MODX Revolution 3.0.0-alpha1

After a long wait, we are happy to announce the first official alpha release of MODX Revolution 3.0 today. Though it has seen repeated delays, the core team is committed to moving MODX forward. This release represents a significant milestone and the end of a long incubation period that has no doubt frustrated many in the community.

We look forward to seeing its final release as soon as possible.

Purpose of Alpha Releases

The main point of this post is to describe the purpose of this and future alpha releases. As we work to get the 3.x branch of MODX Revolution stable and ready for production use, we must engage the community as best we can. Without the participation of the users of MODX in this process, it will take far longer to deliver a quality product.

The biggest concern and roadblock to the delivery of 3.x is—and has been—backward compatibility. Our alpha releases intend to help us explore what backward compatibility has been broken by the changes so far, and to see if we can resolve any of those breaks before we draw a line in the sand with a beta release.

Once we hit beta, those breaks will be defined, and there will be no turning back. Before then, we can work together to minimize the disruptions that 3.x will introduce by identifying breaking changes and seeing if there are any possible changes we can make to resolve them.

How You Can Help

The biggest reason we are releasing this official alpha is to get your feedback. You can grab the latest alpha release of MODX Revolution 3.0.0 here.

We need input on the usability of the UI changes. We require thorough testing of new and existing features in the core. But most importantly, moving towards a major version release, we need input on what Extras are not working and why.

The best way to do this is to upgrade (copies of) existing sites. Don't do this on your production websites! Tell us what breaks and what doesn't feel or look right — report problems in the issue tracker. And if you know how to solve it, pull requests are always welcome.

Until we get to the beta phase—the line in the sand regarding backward compatibility for Extras in the 3.x product—we would like to encourage everyone to report issues they encounter with Extras in the forums. We can evaluate these to determine if it is a backward compatibility break we can resolve in the core before the beta. If it cannot, then the Extras maintainers will need to be informed, to make necessary changes, and submit a new version targeting 3.x. But doing that without review during the alpha phase would be premature. So, if you encounter a broken Extra while testing alpha release, check the documentation on upgrading to 3.x. If the problem does not appear to be related to changes described there, please start a discussion in the forums so we can review the issue and consider possible resolutions. I have created the modx-3-alpha tag there to help us identify these reports.

What's Next

The more participation we get during the alpha phase, the quicker we can get to beta, and ultimately, to a final release of MODX 3. I'm sure we all want that to happen sooner than later, so let's all do what we can to get there.