Coppermine Forums Suggestion (Not sure where this would go!)

[Jax2]

Hey guys...

Is there any way you could have a section for mods, much like the Mods download section you have now that only has 2 files in it, for all the rest of these mods? It would make sense to have clearly defined files to download, either in .zip format for new files people will have to add, or .txt format for simple modification instructions. The current forum based mods section is so difficult to use, can't find files half the time, code is buried somewhere deep in the topic thread... it's a nightmare. What do you think?

A very good example of what I am talking about can be found here:
http://forum.coppermine-gallery.net/index.php?topic=16286.20
About watermarking.

This topic has 15 pages on it, each containing bits and pieces of code. Would it not be much simpler if you could simply download the latest WORKING version of this mod on a separate page, without having to go through and read all 15 pages, trying to figure out which is the correct code to implement? I mean, I'm not really a lazy person, but that is an awful lot of work for one mod. If there was a single text file that was up to date, download it, install the modifications, and you're done, no 2 hours to try and figure it out.

[Joachim Müller]

It would be more user-friendly, I agree. But it would require much more maintenance work from us to keep such a repository up-to-date, which is simething we simply can not do right now because of lack of time and staff members. One of the dev team members is currently working on a download repository page as a replacement for the sourceforge.net downloads page that might be confusing for beginners. We might consider offering some plugins there as well - plugins can be shipped as single files. I'm reluctant though to offer mod packages that contain modified core files, as you will have to review every single one of them when a new package is being released, which simply is too much of an effort. Additionally, there will definitely be collissions between mod packages: if mod A comes with a new displayimage.php as well as mod B, which one should the end user use? Installing mod B after having mod A already up-and-running will then break mod A. As you can see, that's a tricky thing.
That's why most major FOSS projects sooner or later had to make up their minds how they are going to handle mods. Our decision/goal is obvious: use plugins (additional files that use Coppermine's plugin API and don't require end users to modify core files). So if you want to contribute something to the community, why not consider converting a mod into a plugin?

So please don't be mad at me - your suggestion is in itself valid and understandable. However, I'm marking your thread as "turned down". Everyone is welcome to prove me wrong and offer help maintaining such a repository.

Bottom line: point taken, but turned down due to lack of time. If there was a group of volunteers (a mods team) that would like to take care of such a section in the long run, I'm all ears.
As long as we don't have a mods team (minimum 2 persons) who have in-detail knowledge of coppermine, the only thing that we're going to offer in the near future will be a download repository for plugins, but not one for mods.

Joachim

[Jax2]

Been a while since I've been on here, but just wanted to let you know I understand what you're talking about and am not "mad"

Still love the program and hope to see many more updates and improvements.

Best Wishes,

Jax2