ROADMAP TO CF8 desperately needed.

Hi, Max, hope everything is going well.
Its been a silence from you for a while in terms of CF8 updates. Could you, please, write down your intentions on developing the Chronoforms 8?
What will be be included? will you make the CF8 as powerful as CF6 and CCv6 combined? Will there be possibility to import CF6 and CCv6?
what will be the time frame? So we could make plans too.

Thank you for your work again. And sorry if I seemed impatient.
Elita

Hi Elita,

The plan is to bring all features requested by users to v8, what features are you missing?

if you check the forums you will find that there are not many requests for new features to v8

missing features:

Views - Areas: Segment
Views - Areas: Grid
Views - Areas: Form
Views - Areas: Container

Views - Page Blocks: Table list
Views - Page Blocks: Menu
Views - Page Blocks: Paginator

Views - Fields: Button (Toolbar)
Views - Fields: Textarea with Rich Text Editor
Views - Fields Dropdown/Checkbox with Filter/Search Listing

Actions - Basics: Action Reference
Actions - Basics: Variables

Actions - Database: connect to external Database !

Hi, Max, I wrote this in previous post already, but can repeat:
https://www.chronoengine.com/forums/topics/view/110611/chronoforms8-when-is-chronoconnectivity-8-expected

1. First and foremost - when Connectivity 8 will be out? With all the features CCv6 had?

About missing features in CF8 -
2. Views TAB -
1) Areas:
Grid area - (If you are not using Semantic UI anymore, please, use Bootstrap);
Container area - Very important for customization! (for custom javascript or for dynamic reload of multiple fields)
Repeater area - is it the loop action under the Actions tab? Can I use it in Views and in Actions? The idea is not clear.
Switcher area
3. Other fields Dynamic reload based on the user input.
VERY IMPORTANT FEATURE THAT IS MISSING!!!
In CF6 it was possible to create dynamic reload that would fetch the data from the database and load it the fields based on the user input.
4. Action TAB:
BAsic TAB -
1) Custom code;
2) Debugger (for debugging specific action, especially convenient with dynamic reload);
3) Event loader
Files TAB:
1) File upload - with possibility to customize Path, custom Files config, file name and Sucess and Fail tab!!
Logic TAB -
1) Data bulder - for building Session data, variables;
2) Stopper (for debugging);
3) Switch;
4) Event switcher
Security TAB - Validate data with possibility to load certain page.


I know that most of it could be made by coding - but we are talking about Chronoforms, that helps us visualize the code. That is the beauty of it.

And those written above rbock i did not mention.

Regards,
Elita

And yes - CF6 and CCv6 import is essential!!

Just adding to Elita's post to see if there is some sort of Roadmap on timings of additional functionality? Connecting to an external database is the critical issue for me at the moment! Without this I can't even test any of the other functionality of CF8. Keeping fingers crossed that development on CF8 is progressing well with Max.

Regards, Paddy

Hi,

what about the payment plugins + TCPDF for CF8?

Best regards,
Stefan

Hi Stefan,

TCPDF is already available for v8, payment plugins can be added, which one do you need ?

Max, please, write your plans on what features that is written above you are going to implement and approximate time frame.
If there is something you are not going to implement we, your long time CF users should now; so we could think of what doing further.

As Paddy wrote we all depend on your plans and we cannot start testing those forms because they lack the functionality that is needed.

As of me, I am still using CF6 and CCv6 and, nevertheless you patched them so they work on Joomla4, they are very slow and I am desperately waiting for CF8 to start working. However, the current version is no use for me😟 because of the reason I have posted here and in my previous posts. Since the beginning of the August😟

Please.

Sincerely,
Elita

Hey, any news about the ability to migrate from CF6 to CF8 via Import?

Hi

Is it possible to have not equal fields in Multi Field Area?
I can't change anything in Multi Field Behaviors...

Thanks

A new version should start off with the previous version's capabilities from the get-go. I feel functionally V8 is a massive step back related to V6. It has potential, but was released less capable than it's predecessor. It's like Photoshop had a massive rewrite but ended up releasing MS Paint. I happily pay for this software because it's solid and facilitates our complicated forms. The features I want in V8 are those in V6. That'll get me started. V6 was mature and polished and just worked. Then whatever new gizmos appeals to the user-base. I would also like to see CC fully integrated into CF. I use V6 CC and CF extensively, but an integration of the two would simplify things enormously.

Lot of ranting around here... and obviously from people that never developed anything themselves... So I will rant the other way.

Assuming that a new version should start with all previous version capabilities is plain wrong! If everyone was doing that, we would still have DOS to boot windows, bloating software everywhere that took an eternity to start/run and all codebases that would be unmaintainable. 

A new version can go 2 ways:

1. Add new functionality to the older one. In this case, almost everything should work as before
2. Do a core upgrade. Typically dramatic changes chosen by the company or impose by external factors (i.e. new Joomla version). Those still should have all essential functionalities. 

In CF's case, changes from Joomla 3 to 4 (and to 5 in a more limited way) has forced them to make core changes so I say what they need to deliver in a typical 8.0 release is core capabilities that is creating a form so I'd say they MUST support for different types of input fields, saving the form and sending e-mail.

Other features can come later and I like the idea of following priorities based on forum feedbacks... That being said, most people would not pay for basic forms and, since we do pay (some of us at least), we want something more. 

For me there are 2 main things I miss:

1. Better documentation
2. Easy upgrade

For full disclosure, I haven't tried to upgrade to v8 yet but did a lot of v6 -> v7 and, as far as I can tell, we needed to recreate all forms manually. I'm thus hoping we could avoid that as I managed 20 forms for various customers. So, even a external tool to convert/upgrade forms would be great (doesn't need to be included in Joomla)

Now, to the subject of the thread, I think a roadmap would be great. It would help us get an idea of where things are and you (as in ChronoEngine company) avoid multiple repetition of ranting for missing features. It doesn't need to be advanced but a simple GitHub project or Trello board would be great.

In any cases, thanks for the good work.

//Geoffrey

You can now import v6/7 forms in v8:

https://www.chronoengine.com/blog/chronoforms-v8-0-28-release-details