Spread the news
So it's official: I'm leaving WordPress behind. I'm involved with the development of Habari, the next-generation blogging solution. One might wonder why we're re-inventing the wheel. Someone recently quipped that we're past the wheel, and are now working on the hovercar! Nonetheless, an explanation of what Habari offers should help explain why I'm involved.
Community
Community is the cornerstone of Habari development. It was community that brought the four of us together, and we're keeping community squarely in mind as we approach decisions and plan features. We recognize that only through collaboration will Habari succeed: each participant brings with him or her their own unique skills and passions. This diversity of talent and ability is an important aspect of Habari's community.
Another important aspect is that Habari is owned by the community. No one person has full authority over it. The people who use it and work on it are the ones who should -- and will -- make decisions about Habari development. Additionally, community members should be given the power to take charge of their areas of expertise. If someone is passionate about documentation, they ought not have to work through someone else's restrictions in order to make the docs successful.
Innovation
Habari is about innovation. There's a lot of great things being done with internet technologies, and we are very interested in integrating them into the way we blog. Things like OpenID, CoComment, and the Atom Publishing Protocol are all very useful innovations. We've been frustrated by the difficulty in integrating these -- and more -- into WordPress. Some of the roadblocks to integration into WordPress were technical, while others were clearly non-technical. We hope to remove both kinds of roadblocks and make Habari the most cutting-edge blogging system available.
One of the very first decisions when planning Habari was to make it a fully object oriented system, and leverage the powerful features of PHP objects. This has resulted in some wonderfully efficient code, and so far the system is remarkably fast. Object oriented programming allows us to streamline the development of user-created plugins; allows us to integrate a unified error handling system; and vastly simplifies the construction of our Application Programming Interface.
Another early goal of Habari was database independence. There exist enough database abstraction libraries that locking oneself into a single database really does seem a poor design decision these days. By using PHP version 5, we gain access to the PHP Data Objects (PDO), which is the PHP-native database independence solution. We currently have MySQL and SQLite working, and are eager to find contributors with PostgreSQL experience. Preliminary conversations suggest that Oracle support wouldn't be too hard, either, surprisingly enough. Another very real benefit to using PHP5 + PDO is that we gain the use of prepared statements for all database interactions. This drastically reduces the likelihood of a SQL injection attack against your blog. We're considering using stored procedures, too, as both a means to improve performance as well as to improve database independence.
Documentation
As much as we're striving to make a system that's friendly and intuitive, we recognize that not all people have the same background as we do; and as such what's intuitive to us might not be intuitive to a first-time blogger. Documentation is of paramount importance to the Habari project. End-user documentation and developer documentation will both be included in the download.
We plan to integrate links to the manual into the Habari administrative interface, so that you may get help about specific parts of each screen with a single click. The manual will be part of your Habari installation, so if you can get to your site you can read the manual. Users should be able to access the documentation without relying on our possibly flaky servers to store the manual they need.
Developers -- and would-be developers -- should also be provided with meaningful documentation. We're fully documenting (via PHPdoc) the source code to Habari, and plan to include thorough instructions as to how the system operates: initialization, request processing, theme and plugin dispatching, and more. This is a fundamental part of the Habari distribution, and not left to the kindness of volunteers after the fact. New methods will be documented when they're included in a new release, not after someone figures it out on behalf of everyone else.
Another important aspect of documentation is meaningful changelogs, listing real changes to the product since the last release. Distributors and integrators rely on changelogs to see what's happened. Developers rely on changelogs to be made aware of fundamental changes to systems they might be using or extending.
Experimentation
Habari is not afraid to experiment with new ideas. The Subversion repository ensures that nothing is ever truly deleted. If someone eagerly checks in a new idea that proves to be either poorly implemented, or maybe just not such a great idea after all, the revision control system makes it easy to correct the situation and move on. We hope to support developer branches for their own work outside of the core trunk.
With all these people having access to check in new code, it's a very real possibility that someone might try to intentionally foul things up. If someone were to flake out and try to actively harm the project by deleting files or polluting contents, the other project members could simply roll back to a previous version before the attack and keep going. If someone checks in something by mistake, or implements something broken outside of their area of expertise, it can be dealt with relatively easily.
