Maintenance status

Introduction

Composr is an enormous system that contains a number of highly specialist features as well as integration with third-party systems that are subject to unpredictable change.

It isn't feasible for us to guarantee all this will keep working as things evolve internally and externally, often at a rapid pace outside our control.

We track functionality that has a moderate to high risk of breakage. This:

Helps us provide a reliable product and ecosystem by informing users of what they need to keep an eye on and budget for
Allows us to solicit funding for on-going support of rare or fragile functionality (we think it's fair for the up-keep of highly specialist and advanced functionality to be directly paid for by those who need it)
Allows us to mark off unreliable functionality so that we don't need to force developers to maintain every specialist cross-cutting feature that has ever been added to Composr (sometimes things are worth keeping, but only worth actively maintaining if there's funding or a large user-base)
Helps direct testing efforts
Provides us a broad reminder of what needs on-going reappraisal

Further discussion and justification may be found in and directed to the original tracker issue.

Bugs may be reported for non-actively-maintained functionality, and it may be fixed quickly as normal, or may be left on the tracker indefinitely – depending on developer availability, ease of fixing the issue, and our sense of priority. In most cases it will likely be resolved within a reasonable period of time regardless, it's just we can't guarantee it.

Functionality table

Title	Bug-fix sponsor	Current active sponsor	Notes	Non-bundled addon
Mobile Chrome (Android & iOS) support	ocProducts	ocProducts	Could potentially break due to third-party changes.	No
Android Browser support	ocProducts	None	Not regularly tested. Could potentially break due to third-party changes.	No
Chrome/Opera/Blink support	ocProducts	ocProducts	Could potentially break due to third-party changes.	No
Firefox support	ocProducts	ocProducts	Could potentially break due to third-party changes.	No
Mobile Safari (iOS) support	ocProducts	ocProducts	Could potentially break due to third-party changes.	No
IE/Microsoft Edge support	ocProducts	ocProducts	Could potentially break due to third-party changes.	No
Safari support	ocProducts	ocProducts	Could potentially break due to third-party changes.	No
APC persistent cache	None	None	Not regularly tested due to needing a testing platform.	No
Persistent cache via filesystem	ocProducts	None	Not regularly tested. Liable to break due to cross-cutting complexity.	No
Memcache persistent cache	None	None	Not regularly tested due to needing a testing platform.	No
Memchanged persistent cache	None	None	Not regularly tested due to needing a testing platform.	No
WinCache persistent cache	None	None	Not regularly tested due to needing a testing platform.	No
XCache persistent cache	None	None	Not regularly tested due to needing a testing platform.	No
CDNs for theme images	None	None	Not regularly tested. Liable to break due to cross-cutting complexity.	No
Magic click / context menu features	ocProducts	None	Not regularly tested.	No
CPF encryption	ocProducts	None	Not regularly tested.	No
Currency conversion	ocProducts	ocProducts	Could potentially break due to third-party changes.	No
IBM DB2 database driver	None	None	Not regularly tested due to needing a testing platform. Could potentially break due to third-party changes.	No
Oracle database driver	None	None	Not regularly tested due to needing a testing platform. Could potentially break due to third-party changes.	No
PostgreSQL database driver	None	None	Not regularly tested due to needing a testing platform. Could potentially break due to third-party changes.	No
Microsoft SQL server database driver	None	None	Not regularly tested due to needing a testing platform. Could potentially break due to third-party changes.	No
XML database driver	None	None	For developers only.	No
Shared-installs	ocProducts	None	Not regularly tested. Liable to break due to cross-cutting complexity.	No
Bot detection	ocProducts	None	Not regularly tested. Could potentially break due to third-party changes.	No
Mobile user agent detection	ocProducts	None	Not regularly tested. Could potentially break due to third-party changes.	No
Recommended links on staff dashboard, and accuracy of external URLs in general	ocProducts	None	Not regularly tested. Could potentially break due to third-party changes.	No
Permission/eCommerce/profile logging features	ocProducts	None	Not regularly tested.	No
Facebook login integration and syndication	ocProducts	ocProducts	Could potentially break due to third-party changes.	Yes
Failover Mode	ocProducts	None	Not regularly tested.	No
Field filter feature	ocProducts	None	Not regularly tested.	No
FirePHP logging	ocProducts	None	Not regularly tested.	No
"Show forum within website" option	None	None	Not regularly tested and has the potential for instability.	No
Invision Board forum driver	None	None	Not regularly tested. Already out-dated. Needs ongoing maintenance.	No
MyBB forum driver	None	None	Not regularly tested. Already out-dated. Needs ongoing maintenance.	No
