Symphony.

Picking up discussion from the RC1 Overview thread, to avoid it getting too OT.

@newnomad

I agree having common apps (basic CRM, project management, blog, etc.) will inevitably happen in Symphony (I'm doing it internally already since these things are so commonly requested), I'm not sure they will be extensions strictly. I always imagined that Ensembles would become modular, and that would be the proper form for a full-blown portable application. These would include extensions, events, and possibly data structure.

I imagine an abstract extension that would handle the installation and packaging of these modular ensembles/applications. Since inevitably you'll have data structures that are used across multiple applications, this extension would allow you to map your app's required data to your pre-existing data structure (or create it if you don't already have it). This setup could allow for some interesting and exciting use of semantic technology that could possibly let your apps know if your pre-existing data structure is compatible.

As far as having to deal with different interfaces when using external web services, I totally agree. Taking the 'porting' concept, you could create an Ensemble (requiring events) that would handle the reading and writing to an external service API (such as Salesforce for crm), allowing you to integrate it into a Symphony admin interface. This could be useful in situations where your backend users don't necessarily need or want full access to the external service (think of a hosting control panel), but do want everything they need in a common interface. I think that web services and semantic web are only going to become more common in web development, and Symphony has a lot of potential to work with those technologies.

Ok so that was some rambling, but that's my take on Symphony in the future.

Thanks for sorting this into a new thread. Indeed when I say extensions I mean ensembles (containing extensions).

It seems most of us are on the same wavelength regarding those future roads, then. Would love to hear to team's opinion on this (if we may distract them ;-)

PS admins, feel free to clean up the other thread and move it here.