Question Joomla! + Kunena Integration

Hi there Kunena users and devs,

This is a copy of my original thread at the Joomla! forum .

Working with Joomla! 1.7 has been amazing so far. Working with the Kunena Forum extension, however, a little less. So I was thinking: we have Joomla! and we have the Kunena Forum extension, but they are so very interdependent. For instance: you are working with Joomla! and you've found a great, pro template. You're all excited and happy because you really love that template. The next thing you do is 'developing' your site. While you're doing this, you think a nice Forum extension is exactly what you need. So, you start browsing for a forum extension in the extensions section of Joomla! Then you discover a few forum extensions: one that looks rather slick, simple and clean but almost has no configurable options, one that has a few more configurable options but is not compatible with the recent Joomla! release and one that is compatible with the latest release and also offers a lot of configurable options. The one I'm talking about now is Kunena.

So, you decide to pick the Kunena Forum extension and immediately add it to your website. But you start thinking "this is just not it.." and why? Well, Kunena has a template section of its own which means, you will have to change the layout. Then you go browse the internet searching for a Kunena template that might fit perfectly in your site. The templates you find are rather dissapointing as they are not all compatible with the Kunena Forum release. You are not happy or amused but you know a forum is what you need!

It all has to do with compatibility. In this case there are a few scenarios you have to consider:

1. Will my Joomla! template be compatible with the current Joomla! release?
2. Will the Kunena Forum release be compatible with the current Joomla! release?
3. Will my Kunena template be compatible with the current Kunena release?
4. Will the template I've chosen for Kunena match the template I'm using in Joomla!?
or:
4. Will there even be a Kunena template that matches my Joomla! template?

Here's an illustration to clarify the current situation:



So.. 4 teams. There will be 4 different teams working on these aspects:

1. Joomla! Development
2. Joomla! Template Development
3. Kunena Forum Development
4. Kunena Template Development

All at a different pace. Problem? Well yeah, organizing 4 teams is way harder then organizing, say, 2 teams? This is how I think it should be:



So.. 2 teams! Yes, really.

1. Joomla!-Kunena Development
2. Joomla!-Kunena Template Development

All in a more steady pace. I mean, this is the future foor Joomla! & Kunena. Both Joomla! and Kunena have an immense set of configurable options, which could be integrated perfectly. All the data for Joomla! and Kunena already exists, there's nothing really 'new' to program. Just a few extra options maybe..

Why am I so eager to see this happening? Well, I'm currently working on this website (it's all just sample data, still needs a lot of work so don't pay attention to the content svp) and I will really need a Forum. In my case, I've chosen a very specific Joomla! template which I can in no way get matched by any Kunena template.

What I also would like to see is an integrated option to auto-open a new forum thread after an article was posted. In my case, after a recently posted review:

Article Manager -> +Add Article:
Article Title... [x] Create a new forum in {forum (sub-)category}

There's no way I can make that happen with the Kunena Forum as a 'separate' extension really.

Also, why doesn't Joomla! have a default comments plugin? I think that should be one of the main features..

Anyway, how I can contribute to this idea? Well, I know 0.0 about programming but I've got the ideas. I could just submit ideas to this forum or even this thread and / or some illustrations of what I think it should look like. Anyway, I'm curious to hear what you think about this suggestion. Remember, key words to this suggestion are compatibility and optimization.

With regards,
Casimir -3XPER7- de Bruijn

In short: we are well aware of the issue and we are currently working to get it solved in Kunena 2.0, but it's much harder than people usually think of. So it will still take some time to get the worst issues fixed.

Most issues between Kunena and other templates come from Joomla template using too general CSS rules that override Kunena rules. Another issue is that our current template is improved version of older Joomla 1.0 template. It's getting old and you can see it. Most of our efforts for a long time were going on making Kunena more stable and easier to work with. Templates got less attention, mostly because of we didn't have anyone who was both pro with templating and had time to work on it.

There is one thing you can do to fix possible layout issues: load Kunena CSS after all the template CSS.

Do you have some CSS skills? If you do, you could join the effort to make a better template (contact sozzled or someone else from our team who's active in the forums).

Well, to be honest, I've got no CSS knowledge and skills at all, so I can just work with plug 'n play programs. I must say, Kunena seemed pretty stable but it's the integration that does it for me..

At this moment, I'm in doubt. I'm really aiming for going live next month and I'll be needing a stable and clean looking forum by then. And right now I'm looking at external forum templates to install on a subdomain, but I don't know how hard it will be to combine user profiles..

Doubts, doubts

This will probably come a bit late for you, but I have high hopes that we get much improved templating into K2.0. Everything just takes time, and templating is as slow to code as everything else.

I guess so, don't know how long it will be taking to get the templating upgraded but I don't have much time. And well, as long as Kunena doesn't get fully integrated to Joomla!, I don't feel like using it (as explained in the fipo).

Joomla are not going to pick up Kunena and make it part of the base installation. That goes against the whole principle.

Kunena integrates perfectly with Joomla, and there are plenty of free templates for Kunena and Joomla that work together very well.

There is no other forum software that integrates with Joomla as easily as Kunena does, and having tested out Kunena 2.0 and the templates that come with it I can see things are only going to get better.

In that case I'll just take a look at Kunena 2.0 and decide whether I like it or not.