No forums or members forum driver	None	None	Not regularly tested. Liable to break due to cross-cutting complexity.	No
phpBB forum driver	None	None	Not regularly tested. Already out-dated. Needs ongoing maintenance.	No
Simple Machine Forum forum driver	None	None	Not regularly tested. Already out-dated. Needs ongoing maintenance.	No
vBulletin forum driver	None	None	Not regularly tested. Already out-dated. Needs ongoing maintenance.	No
Burning Board forum driver	None	None	Not regularly tested. Already out-dated. Needs ongoing maintenance.	No
CCBill eCommerce driver	None	None	Not regularly tested. Could potentially break due to third-party changes.	No
PayPal eCommerce driver	ocProducts	None	Could potentially break due to third-party changes.	No
SecPay eCommerce driver	None	None	Not regularly tested. Could potentially break due to third-party changes.	No
WorldPay eCommerce driver	None	None	Not regularly tested. Could potentially break due to third-party changes.	No
IP address geocoding (internal list)	ocProducts	ocProducts	Could potentially break due to third-party changes.	No
Google Geocoding	ocProducts	None	Not regularly tested. Could potentially break due to third-party changes.	No
Google maps (DataMappr, UserMappr)	ocProducts	None	Could potentially break due to third-party changes.	Yes
Google Translate integration	None	None	Not regularly tested. Could potentially break due to third-party changes.	No
HTTP authentication	None	None	Not regularly tested.	No
"Composr site merger" importer	ocProducts	None	Not regularly tested. WebDAV is the preferred merge mechanism, and site merging is not a substitute for upgrading.	No
HTML website importer	None	None	Not regularly tested and has the potential for instability.	No
Invision Board importer	None	None	Needs ongoing maintenance, and liable to be ineffective as people need plugin data importing too.	No
myBB importer	None	None	Needs ongoing maintenance, and liable to be ineffective as people need plugin data importing too.	No
phpBB importer	None	None	Needs ongoing maintenance, and liable to be ineffective as people need plugin data importing too.	No
Simple Machine Forum importer	None	None	Needs ongoing maintenance, and liable to be ineffective as people need plugin data importing too.	No
vBulletin importer	None	None	Needs ongoing maintenance, and liable to be ineffective as people need plugin data importing too.	No
Wordpress importer	None	None	Needs ongoing maintenance, and liable to be ineffective as people need plugin data importing too.	No
APS installer	ocProducts	None	We maintain builds via an automated process. Not regularly tested due to needing a testing platform.	No
Installatron installer	ocProducts	None	We maintain builds via an automated process. Not regularly tested due to needing a testing platform.	No
Microsoft Web Platform installer	ocProducts	None	We maintain builds via an automated process. Not regularly tested due to needing a testing platform. Microsoft do run their own manual tests.	No
Links to external IP address tools	ocProducts	None	Not regularly tested. Could potentially break due to third-party changes.	No
iTunes podcasts	None	None	Not regularly tested.	No
Non-English languages	None	None	We may distribute other language packs, but we cannot support them due to developers not knowing the language.	No
American English	ocProducts	None	We automatically can convert most British English to American English, but it is not perfectly tested.	No
LDAP	None	None	Not regularly tested due to the complexity of having multiple working LDAP test environments.	No
Multi-site-networks	None	None	Not regularly tested. Liable to break due to cross-cutting complexity.	No
Content translations	ocProducts	None	Not regularly tested. Liable to break due to cross-cutting complexity.	No
Maintain with new versions of MySQL	ocProducts	None	Could potentially break due to third-party changes.	No
Development options in config_editor.php	ocProducts	None	Not regularly tested.	No
Hidden options	ocProducts	None	Not regularly tested.	No
Maintain with new versions of PHP	ocProducts	ocProducts	Could potentially break due to third-party changes.	No
Non-suEXEC platform support	ocProducts	None	Not regularly tested. Likely to be very un-friendly to the admin, so should be discouraged.	No
Google App Engine platform support	None	None	Not regularly tested due to needing a testing platform. Could potentially break due to third-party changes.	No
HHVM platform support	None	None	Not regularly tested due to needing a testing platform. Could potentially break due to third-party changes.	No
IIS	ocProducts	None	Not regularly tested due to needing a testing platform. Could potentially break due to third-party changes.	No
LiteSpeed	ocProducts	None	Not regularly tested due to needing a testing platform. Could potentially break due to third-party changes.	No
ModSecurity	ocProducts	None	Not regularly tested. Could potentially break due to third-party changes.	No
Phalanger platform support	None	None	Not regularly tested due to needing a testing platform. Could potentially break due to third-party changes.	No
Suhosin	ocProducts	None	Not regularly tested. Could potentially break due to third-party changes.	No
