Philosophy
My main goal is to develop/provide software which helps web publisher and web designers to build and operate successful websites.
Successful Websites
From a technical point of view a successful website should in my opinion have at least the following characteristics:
- Technical clean and valid output (HTML/CSS/JS).
- Fast page loading times.
- Clear site structure, so that a visitor finds what he is looking for and search engines could crawl the website with ease.
- No failures/errors. Dead links for example make a bad impression.
- The website should be safe against hacking attacks and secure for the visitors to visit (no spam links, malware delivery, etc.).
All listed characteristics are important for a good listing in search engines and for a good user experience.
I do my best to provide web services, Joomla extensions and WordPress plugins, which allow you to build and operate a website with these characteristics.
Technical Aspects
In the following I describe the concepts which are important to me when I develop extensions or services. Many are self-evident, but not followed by many extension developers.
It may occur that some of my older extensions do not follow all the described concepts. If that is the case, I will improve them in the near future. If you find an extension where a concept is not implemented, just write me an email and I will fix the extension within a few days.
Lean Extensions
I try to keep all my extensions as lean and minimal as possible. In my opinion an ideal extension should do one job and do it well. It is not always possible to keep extensions that simple, but I do my best to implement extensions as lean as possible, when doing it has no drawbacks or the advantages overweight the disadvantages.
Lean extensions are usually easier to use, easier to maintain and easier to secure.
Design
All my extensions support the native Joomla template/layout system. This means you could easily override the HTML code of the extensions. I also put as few as necessary logic directly in the template, so that updates should not affect your overrides.
The styling of my extensions is minimal, so that it should fit for the most websites. However, the loading of the default CSS file could also be deactivated and you could bring your own CSS. I try to provide as many selectors (ids and classes) as necessary to allow you to implement a proper styling.
Where appropriate I also add the classes provided/implemented by Twitter Bootstrap. The extensions should therefore look nice by default with/for all Bootstrap based templates.
Joomla Update System
My extensions (even the commercial) use the native Joomla update system. It is thus easy for you to keep track of the latest updates. The most important changes are listed in the changelog. Security fixes are highlighted in the changelog.
Content Generation
I like the concept of content generation directly from the file structure and the file metadata, so that the bookkeeping have to be done only once.
For the gallery this means for example, that you just have to upload your images organised in folders to the webspace and the gallery views are generated automatically. You do not have to manage the images in the CMS additionally. In more advanced extensions, management functions are provided, which also work directly on the file system.
Commercial Aspects
Standalone
The most of my standalone Joomla extensions and WordPress plugins are available in a free and a paid version. The main difference between the versions is the stability, support level and the ease of updates/upgrades.
The paid versions are more stable and I provide upgrade paths if a new version is not backward compatible. In the free versions I tryout new features and do not guarantee that the extensions works after an update or upgrade.
For the free versions I only provide public support (Google Groups or Github) on a best effort basis. Paying customers have the advantage of private email support in English, German and Dutch.
The free versions may also send me a short report if an extension caused an error or crashed. I will use these reports to improve the quality of the extensions. The paid version will not send any data to me.
If there are add-ons available for an extension, they are only available for paying customers. Add-ons are small modules or plugins, which add extra functionality to a component. The free extensions may also have not all parameters available or a backlink is visible in the frontend. Backlinks are just placed if they do not affect the usability.
All differences between the versions are shown in the following table. Not all differences apply to every extension. The differences are explained in detail in the extension descriptions.
| Feature | Free versions | Paid |
|---|---|---|
| Stability | alpha or beta | stable |
| Support | public via Google Groups or Github | private via email |
| License | AGPL | GPL |
| Backward-comatibility | may break on updates | upgrade path provided |
| Report errors/crashes | yes | no |
| Add-ons | not available | included |
| Parameters | may be limited | all |
| Backlink | may be | no |
Lifetime of a License
If you buy a Joomla extension or WordPress plugin, your license is valid for the lifetime of the current Joomla or WordPress version and you have to buy a new version for the next major CMS version. If you buy an extension for example for Joomla 3, then the license is valid for all Joomla 3 versions, but not for Joomla 4.
You can use the extensions for as many websites as you like, but support is just provided if you contact me via the email address you used to buy an extension.
Services
All Joomla extensions and WordPress plugins which require a backend service are free. However they are of limited use without the backend service.
The services itself are free to use within a defined quota. The quota is chosen so that it is large enough for small and maybe mid-size websites. If the free quota is reached, it is possible to buy a token to get a bigger quota or even use the service unlimited.
A token is usually valid for one website.