What is Happening with Chameleon?

[david63]

The question has to be asked - what is happening with Chameleon? I would ask it of "Team" members only they do not respond.

Chameleon was/is intended to be the flagship feature of phpBB 4 but appears to have stalled.

This whole process has been underway for over four years now (the first post about it was in February 2018 - viewtopic.php?f=691&t=2485796) and there is still no sign whatsoever of this ever coming to fruition, certainly not in the foreseeable future. Not only has the framework not progressed for several months (https://github.com/hanakin/base-l which incidentally was started six years ago), apart from some minor tweaks and tests, there is no sign of anyone actually creating a new style based on this framework, nor any of the other work that will be required, such as re-writing all of the .js, moving away from jQuery to whatever other library is decided upon, re-factoring phpBB's core code to remove all html - all of which will have an impact on extensions, but it appears that does not even enter the equation at all.

In the time it has taken to get here (wherever here is) the existing css frameworks could have been evaluated, a compromised reached and the style could be almost, if not, finished by now.

Now I know that the argument against using any of the existing frameworks is that none of them suit phpBB's current requirements and they contain too much bloat. I find it somewhat strange that these existing css frameworks are suitable for a multitude of sites/applications but not for phpBB! Also is anyone saying that Symfony, Twig, Doctrine, jQuery and other libraries do not contain bloat yet phpBB is using them?

I can also recall (but cannot locate it) a post some years ago saying that phpBB should in future use existing frameworks that are maintained by others and allow the phpBB Development Team to concentrate on developing phpBB - which leads to the question as to who will maintain this "custom" css framework going forward?

What started out as possibly a good idea (even though it was all about one man's ambitions) has turned into a joke that has now become a farce. There is no way that if this was a commercial operation that such a situation would be allowed to develop and yes I know about the "we are all volunteers and do it in our spare time" argument, but that is even more of a reason to not have even started going down this route.

I am just wondering where this project is going and when/if it may ever see the light of day.

[danieltj]

I have no insider knowledge, but from what I can see publicly it seems as though the person leading it hasn’t been very active recently and there’s only one person on the ‘front end dev team’ so it’s unsurprising that development has stalled.

I’ve always said this. Contributing to phpBB is hard and the on boarding process is long and difficult. I’m trying to get more involved in the project but it’s a slow process and means that it blocks some people from getting involved.

I suspect the status of this new style is ‘it’s in development and will see progress when it arrives’.

[PlanetStyles.net]

If Chamelion is to fulfil its ambition to be an in-house framework, it needs a team of at least 3-4 skilled front-end developers working on it. It is too much work for one person who has to context-switch and find the energy after their day job.

The problem is that skilled developers are focussed on maintaining their commercial offerings. There is no incentive for volunteer here.

Forget about making Chameleon look pretty, this is the Wordpress default theme. Focus a default theme on being functional and style authors will take care of the pretty.

CSS frameworks have never been better. I agree it's time to utilise them.

[Meis2M]

Chameleon is only one of the phpbb 4 project is stopped, and many pr's is stopped in github. so u should give up about phpbb 4 until 2030 , it is a fact

today is different , people only work with money. the age of working free is over.

if phpbb have a plan for future , phpbb users in this community should donate some bodies to dev it for us. another suggestion from me is telling "Elon Musk" to buy phpbb if we want see a big change here

for now phpbb 3.3 series only will be dev.

[tbackoff]

I'll admit I'm not the most qualified to speak technically for the Chameleon project, especially after being away for so long. Nonetheless, here's my input.

it needs a team of at least 3-4 skilled front-end developers working on it. It is too much work for one person

I fully agree here! However, you pointed out something interesting as an answer to this concern:

The problem is that skilled developers are focussed on maintaining their commercial offerings. There is no incentive for volunteer here.

If by incentive you mean monetary compensation, then you have a fair point. I'd like to hear your thoughts on how to motivate people to volunteer to the project. For me personally, I volunteered because I enjoy doing it. Maybe I'm naive.

