Just like the Joomla 1.5 framework caused a wave of innovative extensions, we believe Nooku Framework is going to cause a shift: It changes how you create and use extensions, how extensions work with each other or with external data, and how you customize extensions.

At J! and Beyond 2010 we, together with some of our Nooku Community Contributors and Partners showed some of the promising Nooku-powered extensions that are being built right now. Check out the video and take a sneak peek into Joomla’s future !

The public release of Nooku Framework, now almost a year ago, was no different. Some people were very excited while others welcomed the framework with some reservations.

A few days ago Torkil Johnsen, Nooku Community Contributor, wrote an excellent blog post titled : “What is this Nooku Framework thing really ? And why should I care ?”

In his post Torkil does a great job explaining what Nooku Framework is all about, how it differs from the Joomla Framework and why he thinks you should care.

What is a framework ?

Torkil starts with defining the term framework and the benefits of using a framework in general :

• Saves time. By eliminating the need to code repetitive tasks. You can focus on what’s important: Finishing the application and making sure it meets the requirements.
• Less bugs. The parts handled by the framework have been used and tested earlier. The more framework code you use, the less bugs you will experience.

Which frameworks for Joomla exist ?

He then moves on to explain the difference between extension frameworks, like Nooku and template frameworks, like Gantry.

“Nooku and Joomla try to accomplish the same thing: To make developing Joomla components, plugins and modules easier. This is primarily stuff happening under the hood you might say. Gantry however is a framework made by Rockettheme to make developing Joomla templates easier.”

In recent months many different template frameworks have emerged, Morph, Wrap5, Motif, Rumi, JA T3, … to name a few.

To date however, Nooku Framework is the only community driven open source framework for Joomla extension development. Something we are very proud of !

Why choosing for Nooku Framework ?

Finally Torkil explains why he prefers Nooku Framework over the Joomla Framework.

• It’s reduces code. It reduces the amount of code I need to write by something close to 80%.
• It makes me better. Nooku reuses solutions to common problems (design patterns) to a greater extent, and unlike Joomla it forces me to adhere to conventions and standards.
• It’s Joomla compatible. Any Joomla website that needs custom functionality can start using Nooku to build that functionality, today. It installs like any other extension, and does not interfere with Joomla or your installed extensions.
• It’s the second generation. Yes, literally the second generation. Both the Joomla and Nooku Frameworks were built by Johan Janssens. Today, Johan is still considered to be the largest contributor to the Joomla codebase
• It’s got a developer community. Unlike Joomla, development at the framework level is moving forward at a rapid pace, there is lots of activity, and developers are sharing and contributing code between themselves.
• It’s cheaper. I know; too obvious. Less time spent programming + Less bugs = Lower development and maintenance costs.

Torkil’s concludes : “If you’re a programmer yourself, go check it out at http://www.nooku.org/framework.html. If not, you should talk to whoever does the programming for you and make sure that they do.”

I couldn’t agree more !

• Module translation improvements. We have further optimized the way Nooku Content deals with syncing of module translations and improved Nooku Content’s module translation workflow. Modules are no longer listed in the items overview and are also no longer taken into account for the statistics.
• Improved compatibility with K2. We have done extensive testing with K2 and fixed a number of smaller issues related to translating a K2 powered Joomla site. We are happy to announce that we now fully support K2.

Together with the release of Nooku Content 0.6.7 we are also releasing Nooku Framework 0.6.7 which includes a number of smaller fixes. Nooku Framework is available through our Nooku Developer Portal, for a direct link to the 0.6.7 SVN go here.

Nooku Content is only available to our partners. By supporting us, you helps us to build quality open source software. In return you get a great extension, personalized support, and a voice in the development. If you want to learn more, discover our Partnership Program.

While Stian was working on the alpha version of Ninjaboard, he started submitting patches to the Nooku Framework, and especially to the javascripts parts. We liked it so much we decided to hire him for one day a week.

Daniel Chapman, Ninjaforge CEO, said: ”

For us this collaboration is working out great: several of our products are based on Nooku Framework, so having Stian work with the Nooku team for 20% of his time, is very beneficial for Ninjaboard, Ninja Content, Ninja Video Gallery, and Ninja Journal.”

Gergo and Stian at J! And Beyond. Photo by David Deutsch

Gergő Erdősi

Gergő Erdősi, from Hungary, has been working with us for a while now, but we never properly introduced him. He’s definitely no stranger to the Joomla community. Gergő got involved with the Joomla Sites and Infrastructure Team in 2007. He participated in the Google Summer of Code, and wrote an advanced Joomla survey extension for that. He moved up to the Joomla Bug Squad and the Joomla 1.6 Development Team.

Always on the lookout for interesting developments, Gergő joined the Nooku Mailing List very early on, and displayed an amazing hunger for knowledge and capacity for learning quickly. We flew him over to Belgium to train him for a week, and got him started on building a Scientific Reference management application for our customer, the Italian Institute of Technology. As Gergő wrote on Twitter:

“One of my best decisions was to leave the Joomla core team and join the Nooku community.”

