A question for all of Bolt's contributors

[markkasaboski]

Hello everyone,

I came across Bolt recently as I was looking for a Symfony based CMS for a project that I'm starting. It was obvious at first that momentum had stopped on this repo, but at the time I wasn't sure why. I started playing with Bolt anyway. It was until yesterday that I learned of Bob's passing.

So my question to everyone is: Is anyone interesting in keeping Bolt going? Has anyone here forked and kept it moving? I did a quick search, but didn't find anything. I'd be interesting in helping it to move forward. Is anyone else interested? I'm sure Bob would want it to carry on.

Thanks.

[saling-star]

I think we all, people using Bolt, are waiting for keeping it alive !
It becomes urgent to adapt Bolt to Symfony last release since mainenance of version 5.4 will end shortly.
For Bolt 5.2 :
Package sensio/framework-extra-bundle is abandoned, you should avoid using it. Use Symfony instead.
Package symfony/web-server-bundle is abandoned, you should avoid using it. No replacement was suggested.
Package tightenco/collect is abandoned, you should avoid using it. Use illuminate/collections instead.

Does anyone know how to update the deprecated packages ? Wil it be enought for Symfony 7 ?

[cervelas]

Hello Everyone !

As everyone here, i love Bolt for it's simplicity and it's power. I use it on a few website, it is very reliable. (i've 2 installs still on bolt 3.7!)
I think this project deserve at least a 5.2 maintenance release.

The big issue is that the PR's tests requirements are not pass anymore due thoses deprecations.

I'm willing to help, i'm not a symfony expert, but i can create a PR to update the Core regarding all thoses composer warnings:

Package sensio/framework-extra-bundle is abandoned, you should avoid using it. Use Symfony instead.
Package symfony/web-server-bundle is abandoned, you should avoid using it. No replacement was suggested.
Package tightenco/collect is abandoned, you should avoid using it. Use illuminate/collections instead.
Package webmozart/path-util is abandoned, you should avoid using it. Use symfony/filesystem instead.

This will obviously require refactoring of the code using thoses libs.

The next steps would be to updates the others projects as needed (e.g. bolt/article, bolt/assets, etc...), then update to Symfony 7, then make a 5.2 release.

Who is willing to help with that ? i'm throwing a bottle, maybe @bobvandevijver @nestordedios @Sander-Hub ?

Bonus question, who can update the PR settings ? can anyone have admin access to this project on github ?

Cheers,
C

[bobvandevijver]

While I would love helping with this project (I currently have 4 projects running on it, 5.2.0-rc.1), I'm afraid I currently do not have the time to commit to that 😞

[avdavidw]

I've loved Bolt and have used it a lot. I've played with a few new installs and tried to update some of the outdated components and it just seemed to open a can of worms into more and more that needed updates and code changes.

My assessment, at least for me, would be that time would be better spent creating something new than trying to fix Bolt. If there were a few people willing to split it up, I'd be willing to take a piece, though.

[celtic34fr]

Hello everyone

I would like to submit an idea to the community.
Bolt CMS seems to be waiting, stay there. The latest version published is V 5.2.0-rc.1 (22/12/2023) / 5.1.24 (19/02/2023) and many issues remain (203).

I appreciate Bolt CMS for its modularity and the fact that even inexperienced programmers on Symfony can quickly modify it by bringing their need.

Bob den Otter is dead, which hurts me because his work for Bolt CMS is fabulous. It would be even sadder if it does not progress anymore and falls into oblivion like many projects on GitHub.

In order not to let Bolt CMS become a new dead project, I propose to constitute with the current contributors and those who want to become one, a plan in 3 phases :
_ first, stabilize and produce version 5.2 taking into account only the problems that have been opened to date,

• migrate Bolt CMS from Symfony 5.* to 6.* because Symfony version 5.4 is coming to the end of its life,
• migrate Bolt CMS to Symfony 7.*, this less in the emergency (version 6.4 is maintained until 30 Nov 2027)

This plan will make live the work of Bob. it will also be necessary in parallel to make a reorganization of the site listing and allowing to obtain extensions and themes: it is necessary to distinguish according to the version of Bolt CMS compatible with the extension or theme, and to simplify the proposal of extension, of theme, via a form.

I await your opinion on this idea of continuation of Bolt CMS.

Gilbert ARMENGAUD
[email protected]
Beziers - Herault - France

[bobvandevijver]

Actually, Symfony 5.4 will be supported (looking at security fixes only) a lot longer than 6.4 (February 2029 versus November 2027). So keeping this project of 5.4 for now is not the biggest issue, and I would skip 6.4 completely. 7.4 will be released in November this year, and is supported till November 2029 (so longer than 5.4).

I've been using Bolt 5.2.0-rc.1 for quite some time without any issue, so 5.2.0 can be tagged directly imo.

[cervelas]

Agree, the biggest issue for me is the CI/PR devops that are not passing anymore. i also noted that the docker compose are based on php 7.3. I'm ok to get my hands dirty to fix thoses.

[celtic34fr]

@bobvandevijver happy to read your answer. But your proposal is too heavy to be realistic, I think the transition to a version under Symfony 6.* will allow a smooth transition.

