If you subscribe to the Joomla Extensions Directory RSS feed, you can see the future of Joomla pass before your eyes. Sure, there are a lot of "me-too" listings but at least once a week there’s something new and exciting.
The latest extension to catch my eye is an automatic installer and updater. Its key selling point? It allows you to install just one extension and use that install and updates dozens of others. No more registering, downloading, uploading and looking out for updates.
Potential Upsides?
- You don’t need to keep an eye out for updates to your favorite extensions.
- This makes running a Joomla site much, much easier and more secure for non-technical users.
- So far, they’ve made wise choices, recommending some very good extensions.
Potential Downsides?
- You need to have complete trust in whoever is delivering the
updates. A mistake or virus in their files could corrupt your site. - I’m not 100% sure of the legality of distrubiting some extensions such as JCE that need a subscription.
- It only supports a small percentage of all the extensions you might use.
- You won’t be able to edit any extension files as they’d be overwritten by the next update.
Overall, I don’t know the Intellispire developers so I don’t know if they have the business and marketing ability to make this product succeed. However if they don’t, I’m sure someone will. This looks like the future of Joomla.