it to phpbb version 3, before I make my decisions.
All and all I wish all the best and good luck to the team for finishing the project and keeping up with the development.
[originally posted on jforum.net by huima]