Development Model
I met DrBacchus several years ago, and it's been fascinating to listen to him speak about the Apache development process. The meritocracy of the Apache Software Foundation is such that regular participation results in increased permission within the project. This is the model we've decided to adopt for Habari: frequent contributors are given access to submit new stuff directly, because they've proven themselves capable.
This is important for several reasons. First, we each have our own areas of interest and expertise, so by getting more people involved directly we speed up the development of all areas of the code. Second, more people are available to deal with problem situations. Third, the project as a whole doesn't slow down if a few of the developers are offline for extended periods of time. Finally, more developers improves our "bus factor": it takes more people getting hit by more buses to interrupt the project.
Spread the news
We've been working on Habari since October, 2006. I'm tickled that many of the suggestions on "What the new kid on the block needs to get right" had been discussed long before we ever announced the project. With the influx of interest and enthusiasm, there's been a lot of attention on the installation process. Hopefully we can dedicate as much energy to the upgrade process as well.
I'm thrilled with the response to Habari so far. Owen's posted some more info about Habari, as well as a collection of links to some other posts about it. The IRC channel is becoming surprisingly busy. I know eventually all the enthusiasm will taper off, and tough decisions will need to be made; but for right now the sky's the limit!
Needless to say, I'm very excited about Habari!
Skippy - you'll also be tickled to know that Akismet decided your pingback to my item was spam !
[...] Also, Scott Merrill has put up a post on Skippy.net letting the world know his involvement with Habari. He has plans to switch his site over to the tool sometime in the near future once it evolves a little more. He let me know that he will “switch as soon as the templating engine is functional”. So it’s official: I’m leaving WordPress behind. I’m involved with the development of Habari, the next-generation blogging solution. One might wonder why we’re re-inventing the wheel. Someone recently quipped that we’re past the wheel, and are now working on the hovercar! Nonetheless, an explanation of what Habari offers should help explain why I’m involved. [...]
I am excited to hear of your aspirations. I just read Andy's post "what the new kids need to get right" and if those things can be done it would be amazing. I will keep up with your development, hopefully it will be something that will be easy to switch to in the future.
First thing I see is the key structure of the posts table is odd. First column is unique and second is primary (not only that a varchar(255) primary key (this may be an issue, I'd have to research it, but typically large keys are frowned upon). I think you should rethink that. Also, do you really want the id to be a smallint? I would use a unsigned integer at least. Get your key structure going with the goal of supporting other platforms. Remember, primary keys are generally used to define the define the database relations, indexes are to improve your lookups. I typically use one or more columns for primary keys and for child tables those same keys + 1 or more additional keys for child tables. I ran away from foreign keys and cascading updates/deletes.
Other suggestions, for portability, separate the creation of the database objects from the creation of the data in the objects. Use standard sql mark-up and don't have the DB::o() syntax as the table names, this will make portability easier.
Good luck with the move Skippy. I might move as well as soon as templates/themes are better supported.
[...] Update: Flere interessante links: http://www.skippy.net/blog/2007/01/09/spread-the-news/ http://asymptomatic.net/2007/01/09/2892/whats-up/ http://www.brokenkode.com/archives/habari/ http://technorati.com/tag/habari Og så kan man iøvrigt selv downloade scriptet og afprøve det hvis man er lidt nørdet. [...]
[...] 起初我都覺得 Habari 極其量是眾多新 blogging platform 中的其中一個，不要說能否普及，隨時會「爛尾」胎死腹中，但最近聽到一些有關 Habari 的消息（1、2），令我覺得 Habari 極有機會跑出，甚至有機會成為 WordPress 的競爭對手，何出此言呢？ 首先看看有什麼人在 Habari 的 developer、designer 之列吧，有 K2 的 Michael Heilemann 和 Chris J. Davis，Khaled Abou Alfa、Owen Winkler、Skippy 等人，他們都是 WordPress community 中有名和有貢獻的人物，為何他們會另起爐灶開發 Habari 呢？ [...]
[...] El diseño de la interfaz ha sido realizado por Chris J Davies y Khaled Abou Alfa, además también está en el equipo el conocido diseñador del tema Kubrick para wordpress, Michael Heilemann. Otros personajes metidos en este CMS son, Scott Merrill, Owen Winkler y Bryan Veloso. [...]
