Split system module into small modules

[MekDrop]

We have one huge system module. Not always when ICMS is installed all these functionalities are used so users has some overhead functionality. Also, trying to keep such big module updated is not easy task. Switching system into smaller modules, I think this would improve CMS overall.

Because new ICMS modules will have composer build-in support, I think it would be a good reason to move some tables creation from installer into these modules and if any other module uses such functionality it could require that. Also, in such way it would be possible for us easier have possibility to replace core functionality with other similar functionality. When installing icms all system modules will be suggested by composer.

Possible modules:

• adsense
• autotasks (db table)
• avatars (db table; provides - avatars)
• gravatars (provides - avatars)
• blocks (db table)
• comments (db table; provides - comments; requires - users)
• customtag (db table)
• groups (db table; requires - users)
• images (db table)
• mailusers (requires - users)
• mimetype (db table)
• modules
• pages (db table)
• preferences
• rating (db table)
• smilies (db table)
• tags (db table)
• tplsets
• userrank (db table; requires - users)
• users (dbtable)
• version

Ok... so ICMS without users? Yeah, why not! Why we can't have CMS that doesn't supports users registration and only is used to display some data that is generated with help of some modules? User should build everything what he wants! Maybe we need to warn user if he didn't selects such modules as users, preferences, modules, groups, tplsets, mimetype, blocks or maybe require by icms to make it work. I'm not sure. But still I think that without other modules ICMS could work perfectly fine.

[fiammybe]

One thing is certain, the current way also has direct implications on the acp . It is not logical to have separate entries for users, find users and mail users. Functionally those can be different, but they should be shown in the acp as 'users' functions. Subduction perhaps?

When using the composer 'require' directive, what you describe should functionally pose no problem.

[MekDrop]

Main issue why i'm thinking about this is that we need to rewrite everything with frontend controller pattern (we have it in icms2.0 but we don't yet use it). Splitting into parts I think would make it implementing and testing easier.

[skenow]

Without users, how would the control of the site be accomplished? Plain WordPress doesn't support 'uisers', but does have a user, and other writers can be added.

I would say some of the features for members can become optional, but the basic user system is still necessary.

[MekDrop]

There could be two ways:

1. user db table exists but not interface to manage them by default. If you need that, you need to install module for that. You can select one of few modules.
2. user db table doesn't exist on system and no interface however when you are installing icms you need select one module from list that provides users support.

I think we should use first variant for now.

[fiammybe]

You will need roles in the system, there is no way around that. But the current way is very limited : either you use the very basic user management in the core, or you replace it completely with the profile module. That is too monolithical if you want to be flexible :-)
Consider the option that you have an external system that handles user roles for you (LDAP, Active Directory, Single Sign-on like SAML v2 tokens or OAuth2) where the data about your users is not necessarily stored in ImpressCMS. Those are cases where the role of the user is important, along with some kind of universal ID, but the user management can happen outside of ImpressCMS itself.

[fiammybe]

Let's just split off the following parts first:

• adsense
• tags
• ratings
• comments

If we want to do this, we will need a more sophisticated way of integrating the functionalities of these externalised system modules into the ACP.

[MekDrop]

I think customtag and smilies could be also splitted first.

[fiammybe]

I see the first step of this, is to split off the system module out of the core - wise move :-)

[github-actions]

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