Question Legacy mode

Hi, I'm a bit of a Joomla! newbie :blush: and i was wondering if you could help me with this problem:

I am running Joomla! v1.5.10 and I want to use Kunena. However, the only version of kunena for Joomla! 1.5 is still in alpha and I have encountered many bugs in using it, so I have installed the latest Kunena (stable), and of course have to run Joomla! in Legacy mode. Is there any downsides/other effects to running it in Legacy mode, and if not, why does Joomla! not automatically have it turned on?

Thanks,
Ben Adamson
www.gooze.co.uk

No, there are lots of urban legends about legacy mode, slowering your site, but not true at all, it just allows the uses of some functions that we're replaced for better ones in j1.5, so, those speed legends are based on that.

Only problem faced till now, is some problems keeping forum logged after closing your browser and so, while joomla stays logged, but after clicking on any link, or hitting reload, it shows as logged.

johnnydement is right. There are lots of urban myths about Joomla 1.5 "legacy" mode. As far as Kunena is concerned, Kunena 1.0.x requires either Joomla 1.0.x or 1.5.x with "legacy" mode turned on.

However, it might be worth a short discussion about the differences between "legacy" and "native" mode ... and what the hype is all about. In a nutshell, "legacy" mode allows developers to get their products up and running quicker, particularly if they've been working in the J! 1.0 world.

There's a sunset clause in Joomla. Legacy mode won't be around forever and developers are encouraged to remove their products' dependence on this feature as soon as they can. However, it's not as easy as waving a magic wand.

The simple truth is that 99 out of 100 native extensions work with the legacy plugin turned on. That doesn't mean all J! 1.5 native extensions will work, but it's probable that only 1% will fail. No one can say with any certainty. However, what we can say with certainty is that those products that were designed to work in J! 1.0 will not work in J! 1.5 without the legacy plugin enabled. It should also be said that there's a greater chance of J! 1.0 products that won't work with J! 1.5 "legacy" mode either (simply beacuse they're very old) than the chance of J! 1.5 "native" products failing in the same situation.

Joomla 1.5 "legacy" mode doesn't really matter from the end user's perspective except that the feature won't be available in some future version of Joomla. For users who want to future-proof their Joomla installations, they should be trying to eliminate their dependence on legacy mode and shop for products that are built as J! 1.5 native extensions. And that's really the bottom line: most customers want to run J! 1.5; it's the market that's driving developers to stay focused.

If developers want to keep their customers satisfied, they'll move with the times and update their software to continue to work in the future. Those that don't will lose the business.

I've written a page in the Wiki that might be useful if this question comes up again: docs.kunena.com/index.php/Legacy_mode

Thanks everybody, your replies have really helped me. :woohoo: I am now confident in using the legacy mode, as I have hardly any other modules installed. It might be good to sticky this topic to help anybody else with the same question as me, I am sure that there are lots of people needing advice on this.

Your docs on the wiki were helpful - thanks.
Now Kunena 1.0.x requires Joomla 1.5 with 'legacy' mode turned in.
In JED, the JomSocial component has the tab of 'Joomla 1.5 native' and not 'Joomla 1.0 Legacy'. What are the risks then because I have seem JomSocial sites with Kunena (and, they are not using Kunena 1.5.x).

Thanks