I've been looking at JFusion some more

Anniemee

I installed it on my site. With Joomla. I'm not actually using Joomla, I'm just using it to connect some of the "pieces" of software on my site.

JFusion is a very high tech extension. I think it's more significant than Joomla, which is just another CMS and I had such a rotten time with the installation that I would have trashed it, if not for the fact that I wanted JFusion. JFusion is very unique, I've never heard of anything like it out there for us to work with. There's a zillion CMS systems but only one JFusion.

JFusion imports, merges, syncs users in multiple databases and it creates a Universal User, so when a user logs in to one module, the user is automatically logged into all modules in the JFusion framework.

Like I said, I don't have to use Joomla. JFusion works with plugins or componenets, inside or outside of Joomla, to coordinate everything with a "Master" database. And the master doesn't even have to be Joomla, either. I chose my forum as the master.

JFusion includes a folder with MODEL files, from which developers can very easily configure a JFusion plugin. Here's the one page instructions on how to do it:
http://www.jfusion.org/index.php/docs/doku.php?id=dev:intro

The files are in the JFusion download.

No, I'm not a member of the JFusion team. I just REALLY want to INTEGRATE my site, and I really don't want to give up ZenPhoto just because it doesn't integrate with anything. That I know of.

With this ONE plug-in, that's already basically set up for you, then ZenPhoto could integrate with a whole lot of things. So I'm really hoping that JFusion will inspire the developers here at ZenPhoto.

acrylian

If you get a "bridge" zenphoto-joomla or something more general working we will gladly add that to our extensions page.

Anniemee

I am not a programmer. I am a cut-and-paster. If developers understand what this JFusion is, I think they will be excited at what they can do with JFusion to expand the range for their own programs. This program is worth thousands of dollars. I used to sell something like this, to businesses, and it wasn't as good. JFusion is open source and it's very well designed. Let your imagination work with it a bit. The possibilities are very interesting.

sbillard

I am sure that JFusion is a very nice tool and that Joomla is an excellent CMS. However you should recognize that there are hundreds (maybe) of CMS out there. There is no way that the developers will attempt to integrate them all.

We welcome the developers and users of those systems to provide integration with Zenphoto. We gladly work with them to make this possible (note the Wordpress integration solutions our users have supplied.)

But our efforts will concentrate on our Zenpage CMS. Certainly it is not so featured and sophisticated as these others, but that is our intent. I hope you will understand the limits of our time and resources.

Anniemee

I don't like Joomla much at all. Not from what I've seen so far. I understand how it works, but it's tedious and slow and a bit convaluted. I'm mostly interested in JFusion because it's unique, and it does amazing things. It's possible to use JFusion and Joomla in the background and not even have them visible on your site.

One thing I admire about the development team here at ZenPhoto: you do seem to have a very clear idea of what you're about and you're sticking with the plan. And that is probably why ZenPhoto is so amazingly good. This is one of the best open source programs I've seen.

You're not mingling a lot with the open source community (from what I can tell), so in some ways ZenPhoto seems a little isolated. But because you have kept your focus, you have a superior product.

I think there will be bridges and extensions eventually: people will come to you, because ZenPhoto is worth it. I looked around at some other programs but I like ZenPhoto too much to use anything else.

Sadr

Thanks for your support Anniemee. Due to my absence for the past 4 months most efforts of 'outreach' from JFusion's side has staggered somewhat as the team just focused intensely on internal development meanwhile. I'm back now though, and eager to resume some of (what I hope to become more than-) my half-hearted attempts at getting more attention from other competent developers.

For the sake of coherency, I will resume "negotiations" in this thread and drop my old one:
http://www.zenphoto.org/support/topic.php?id=4522

We have heard other similar stories of people choosing to go with Joomla! merely because of JFusion, in spite of not really being a big fan of the CMS in question. I feel compelled to put in a good word for Joomla! here, but I will be brief: I've followed probably hundreds of open source projects in my time. Some have faltered, others have prevailed. I have found that in the end it is an open source software's community and supportive network (business relations, on-site promotion, world-wide adoption etc.) which ultimately decides whether or not the project lives on as a viable competitor in the free market or not. Joomla! might not be offering exactly what you're looking for in a CMS right now, but if you get involved and engaged I think you'll find that a lot of what you're looking for is already up there among the other 'to-dos', and what's missing will be happily received and seriously considered. Don't forget that the developers made an effort not to immediately deviate too much from the Mambo framework they forked out from so as to make the transition for everyone go a lot smoother.

That said (puh!), I will not be answering any more complaints on Joomla's behalf in this thread. JFusion is first and foremost for those who hold Joomla as one of their favorite CMS, and maybe secondly for those looking for the most complete multi-bridge solution available to date, even though this means using a CMS you might not be a fan of, and even though we always intended this for use WITH Joomla, not for use with any software you'd like plus the forced use of Joomla.

@acrylian & sbillard: Considering your efforts with Zenpage (which I think is a GREAT project btw! Not everyone needs a CMS behemot like Joomla) I won't expect much interest from ZP developers to get engaged in plug-in development for JFusion. I still hope you won't mind me speaking our cause here though as there's always the chance we'll find a certain someone in the midsts of your community who just happens to also be a Joomla adept. If you think you might have any useful information for me to pursue, please don't hold back.

I'll be around!
~ Erlend Heggen, JFusion PR Manager

sbillard

Hope you find someone with interest in doing this integration. And, as I have said above, the developers will be glad to answer questions--suggest approaches whenever someone asks.

fanno

I am just doing some searching on the web to see what's said about jfusion .

I am a dev from jfusion and I have created a "universal" plugin that in theory can sync with any database driven user system out there (depending on the database struct).

I am sure you understand that I cant test this plugin on every software out there, so my question is if one of you guys will be so kind to post db struct of user table and group table (if there is one)

this plugin has already been used on copper-mine and word-press with great success so it would be fun for me to see if it could be used here also.

-Thanks
Fanno from jfusion dev team

acrylian

We have the `administrators` table that is linked via the `admintoalbums` table to the albums allowed to be administered by the users or user group. You also might have to look at the `zp-core/lib-auth.php` file that handles authentification.

sbillard

The lib-auth.php has a good description of the database fields of the administrator table. It is also a replaceable unit so that so Zenphoto can use other scripts authentication sets. Of course you have to supply the replacement script and it must support all the functions and object methods defined.