Looking for Beta Testers & more (read)

Hi guys :)

As some of you may know, I have been developing a miniature CMS for use by myself, friends, and clients of mine.

As it is now entering near the 1.6 stage of its life, (1.58.2 at the moment) I will soon be looking for official beta testers to test the software on either local/live environments depending on your personal preferences.

As of lately, I seem to be adding new features/fixing old bugs every other day, so a upgrade package is released pretty often so it would be your responsibility to get the new upgrade packages and upgrade your own version accordingly.

The Theme System
My main goal when starting this project was to develop a theme system better than any CMS that I have used in the past and it should have the ability to be applied to any theme, even professional ones (with some work of course). However, the theme system in haze is currently what I guess you could call as "static", as you can not switch to other themes or have more than one theme installed at a time. Of course in the future, you will have these features but at this point it is only written on a notepad.

On a side note, there is also no "theme site" to go get a theme from as of yet. You will have to just test with the default theme or work to create your own for now. That is why i require you have a little more than basic knowledge of PHP and HTML before attempting to beta test. If any public themes are released then you will receive those in separate optional upgrade packages, otherwise you can work on your own or simply use the default theme since its only beta testing as of now.

Installation
Yes, phpHaze does have an installer now and the upgrade packages have the necessary tools to upgrade your files and database as easy as possible to the user.

As a beta tester, what will I actually be testing for?
It is important that you throughoughly test each function and feature of this software, even though it has been personally tested by myself and a few other users, it needs to be tested over and over and its best to let a real user of the software do this.

You will be looking for and PHP errors or MySQL errors that may occur as a result of using the CMS. In this case, i recommend using a local server where you have better control of the displaying of PHP "Notice" errors. However if your live server can be tweaked to show these errors and your host does allow it, then that is fine to. You will also be looking for XHTML validity errors, for this task I recommend Firefox 2 with the HTML validator plugin, as W3C can not validate admin areas or password protected areas.

I also of course accept any suggestions of new features to the CMS, or even changes of old ones, criticism, whatever else you can do to help!

Requirements to be a Beta Tester
-- You must have some basic PHP/HTML skills.
-- You must be an experienced CMS user, if you aren't, there is no point for you to test this software :)
-- Of course, you MUST be a member of webdigity but heres the catch, you must be a member for at least 6 months or longer.

Do I get to keep the software or can you stop me, etc?
This part is entirely up to you, you can trash if once beta testing is considered finished or you can continue to use it. Of course it would be an honor for you to use it instead of trashing it, but its entirely up to the end user not myself.

I'm a PHP Developer, or JavaScript, how can I help?
Please contact me on this thread or via PM/email and I will be very welcoming. I am currently looking for some Javascript developers who have basic knowledge of Ajax and PHP integration between the two.

If you are onward *already* to version 1.6, why is the software not even released yet?
I still have not decided if it will ever be a publically available software, so for the time being it will remain in beta stage and unreleased until further notice.

I want to beta test, so how do I get started?
Post on this thread that you wish to be a beta tester, and list your level of experience in the PHP/MySQL/HTML fields. As well, be sure to list any CMS that you may have used in the past, and if any, which is your favorite and why. I will reply to your messages one by one and notify you whether you have been accepted or not as an official beta tester.

As I said earlier, I am open to suggestions and critics about the CMS, so feel free to leave those :).

I afraid I can't help you at this point. I wish I had the time :)

BTW why don't you just release it under GPL? This way you'll for sure get feedback on it.

no prob Nik, I was hoping you would at least take a look but no worries ;)

I have to look into GPL and all of that before I decide ultimately.. as I said I'm not even sure if it should be released, without some professional feedback I don't feel comfortable giving it to the world yet, know what I mean?

I thought haze was based on fusion which is GPL so by default fusion will be released GPL or Meth0d risks a court case ;)

when i first started haze (let me say this for the millionth time) the Database query functions, as well as a few core security features, were based on fusion. I would say 98% of the CMS is not fusion or anything like fusion, so at this point in the project is no longer truly based ON fusion, so what you say there is irrellevant.

nope you see and this is where you need to understand that 2% means that you have by default got to release under GPL go read the license ;)

sorry mate I know it seems like the world conspires against us at time, but the GPL is designed to protect the freedom of software if you use 1 line of code that is from a GPL product then you have to release the "modified code"

yes I understand all of that entirely.. that is not what I am saying :) you are missing the point Venture, this thread isnt about whether I will release it or not, or HOW it will be released. Its only asking people to test it in their spare time, nothin more.

IF i "copy" anything from anywhere, everyone responsible/involved would get credit and be properly notified before I use it. Before I used anything, I did contact Nick Jones (aka Digitanium) the creator of PHP-Fusion to ask for permission on various things and its all 100% a go for me.

If I do release it publically, the chances are it will go GPL wouldnt you think? Yes. The sights however are set for me to NOT release it.

I was merely answering Niks question and not missing the point ;)
one final thing to consider if its 98% different from the GPL you would only need to release the code that was directly related to the 2% that is GPL so for example anything not related to DB calls or result from a DB code (such as theme files maybe?) would be separate and you could therefore release them on a different license.

Just a thought should you feel the need to release it (though I would point out by using it on clients sites you may have already done so but I'm not a lawyer)

Any way good luck with the beta testers.

hmm thanks for that tidbit venture, that definately helps :)

too bad so far none of you want to test it, though. i would probably suprise you a bit ;)