Some exciting things will be coming from the Mambo world in 2006. Just take a look at this quote from their end of the year address.
"The software will also be making great strides in 2006. Although a lot of effort went into fixing bugs for 4.5.3, at the same time the team was working hard on designs for future development. In the early part of 2006 there will be release 4.5.4 which will continue the results of the consolidation process. As the release numbering suggests, it will not contain major new features. But it will go much further than simple bug fixing, with many parts of the code being completely overhauled. Much of this work is already done but a great deal of testing remains to be done. The code review will have the immediate benefit of improved speed and efficiency, and is also a step towards substantial functional changes. It will retain substantial backwards compatibility.
Also currently under development is release 4.6, which is planned to include significant new features. Version 4.6 will see a comprehensive approach to internationalization, including the client side, the admin side, and the content. It will also include a completely new role-based access control scheme. Many other smaller features are under consideration for inclusion in the release plan, which will be firmed up early next year.
There will be a number of moves to improve the Mambo environment for developers. More hooks for Mambots will be provided, and the interface to Mambots rationalised and improved. Standards will be established to effectively control the split between logic and presentation. In general, clear OO interfaces will be provided and documented for developers, while globals will be eliminated.
Perhaps the most exciting is the potential for Mambo version 5 which we would like to see in at least early versions by the end of 2006. With many hosts taking a sudden leap forwards, it now looks feasible to build Mambo 5 to tie up with two other version fives – PHP and MySQL. These will be prerequisites for Mambo 5, allowing the development to make use of powerful features only found in the recent releases. While they are not yet fully stable, we expect that issue to be resolved. MySQL 5 will be important because of features such as views and stored procedures, but although it is likely to be a prerequisite at the launch of Mambo 5, the design will aim towards database independence from the start. PostgreSQL and the major commercial databases will be priority targets. This work may also feed back into Mambo 4.
PHP 5 will enable Mambo 5 to fully exploit OO techniques with significant benefits for the robustness of the code. It will also help in the building of robust mechanisms for handling units of code that will be inherently more secure than can be achieved at present. Efficiency gains will come from smart code loading mechanisms. Familiar popular features of Mambo will be retained, and interfaces will not be deliberately undermined. But a major release is an opportunity to break with history to some extent, and the role of plugins is being fundamentally reviewed. Again, one important aim is to provide a powerful and congenial environment for third party developers."