Strong Team

We’re very happy to have Stian and Gergő on board, as we need the manpower to build our new Joomla- and Nooku-based multisite platform for the Belgian Police. The team is now nine people strong, and ready for even bigger challenges!

We talked about the growing Nooku Community and the origins of Nooku Content and Nooku Framework. In the middle it gets a bit technical, but hold on, after that there’s some fun stuff about the Joomlasphere’s obsession with Swahili names.

The interview was taped by Zohar Babin. He was at J! And Beyond in his role as Director of Developer Relations and Community for Kaltura, the open source video platform, as they were sponsoring the event. Zohar decided to take the opportunity to learn more about Joomla, by interviewing a number of people in the community. I’m proud to have been one of them. Check out his technology blog for more interviews here and here.

Jack Bremer, the interviewer, runs 3B Digital in London, a full-service digital marketing agency who specialise in Joomla projects, SEO and social media.

Do you have the stomach to play the MVC Roulette?

• Better language syncing. We have made a number of changes to the way Nooku Content handles it’s language syncing especially during installation of extensions. Nooku Content is now smart enough to sync modules that are installed as part of the installation of a packaged extension. For example, DOCman, or K2, etc ..
• Better error handling. We re-worked our error handling to throw nice and meaning-full error messages when something goes wrong, for example when a language cannot be found.

If you want to see Nooku Content in action, you can find our team this weekend at the J and Beyond conference We are sponsoring the event and are also doing a Nooku Framework workshop on Tuesday.

Nooku Content is only available to our partners. By supporting us, you helps us to build quality open source software. In return you get a great extension, personalized support, and a voice in the development. If you want to learn more, discover our Partnership Program.

Not only is it a great project management solution, we found the Assembla to be very responsive to our never ending feature requests. Apparently this got Nooku on their radar: Assembla has chosen Nooku as featured Open Source project of the month.

“… a magnificent framework”

From the article:

Their developer portal is also a fantastic example of what’s possible with Assembla. They have made use of wikis, the portfolio tool, multiple subversion repositories, and the custom branding tool to make the look and feel of the portal fit the Nooku design aesthetic.

When we asked Johan why he chose Assembla, he said: “Assembla is one of best software management tools for community driven Open Source projects. It’s simple to use yet offers all the richness we needed to be productive from day one. It marries free and paid services together which is ideal for OS projects that expect to become big. Assembla will be key in helping us to grow our Nooku community.”

Alex Coisman, VP of Marketing at Assembla said:

“Some open-source projects have already sprung up around this fairly young framework (…) I’m sure even more Nooku-powered projects will surface in the near future, as Johan Janssens and team have released quite a magnificent framework.”

Read the full article at the Assembla blog.

Presentations

We’ll be giving two presentations: In his fun warm-up talk “Joomla to Infinity and Beyond”, Johan will be shedding new light on the amazing journey that is Joomla.

The next talk is for everybody who ever built a website using Joomla (yes, I know, that’s all of you!). We’ll explain why Nooku Framework matters to you, even if you’re not a developer. Just like the Joomla 1.5 framework caused a wave of innovative extensions, we believe Nooku Framework is going to cause a shift: It changes how you create and use extensions, how extensions work with each other or with external data, and how you customize extensions. We’ll show you some of the promising Nooku-powered extensions that are being built right now.

Programmer Rockstars only

We have a very special treat for those of you who eat and breathe code. On the third day, we’re doing an exclusive three hour Nooku Framework Workshop. This is your chance to dive into the API that will revolutionize the way you think about code.

Maybe you still think that plain Joomla is all you’ll ever need? Can you know for sure without having seen Nooku in action? We invite you to open your mind and find out for yourself. If you don’t like Nooku after the first half of the workshop, you’re free to leave. No hard feelings!

Get your tickets now! The agenda was announced last week and it’s full of interesting talks, and everybody who’s anybody will be there!

We have a tradition of showing something new each year at the Dutch Joomladays, so Johan and myself were very proud to officially announce our Developer Portal and present our very first State of Nooku.

The Year of You

The room was too small for the State of Nooku presentation at JD10NL

2010 is the year of you, the community! With the upcoming 0.7 beta releases, we feel Nooku Framework is growing up significantly. It’s not feature-complete — that’s why it’s not a 1.0 release yet. But the features we do have are getting very stable, making it a perfect choice for your next project.

2010 is the year of the Nooku Community, and we’ve announced new resources to help you build Nooku-powered extensions. The Nooku Developer Portal is the first place to go: you can find the code, the bug tracker and activity streams. The spaces for Components, Examples and Tools give room to developers to experiment, play and contribute. We’ve made the mailing list public, as well as the community-maintained wiki.

Contributions

We’re seeing some very cool contributions from the community: Christian is building an extended version of the com_harbour example component, Torkil is working on versioning, Stian wrote an amazing auto-updater for the framework, Steven did a proof of concept for a webhooks component, and the list goes on. And let’s not forget everybody who submitted bug reports and patches, edited the wiki, and helped newcomers on the mailing list.