Project Closure
After many, many months of consideration, I have made the tough decision to bring the Injader project to a close. The purpose of this post is to explain my reasons for ending the project, and what the future holds.
Injader started as a closed source project called Majestic, way back in May 2005. The goal of the system was to make my life easier, as I was sick of updating my sites by hand. In this respect, the project succeeded. Injader has allowed me to set up numerous blogs and websites, and it's also been used for several sites run by family and friends.
In October 2006, Lauren and I emigrated to Australia. We joined a small software company that needed a new website along with some other web-based tools. Majestic was used for this purpose and I developed it rapidly, adding various features that the company required for its operations. The system was a success here, too, and the company still uses it to this day.
By September 2007, Majestic had become a commercial product owned by Injader Pty Ltd, which Lauren and I set up. Unfortunately, this didn't work out. Gradually, the price was slashed, then we offered a free version, before finally closing the business. Majestic was rebranded as Injader, and released under an open source licence in mid 2008. Development continued, and interest picked up as the price tag was no longer a barrier to new adopters.
Once we moved back to the UK, it quickly became apparent just how much free time we had when in Australia, and how little time we had after we moved back. I've added new features and streamlined the product in a few ways (mainly due to the extremely valuable feedback from Ovi at Distinctive Quality), but some major work is required before the project can fully mature. There are many, many things that need improving, especially the code. Injader started out as a learning project to allow me to pick up PHP, and a lot of it is at least 2 years old.
Injader 2.5 was going to be a huge rewrite, and I did make some good progress. But if I'm totally honest, after spending a few of my weekends working solidly on it, I'd be surprised if it's more than 2% complete. I feel like I've done so much work on it... and yet that doesn't seem like an unrealistic estimate of how much is left to do.
So, what happens now?
Sites that are currently using Injader will not cease to exist, unless the sites are closing anyway. All of my blogs will stay as they are for the moment, at least until I can plan what to do next. I might start a new project (probably for my use only) and move those sites across to it. Or I might write an export script and put the sites on another platform. I don't know yet. If you're using Injader at the moment and you don't want to move away, that's your call, I don't mind what you choose to do. If I do write a script to move my blogs elsewhere, I'd be happy to share it on Injader.com.
As the project is open source, there is always the option for someone else to continue it. If you're a budding coder and you feel like taking on Injader, go ahead. But please understand my reasons for closing the project and that a lot of work is required to get it moving. It hasn't died - but it never really took off. If you're interested, I should point out that outside of a few queries, I really can't provide a lot of support. I can tell you how the framework was set up, the good things and bad things in the system, and what was planned for the future. I can't write any of the code though. You need to be prepared to learn the system on your own, with minimal pointers. (Honestly, I get asked to do this all the time - it's tough at first, but very rewarding if you persevere.)
I'm sure there will be a few people who are disappointed by this decision. I'm sorry if this is the case. I have been thinking about this for a while now, and I believe it is the right choice.
If you'd like to stay in touch, you can find me in the following places:
- My blog: http://www.benbarden.com/
- Top Ten Blog Tips: http://www.toptenblogtips.com/
- CMF Ads: http://www.cmfads.com/
- Twitter: http://twitter.com/benbarden
Thank you for your support over the years - it is very much appreciated. It has been an enjoyable experience and I have learned a lot.
Ben
In progress: Injader 2.5 - code rewrite, and new theme system
Injader 2.5 is well underway. I've been rewriting a lot of the code, which is no small task as I'm sure you can imagine.
A major improvement in this version is the introduction of a brand new theme system. Keeping the existing theme system is possible, but would require extensive changes to your theme files to get them working with Injader 2.5. If themes are going to break in 2.5, it seems sensible to take the opportunity to use a much more advanced system for building themes.
Although I do not take this lightly, the fact is that Injader is still relatively unknown. I believe that introducing an improved theme system will give many more people a reason to try Injader. The current theme system can be used to produce great results, but it's much more complex than it should be.
I'll explain more about Injader 2.5 as it approaches beta testing. There's still plenty to do, so it's not going to happen for a few weeks yet. But I'll keep working on it until the system reaches a point where it is running smoothly, and then we'll see how it fares at Injader.com.
Injader 2.4.4 Released
The latest version of Injader is now available to download.
Injader 2.4.4 includes a new Archives page. This can be added to your site quite easily - just link to it. A link has been added to the default theme to show you how to do it; meanwhile, you can see an example on the Injader.com Archives page.
Unless any urgent requests or issues come up, the next release will be Injader 2.5. This is a landmark release - the goal is to rewrite most if not all of the system. As a reminder, Injader 2.5 will not support PHP4, only PHP5 and above. Please contact your web host if you need to check whether Injader 2.5 will work on your current web hosting.
I may post updates along the way. So - more news soon!
Dropping support for PHP4
Later this year, I'm planning to release Injader 2.5. This is an important milestone as it will be the first version of Injader to drop support for PHP4. From that point on, Injader will only support PHP5.
Over the last couple of years, most web hosts have been upgrading their servers to use PHP5. If you're not sure whether your site uses PHP5, contact your web host. And if you need a new web host, I highly recommend Hostgator.
Things have been a bit slow around here, and I apologise for that. I'm hoping to get the next version of Injader released within the next 4 to 6 weeks. This will be Injader 2.4.4 rather than Injader 2.5.
More news soon.
Injader: What happened in 2009?
Only a few days of 2009 remain. It seems like a good opportunity to look at what's been achieved this year, and what's in store for 2010.
Release summary
Some key improvements from 2009 include:
- WordPress import script
- Optimised URLs
- Subscribe to comments by email
- Navigation types
- Spam rules
- Single control panel
- Theme settings
- Manage comments
- RSS 2.0
There have been 14 releases this year, down from 24 in 2008. This shows that things have settled down into a less frantic release schedule than before, but without resulting in the project stagnating.
The changes have not been as large this year as the previous year. 2008 started with 1.3.1 and ended with 2.1.2, while 2009 started with 2.1.3 and ended with 2.4.3. Of course, version numbers alone don't tell the full story, and some great upgrades have been released this year. But overall, it's been a year of consolidation, rather than sweeping changes.
Injader 3
The big plan is to release Injader 3 sometime in 2010. I've blogged about Injader 3 previously. Many of the releases in 2009 have focused on getting us closer to Injader 3. There are some more changes to do before work can start on Injader 3, but we're getting closer now. As a very rough estimate (meaning, don't hold me to this), you may see something sometime during summer 2010. I'll refine this timescale as I have a better idea of how much work is still to be done.
Your thoughts
Is there anything you'd particularly like to see from Injader in 2010?