Wow, exciting announcements ! And since most of you guys come from WP, I guess importing tools will be bundled with first release for other WPers to try it :)
I'm looking forward to test it. I'm completely satisfied with WP right now, but seeing all these people I "know" involved in the same project makes me feel it has to be something top notch.
I'm not sure about your name "Habari", which already returns a lot of results in google, but "Spread the news" as a slogan, as I understood it from Owen's post, is really killer.
All in all I don't think the casual average blogger will see any benefit in all the tech details provided (DB independance, PHP5 PDO etc...) but the casual average coder that I am will definately keep an eye on this. I wish you all joys and success !
[...] There’s been a lot of speculation as to why we’re doing this. I’m not going to speak for the others (because they’re doing a pretty good job of it themselves to be honest) but I’ll tell you why I’m doing this. I’ve been talking to (read: boring) many of my offline friends with just how cool this is going to be. The first thing that they ask me is “Why the hell are you doing this to yourself? Why are you working for free again? Why are you spending your free time doing this?” I can only answer by saying that it’s incredible fun to be part of an online community of like minded people who are trying to make one of my favourite pastimes (ie blogging and tinkering with my website) a more enjoyable experience. I love being involved in open source projects and this is without a doubt one of the biggest things I’ve ever been involved with. [...]
[...] Spread the news: Skippy Fußnoten: [...]
Skippy, you've always been one to put your money where your mouth is, so to speak, so I'm excited to see you embracing this project. As a WP user, I too am eager to see what importing tools will be bundled with the first release so that I might join the fun. Good luck.
[...] It’s got an all-star cast behind it. So far I’ve seen (in no particular order) Rich Bowen, Chris J. Davis, Jay Pipes, Binary Bonsai, Scott Merrill, Khaled Abou Alfa, Owen Winkler, and well, a few more. I think I should stop linking them in case Google bans me. But the point is, there’s a lot of talent here. [...]
[...] Most Bloggernacle sites seem to be powered by Wordpress. This makes sense, as WordPress has been one of the best if not the best blogging software around. However, we should take note that a number (1,2,3,4,5,6) of formerly prominent WordPress users have announced they are moving over to a new blogging open-source blogging software called Habari. While I’m certainly not about to dump WordPress, these are serious coders who have been very involved with WordPress for quite awhile. For them to jump ship, in my opinion, is not a small thing. So I’ll certainly be paying attention to what happens with this other blogging software. Site Search Tags: No Tags Technorati Tags: No Tags Related Tags: No Tags [...]
[...] The creator of Wordpress Matt modestly wrote that Habari would probably be Drupal meets Serendipity. He not only pledged his support for the initiative but also offered his servers. Despite of this the unrest in the WP camp is quite noticeable. Some said that this is the outcome of politics of people pissed off from not getting appointed at Automattic. Habari’s Skippy clarified this wasn’t so but wasn’t wary of terming the spam-prevention capability of Wordpress as Band-Aid code. The Habari team is hopeful of cutting a relapse before 6 months and yes this will have the capability of "importing from Wordpress". Owen on the other hand said that there are no hard feelings and he would continue to be with Wordpress as well. [...]
Sounds interesting. I'll have to wait on it though as I don't use PHP5 yet. I know I know I should upgrade..
[...] Flere af dem der med i projektet var tidligere en del af wordpress, f. eks. Cris Davis, Michael Heileman, Khaled, Skippy ….. blot for at nævne nogle… [...]
[...] Voices such as Chris, Michael, Owen, Khaled and Skippy to name but a few, many of whom are well known in the wordpress community. [...]
