Design a plugin

[Twisty]

So I have a couple of plugins I want to create. Would it be better to do this for 1.6 or should I code using 1.8?

Question pretty much is how long until 1.8 is out and is it worth it coding for 1.6

[Darth Apple]

The vast majority of existing 1.6 plugins should be compatible with 1.8 almost out of the box. Literally all you should have to do is edit one line of code to identify the plugin as 1.8 compatible. I've done that on my plugins and porting them to 1.8 literally takes 60 seconds if only the bare minimum is done, and they work just fine. (There will be plugins where that isn't the case, but I have yet to run into any difficulties yet in porting my own plugins. )

That said, MyBB 1.8 does add some new setting types that are very useful, such as the ability to create forum select settings or usergroup select settings. (No more "enter forum ID" or "enter group IDs" jargon. Kudos to the MyBB team for implementing that, BTW. ) MyBB 1.8 has added a few new hooks as well, and has implemented certain features such as the default avatar functionality that may integrate differently in 1.8 plugins than in 1.6 based plugins.

Personally, I'd recommend just going ahead and developing them for 1.8. MYBB 1.6 won't be the main focus for much longer, and if there is really a lot of demand for the plugins, it should be a fairly straightforward task to backport them to 1.6 later, if necessary. It's best to stay bleeding edge and to focus on what's current in most cases.

Good luck on your plugin development.

[avril]

Question pretty much is how long until 1.8 is out

Anytime. Its very near.

is it worth it coding for 1.6

I think you should start thinking 1.8 way.

[fxzt]

It will be released today.

[dragonexpert]

Actually building a forum select and usergroup select is already available. I used the usergroup select in my social groups plugin. I've used forum select for other works I've done. Check the /admin/inc/class_form.php file.

[Omar G.]

Drop 1.6 from your mind, go the 1.8 way.

At least that is what I will start doing as long as I start updating my plugins, 1.8 brings many new features (some of my plug-ins wouldn't be updated because of this) and optimization.

If 1.8 is already behind the competition then I wouldn't bother with supporting 1.6. That is me of course.

[Cedric]

This user has been denied support.

Drop 1.6 from your mind, go the 1.8 way.

At least that is what I will start doing as long as I start updating my plugins, 1.8 brings many new features (some of my plug-ins wouldn't be updated because of this) and optimization.

If 1.8 is already behind the competition then I wouldn't bother with supporting 1.6. That is me of course.

Well, your idea is supporting, but we can't just stop coding for 1.6, since thousands of forums use this. I guess, we should just code for both 1.6 & 1.8 (Not applicable to me though, I do paid work only.)

[Shade]

Fallbacks for 1.6 are easy to implement. If a function is missing:

if (!function_exists('example')) {
    function example() {}
}

[Omar G.]

Yeah my idea is to force updating to 1.8, I don't have the time to support both versions.

That doesn't mean current versions of my plugins don't work fine in 1.6 though. I'm not going to delete/remove/hide those.