I work locally, on the transition to version 6.0.* to already take a first step towards a version 6.4.*. There will already be enough difficulties to negotiate and solve in the transition to a major version higher, the work seems to me more enormous to want to move to the second version higher as you propose. I think you have to climb small mountains first before you want to climb Everest.

[bobvandevijver]

You're probably forgetting that when you support 6.4 with no deprecations, 7.x will directly work without adjustments. So, yes, 6.4 will be the intermediate to help solve all deprecations, but I see no reason to maintain and support a bolt version just for 6.x.

[celtic34fr]

that's my goal

[saling-star]

Hello Bolt-Lovers,
I use this CMS (4 sites) since 3-4 years and therefor very much concerned by a lack of maintenance.
My needs are :

• multi-sites on a single app and data-base (symfony multi-kernel was too difficult, a tinkering in templates more easy)
• compatibility with symfony last version (security, updates).

We all want to continue with Bolt but...
Some of you want to prolong Bob's project as it was, but it seems a big effort (too few people in the community, no more manager...),
Others are septic (discovering "a can of worms" !!! in bolt-core) and prefer restart from the beginning a new one.

My proposal is in the middle, I think that Bolt Bob's project was genial, perhaps too genial and therefor too much difficult to maintain.
I am working on Symfony-Demo (a very simple demo-blog compatible with Symfony 7.2) with the aim to reuse the existing data-base of Bolt (Content, Field and FieldTranslation -Taxonomy ?). At the end the public interface of the CMS will follow Symfony at it's last version and the private interface stay temporarily on Sf5.4 but only accessible by admin on a private server (so far from Internet hackers).

Sorry if it is completely out of subject but I am novice in object-programming, I can't understand Git-Hub functioning (fork, branches, PR...). Sorry for my French-English-charabia...
Saling Paris France

[cervelas]

Thanks everyone for your comments so far,

So i believe we can start something here, at least making a working 5.2 release.

There is a proposal for a roadmap to the 5.2 release, the idea is to have the release process working, and some dependency update as bonus points.

1. Analyse then Repair / update Github actions, there is some deprecated actions and others stuff, this is obviously number one for me.
2. Update Dockerfile and docker compose to a more php version (current 7.3 !)
3. Update composer file and dependencies to support ^8.2 version, deprecation warnings are acceptable for now.

Bonus points:

• PHP 8.3 or 8.4 support
• Bump to Symfony 7.x
• Resolve some Issues !

Who is motivated to help ?

[bobvandevijver]

I've got limited access to the Github organisation now (limited because I cannot access the setting, we'll see how far I can come without that) and will look whether I can create the 5.2 release sometime soon.

Is the Slack workspace still being used? If so, can somebody create an invite so I can join?

[cervelas]

@bobvandevijver I think the rights are ok, i've created the 5.2.0 draft release, it's empty for now.

[evertalbers]

Is the Slack workspace still being used? If so, can somebody create an invite so I can join?

Yes it is. Me/somebody else would need your email address for an invite, if I see it correctly.

[bobvandevijver]

You can use bob [at] drenso [dot] nl for the invite

[Sander-Hub]

FYI. https://slack.bolt.cm is working again (I had no idea this was a thing by the way).

[celtic34fr]

Bonjour à l'équipe.

Pour les échanges sur le plan dév. ne serait-il pas plus pratique de créer un serveur Discord ? Facilité pour les échanges de message, mais possibilité de travail avec partage d'écran et web-conférence azu besoin. Je vous soumets cela pour étude.
Il serait bon de contacter @antiftw (https://boltcms.slack.com/team/U01F2MYUUKW) qui travaille sur la question de la monté de version de Symfony, nous avons échangé sur le sujet et il semblez avoir bien avancé dessus.

Hello to the team.

For discussions on the dev plan, wouldn't it be more practical to create a Discord server? Easy for message exchanges, but possibility of working with screen sharing and web-conference if needed. I submit this to you for study.
It would be interesting to contact @antiftw (https://boltcms.slack.com/team/U01F2MYUUKW) who is already working on the issue of Symfony's version upgrade, we have discussed the subject and it seems to have made good progress on it.

Gilbert ARMENGAUD
celtic34fr
Béziers - Hérault - France

[macintoshplus]

Hello @celtic34fr,

As for the GitHub organization, Slack has been the community's means of communication for a while. Now that it's working again, we might as well use it.

For the migration work to Symfony 6, this is very good news. However, I fear that there are too many changes in a single PR. The best thing is to separate the changes into smaller PRs.

Bonjour @celtic34fr,

Comme pour l'organisation GitHub, le slack est le moyen de communication de la communauté depuis un moment. Maintenant qu'il fonctionne à nouveau autant l'utiliser.

Pour le travail de migration vers Symfony 6, c'est une très bonne nouvelle. Je crin cependant qu'il n'y ai trop de modification dans une seule PR. Le mieux étant de séparer les évolutions en PR plus petite.

Jean-Baptiste.

[markkasaboski]

Oh wow! I wasn't getting notifications from Github for a while. I just came back to this now and seeing all of this. I've joined the Slack and I'll see how I can help out.