I am currently evaluating community site scripts  - especially for dating sites.

The big question is: Make or buy?

Having a ready-made software had the following advantages:

• a lot less expenses for development (e.g. 1000 USD vs. 50,000-100,000 USD)
• constants updates and new features
• a "standard" other people understand -> easy to find freelancers or companies for modifications or data migrations
• no need to write documentation, as it is already delivered by the manufacturer

Just read Dolpin 8.0 is about to be released soon....

Will it be based on propiertary code again or a common framework like YiiFramework or CakePHP?

How long will it take until it will be safe for a live website?

http://www.boonex.com/trac/dolphin/roadmap

:-(

However, if this is still at the beginnig - this might be a good time to suggest using the YiiFramework as a basis, before it is too late and the final code will be propiertary and insecure spaghetti code again.

Using a popular framework ensures a decent architecture and less freedom for developers to write messy and unmaintainable code.

Here are some suggestions for the next release:

1. As few databases as possible - as many as necessary.

Other things on my wishlist so that I would consider to use Dolphin:

2. clean up the file structure so that it is better to find the files to modify..there is too many directories and too many files.

Keep it simple! Maybe even use CakePHP or a similiar structure of the project.

3. COMPLETELY remove PHP and logic from the templates. Templates should be stupid HTML templates and modules - and give the necessary flexibility. Only this way it can be quickly and easily customized.

COMPLETELY remove all HTML from the PHP classes.

4. When you think you are done with 1, look again and then look at the execution time and CPU usage as well as open file handlers...and memory usage of ithe scripts. This should be optimized at much as possible.

It took me 3 hours just to change the look of the navigation menu.....

Basically I replaced the table structure by a <ul><li> structure. The difficulty was that the submenus needed to be inside the <ul> tag.

E.h.:

<ul>

<li>

<span>Main Manu Item 1</span>

<ul>

<li>Subitem 1</li>

<li>Subitem 2</li>

</ul>

</li>

<li>

<span>Main Manu Item 2</span>

<ul>

<li>Subitem 1</li>

<li>Subitem 2</li>

</ul>

</li>

</ul>

ideally this would have been just a CSS/HTML change or change of a template file.

But I had to change lots of files, such as BxDolMenu, BxTemplMenu, BxBaseMenu....

I think a lot of potentil customers are put off by the way Dolphin is designed and programmed.

All I can say it, please be more careful when writing the code and keep in mind customers may want to change the design in a more flexible way without interfering with the code.

At a certain point, there is always the question "make or buy", but if buying means making a major part as well, the answers tends to be "make"...... I am still unsure whether to continue trying to make Dolphin fit optically or whether to start from scratch.

I also think Dolphin should use a more "standard" way as far as templating is conerned. you really need to get used to those weird ____variable___names.

If you use a standard templating mechanism in the future, this would make things a lot easier - or also some MVC pattern.....CakePHP or whatever...

My suggestion for Dolphin would be to have more "interfaces" in the next version that allows to extend the code and functionality without having to understand or look at the Dolphin code in detail...and to make it easier to integrate it into other systems without having to mess up the code in a way so it won't work after updates.....

Inside of:

function HelloMemberSection()

There is a lot of HTML code. Could this also please be put outside of the PHP code and instead inside template files?

Ideally template files that stay indepenent of the PHP code and versions....

I am currently adapting the design and I have already had to change so many PHP files.

The problem is I will not be able to benefit in future updates and modules of other people this way that might interfere with it.

And also: once I have changed more then 50% of the code I also end up having my "own" code which is license free ;-)

But I don't mind paying a license fee and instead avoiding all this grunt work with searchng parts in the code to be replaced...this is quite tedious....I even tried to find a freelancer to do this - but nobody wants to do it so I ended up having to do it :-(

In BxTemplMenu there is a function called: function genTopItem() that used table cells for the menu items.

Could this be please moved inside a template?

I need to adapt the way the menu looks like, and I need <ul><li>'s.

I can change it in the PHP file - but once there a updates, maybe some day it won't work?

I would also like to just adapt css files and maybe template files that are independent of the version of Dolphin as far as the PHP code is concerned...

Thanks. That was my first idea too...but I can't move it :-(