[...] There is not yet anything to download or try, it’s an ALPHA release at this point and only suitable for testing, but WOW. Habari is the new blogging tool, which takes advantage of the OOP available in php5. According to Skippy, a former WP dev and now a member of the Habari Blog Tool team, “There exist enough database abstraction libraries that locking oneself into a single database really does seem a poor design decision these days. By using PHP version 5, we gain access to the PHP Data Objects (PDO), which is the PHP-native database independence solution. We currently have MySQL and SQLite working, and are eager to find contributors with PostgreSQL experience. Preliminary conversations suggest that Oracle support wouldn’t be too hard, either, surprisingly enough. Another very real benefit to using PHP5 + PDO is that we gain the use of prepared statements for all database interactions. This drastically reduces the likelihood of a SQL injection attack against your blog. We’re considering using stored procedures, too, as both a means to improve performance as well as to improve database independence.” Translation– faster access, less bloat and more secure. COOL! Read his blogpost for a lot more about the advantages of leveraging the power of php5 for this blogtool. It seems we’ll have a LOT of plugin/extension action on this one in the future, since the OOP makes hooking into the program Ůbersimple. [...]
[...] Et il semble que plusieurs bloggeurs réputés rejoignent petit à petit le projet. [...]
[...] Habari est-il alors une revanche due à ce refus d’intégrer Shuttle à WordPress 2.1 ? Si l’on se fie sur ce que rapporte Skippy, qui contribue à Habari, non, mais d’autres contributeurs peuvent y voir une certaine motivation. (Tout en ne condamnant pas WordPress, Michael Heilemann et Khaled sont désolé de voir Shuttle disparaître après que tant d’efforts y aient été investis.) Habari relèverait plutôt de difficultés (techniques et non-techniques) d’intégrer des outils innovateurs et massivement utilisés dans WordPress. Bref, ça dépasse la question du design. [...]
I cannot wait. With coding from my favorite geeks, I can't wait to switch!
[...] Originally developed by Skippy who’s now working on other projects than WordPress, this plugin has been bundled with WordPress installations for about a year. But today users downloading version 2.1 of WordPress will discover that the wp-db-backup.php plugin is no longer included. [...]
[...] Wordpress 经过多个版本，已经走向了成熟，用户群体也变的非常庞大，这也使得开发者变得谨慎，功能上不可能有飞跃的变化。Habari 的重点在炫上，从 Scott 的 Blog 上看，Habari 将会有多少新技术用多少，Habari 会是一个完全的面向对象的系统，支持 OpenID, Cocomment, Atom 发布协议，PHP 将只支持最新的 PHP 5，并且支持 MySQL，PostSQL，SQLite 数据库。 [...]
[...] Habari est-il alors une revanche due à ce refus d’intégrer Shuttle à WordPress 2.1 ? Si l’on se fie sur ce que rapporte Skippy, qui contribue à Habari, non, mais d’autres contributeurs peuvent y voir une certaine motivation. (Tout en ne condamnant pas WordPress, Michael Heilemann et Khaled sont désolé de voir Shuttle disparaître après que tant d’efforts y aient été investis.) Habari relèverait plutôt de difficultés (techniques et non-techniques) d’intégrer des outils innovateurs et massivement utilisés dans WordPress. Bref, ça dépasse la question du design. [...]
where download habary (zip)?
[...] There’s been a lot of excitement and discussion recently about the emergence of a new blogging platform called Habari. A brand new blogging platform being created from scratch with more developers than actual blogs.The prospect of my blog being completely broken by the nightly alpha build was an attractive one. A chance to leave the comfort of a stable Wordpress environment with all those themes and plugins. A change to live on the bleeding edge. I desperately tried to resist but the lure was too strong. In the end, I simply couldn’t help myself. [...]
[...] En octobre je m’extasiais devant la possibilité d’allier un plugin de cron (qui permet de lancer des tâches de manière automatique) avec un plugin de backup de WordPress intégré par défaut et développé par Skippy. Ben voilà que Skippy quitte le projet WordPress et que comme par hasard WordPress décide de ne plus intégrer le plugin de backup dès la version 2.1. Mais nous ne sommes pas laissés en rade puisque Il Filosofo a repris le flambeau et nous signale qu’il continue à développer le plugin et qu’en plus il lui ajoute une fonction de cron intégrée… [...]
...org/why-no-wordpress-and-go-habari">plenty of well written posts on the subject, ...
You know, the more I read about Habari, the more I like it...
I found it funny to see a danish post further up in the comments. OK, I can read Danish but struggled a bit with the Chinese writing further down.
I'm excited about the Habari project. I'm very keen to look at it when it's released. WordPress is a great blogging software and hopefully Habari will be better. Great work!