Aggressive popup blockers	ocProducts	None	Some popup blockers (E.g. "Better popup blocker" on Chrome") may break common JavaScript. We try and workaround it, but it is not regularly tested.	No
Project Honeypot integration	ocProducts	None	Not regularly tested. Could potentially break due to third-party changes.	No
Rate Limiting	ocProducts	None	Not regularly tested.	No
Remote Block List integration	ocProducts	None	Not regularly tested. Could potentially break due to third-party changes.	No
REST API from Composr Mobile SDK	ocProducts	None	Not regularly tested.	Yes
Rootkit detector	ocProducts	None	Not regularly tested. Not compatible with all systems. Intended for developers.	No
XML Sitemap auto-submit	ocProducts	None	Not regularly tested. Could potentially break due to third-party changes.	No
SMS notifications	None	None	Not regularly tested. Could potentially break due to third-party changes.	No
Basic social media / instant messenger linkage	ocProducts	None	Not regularly tested. Could potentially break due to third-party changes.	No
Per-page SSL support	ocProducts	None	Needs to be separately tested. Liable to break due to cross-cutting complexity.	No
SSL certificate trust chains (internal list)	ocProducts	ocProducts	Could potentially break due to third-party changes.	No
Manual compliance checks for ATAG and WCAG	ocProducts	None	We maintain many automated checks within our test set, but active manual checks such as checking contrast, or having active testing sessions, would be a significant cost.	No
Microformats compliance	ocProducts	None	Not regularly tested across all appropriate templates.	No
Support users without cookies	ocProducts	None	If a user has disabled even session cookies, they may not be able to log in. This is extremely rare. If a user has disabled other cookies some individual settings may not be remembered.	No
Support users without JavaScript	None	None	Web browsers are starting to make JavaScript mandatory, and almost all modern websites require it.	No
OpenGraph	ocProducts	None	Not regularly tested. Could potentially break due to third-party changes.	No
OpenSearch compliance	ocProducts	None	Not regularly tested.	No
schema.org compliance	ocProducts	None	Not regularly tested across all appropriate templates.	No
Static caching	ocProducts	None	Not regularly tested.	No
Stop Forum Spam integration	ocProducts	ocProducts	Could potentially break due to third-party changes.	No
Tapatalk	ocProducts	None	Could potentially break due to third-party changes.	Yes
Textmate integration	ocProducts	None	Needs to be separately tested. Needs a testing platform.	No
Mobile mode support	ocProducts	ocProducts	Needs to be separately tested. Liable to break due to cross-cutting complexity.	No
Custom print layout support in default theme	ocProducts	None	Not regularly tested.	No
Retina/Hi-DPI support	ocProducts	None	Not regularly tested. Liable to break due to cross-cutting complexity.	No
Right-to-left support in default theme	None	None	Too burdensome to routinely maintain and test.	No
Transifex integration	ocProducts	ocProducts	Could potentially break due to third-party changes.	Yes
Twitter syndication	ocProducts	None	Could potentially break due to third-party changes.	Yes
WebDav access for The Repository	ocProducts	None	Could potentially break due to third-party changes.	Yes
YouTube media	ocProducts	None	Not regularly tested. Could potentially break due to third-party changes.	No
Zencoder transcoding	None	None	Currently broken due to third-party change and has the potential to keep breaking for the same reason.	No

Sponsorship

Sponsorship involves taking direct responsibility including testing and bug fixing, or paying someone (such as ocProducts) to do that. In some cases it may also involve taking some up-stream responsibility, funding or maintaining frameworks or projects that Composr functionality is depending on.

The cost of sponsoring functionality may vary greatly, from hours of time per year to weeks per year. For more information contact the developers.

Note that sponsoring functionality initially is not the same as sponsoring on-going maintenance. Once something is implemented and delivered there isn't a guarantee it can be maintained forever without on-going sponsorship.

Non-bundled addons

No non-bundled addon will be put into the table unless it is being officially supported by the core developers. The default assumption should be that no non-bundled addon is supported by the core developers to the same level of reliability and quality as Composr itself. If you want a non-bundled addon added to the list you can request to sponsor it though. Most non-bundled addons will regardless be supported by bug fixes, and automatically updated as Composr APIs change – but not to the normal expected quality, and not proactively tested.

Third-party software

The above list does not include third-party software (such as CKEditor) that is directly integrated into Composr. We do not usually take direct responsibility for improving this software or for regularly re-synching it. Sponsors may therefore want to consider sponsoring upstream projects too, and sponsoring refreshes of those within Composr. A list of third-party software may be found on the Sync with upstream tracker issue.