As for Meis2M,

so u should give up about phpbb 4 until 2030 , it is a fact

Interesting "fact". Can you quote your sources? Because as far as I'm aware, nobody on the team, or even a developer (who would be best qualified to comment) has come out to say that phpBB 4 won't be released until 2030. I also don't understand your rush for phpBB4 to be completed. Is there some feature you're dying to get your hands on that phpBB 3.3 does not offer?

today is different , people only work with money. the age of working free is over

I'm sure you will agree that working and volunteering are two completely different things.

another suggestion from me is telling "Elon Musk" to buy phpbb if we want see a big change here

Oh please, spare me the twitter bullshit.

[david63]

Is there some feature you're dying to get your hands on that phpBB 3.3 does not offer?

A "one click" auto update facility and the ability to install extensions via a catalogue (packigist)

But this has nothing to do with Chameleon

The problem is that skilled developers are focussed on maintaining their commercial offerings. There is no incentive for volunteer here.

Which leads to the point as to whether existing style developers will be prepared to invest even more time into converting/upgrading their current styles to the new framework.

[Steve]

To get the style or phpBB development extremely active again..
I’d suggest… a donate button. Or a file downloads that costs 50p(example)

It would be good to my split this post from the original discussion.
I know making paying downloads will go against the license provided by phpBB .

But asking some one too verify there email by a small cost, could prevent many automated downloads by bots and spammers.

phpBB could easily refunded… if the person requesting the download .. ticks a box. If not hey Bonus.

Any charity donations could pay developers for the continued support for the project.

[dbrewood]

Darned good idea!

[danieltj]

To get the style or phpBB development extremely active again..
I’d suggest… a donate button. Or a file downloads that costs 50p(example)

It would be good to my split this post from the original discussion.
I know making paying downloads will go against the license provided by phpBB .

But asking some one too verify there email by a small cost, could prevent many automated downloads by bots and spammers.

phpBB could easily refunded… if the person requesting the download .. ticks a box. If not hey Bonus.

Any charity donations could pay developers for the continued support for the project.

Payment processing fees entered the chat

[PlanetStyles.net]

I'd like to hear your thoughts on how to motivate people to volunteer to the project.

Not necessary if a CSS framework is adopted.

Can't speak to back-end motivations.

[halil16]

In my opinion, loading everything on a theme and having high expectations in this direction can lead to frustration. Wouldn't it be nice if every single component could be improved or enhanced instead? For example, the PM feature in Chameleon style is very nice. (At least as shown in the pictures). I think it should be added step by step and solidly with this type of innovation. Then just CSS should be enough for the new style.

If there was a donate button it would definitely work. On the other hand, it is also possible to install styles and extensions with one click, including paid styles and phpBB getting a commission from it.

But aren't we missing the point here: phpBB is free software. Such events can lead him to a commercial place.

However, at least sponsored links to phpbb.com can be obtained. For example, there are many people who do business for money. They can advertise.

[david63]

We are now ten days later and no comment from those involved with this project (probably due to the fact that they have not visited the board in that time and in one case for over a month) the assumption has to be that this is now dead and that no new style is in development for phpBB4 (or any other version).

So the next question, as we are not waiting for the new style, is - what is the delay in releasing phpBB4?

[Meis2M]

that was predictable for answering nothing here

but there are 26 pr remain to complete for phpbb4
https://github.com/phpbb/phpbb/pulls?q= ... F%94%AE%22

and most of them are inactive,

as i mentioned before only elon musk can save phpbb (joking)

in fact the number of phpbb developers are limited and most of them are busy in real life, so phpbb4 not coming soon.

[Kailey]

Received multiple reports on multiple posts about going off topic, so they have been removed.

We are now ten days later and no comment

We are aware of this topic.

[HaioPaio]

We are aware of this topic

I know. Most likely, nobody expected the opposite.