Patching mod_placehere up for !J 1.6

I have been rather busy lately – I’m currently in the finishing stages of my transition from freelance bachelor to married employee – with absolutely no time for module developement. However by popular request I have finally started on a 1.6 version for the place here module.

This will take a long while. There is no download for 1.6 yet.

In theory it would be possible to write a version that runs on both 1.5 and 1.6. However since I’m already putting time into this I want a fresh start on the thing. So the conversion to J! 1.6 comprises two stages.

There will be a patched up version that removes references to all the stuff that is thankfully gone in J!1.6 – namely the difference between “sections” and “categories” and some rather unnecessary database tables. But even so the code will be a mess. Joomla by now offers a rather nice API to construct sql queries. The queries in mod_placehere however are generated by some not-so-nice string concatenation. So the second stage will be a complete rewrite to bring my code in line with Joomlas coding standards.

I guess it will take eight days or so before I will release a developement version that provides at least the basic functionality of  the module (but don’t stake your career on this, I’ve broken promises before). Then – well, we’ll see.

My current employer does not use Joomla ( and I don’t use it much anymore either) so I will have to rely pretty much on your feedback. I’m also thinking about opening a public repository in an attempt to attract co-maintainers. We’ll see about this, either.

Anyway, the module is not dead (unless the feedback indicates that it is no longer needed).