Open Letter to Liferay Re: Abandoning AUI

[David H Nebinger, modificado 9 Anos atrás.]

Dear Liferay,

You may or may not be aware of it, but Yahoo recently announced that new development on YUI is stopping. Although they didn't say as much, I would expect that maintenance of YUI will also get suspended as they retarget their resources for newer JavaScript frameworks.

This is going to leave Liferay in the precarious position of either taking on the ownership and maintenance of the complete YUI framework (as the foundation for AUI) or moving in some other direction.

I would encourage you to not try to take over YUI maintenance. Managing a JS framework, ensuring browser compatibility, dealing with errors that can crop up with each new browser release (both major and minor) will be a huge drain on what resources you have. Frankly your track record on keeping up with changes, documentation, etc. for AUI hasn't been that great, and there's no reason to believe taking on YUI would make it any better. Honestly those of us on the outside would prefer you spent resources on the portal core, not on JS framework development and maintenance.

We all remember the heat you took in the move from jQuery to AUI and, although you internally understood why AUI was a better foundation for the portal, those of us on the outside never really did buy in. We still use jQuery and other JS packages because there was never really any support for YUI outside of Yahoo itself. You can find jQuery developers all day, but good luck finding many with YUI/AUI experience.

In the short run, YUI is still alive (although the pulse is thready) so you have some time to begin a transition, to get onboard with a JS framework that both satisfies the needs of the portal yet has external developer support (i.e. jQuery). But please, please start this transition sooner rather than later.

[Juan Gonzalez, modificado 9 Anos atrás.]

Hi David,

thanks for that opinion. Please, can you write it here?

https://www.liferay.com/web/nathan.cavanaugh/blog/-/blogs/yui-liferay-and-the-future

[Jack Bakker, modificado 9 Anos atrás.]

Man, how did I miss that blog... wondering if there is a way to subscribe to 'everything' on Liferay so my email will poke me in the eye to not waste time in various forum/blog threads all on the same topic ... like: a map of all flocks of Canada Geese flying South for the winter instead of just following the bum of the goose in front of me.

[David H Nebinger, modificado 9 Anos atrás.]

LOL, I'm with you there Jack.

My comment has been posted to the blog entry...

[James Falkner, modificado 9 Anos atrás.]

Jack Bakker:

Man, how did I miss that blog... wondering if there is a way to subscribe to 'everything' on Liferay so my email will poke me in the eye to not waste time in various forum/blog threads all on the same topic ... like: a map of all flocks of Canada Geese flying South for the winter instead of just following the bum of the goose in front of me.

If you subscribe to the top-level forum categories + All Blogs you can take a bath every hour in the amount of email you'll get

And thanks for the candid feedback, Dave et al. The AUI team is most definitely listening to our community.

[David H Nebinger, modificado 9 Anos atrás.]

I'm worried that they were even thinking about forking and maintaining YUI on their own... That's a disaster waiting to happen, why isn't that apparent to everyone is beyond me...

[Jack Bakker, modificado 9 Anos atrás.]

James Falkner:

Jack Bakker:

Man, how did I miss that blog... wondering if there is a way to subscribe to 'everything' on Liferay so my email will poke me in the eye to not waste time in various forum/blog threads all on the same topic ... like: a map of all flocks of Canada Geese flying South for the winter instead of just following the bum of the goose in front of me.

If you subscribe to the top-level forum categories + All Blogs you can take a bath every hour in the amount of email you'll get

Thanks, I will give such a .. gander.