Zenbership v2 Rebuild
The 10,000ft Overview
Zenbership v2 will continue the promise of being the most feature-robust open-source membership management application on the market, all while focussing on modernizing the application's code base for the current landscape. A focus will be made on sustainability, scalability, and code-quality, thereby negating many of the issues that have plagued previous versions of Zenbership.
While the scope of that application will be slightly reduced over v1, core membership management features will not be compromised, and will be rebuilt from scratch using a modern code base for a robust application. Other features, which were originally included in Zenbership v1, but which have since been executed far better by 3rd party providers, will exist in the form of integration plugins. The goal is to create a focussed features set that deliver exceptional quality against the core features of the original platform, while removing many of the less-used/unnecessary features.
At it's core, Zenbership v2 will consist of 3 separate, stand alone applications: 1 API for processing data and running business logic, 1 client for the membership portal, and 1 client for the administrative portal. Both clients will be designed to consume the API, however the API could very well work as a stand alone API as well, allowing developers to build clients on top of it as they see fit.
Changes From Zenbership v1
Features Being Removed in Zenbership v2
- All CRM capabilities
- A complex shopping cart (physical item shipping & multi-product shopping carts)
Features in Limbo
- Event management
- Mass communication (email/sms)
New Features in Zenbership v2
- Use of a modern API <-> client pattern
- A complex membership grant system
- Modern authentication features such as MFA
- Complex reporting tools
- Complex digital file delivery tools
- Localization across the entire platform
- Invoicing
Some notes about the above: This list is not complete and is subject to change. Anything not listed above, but which was in Zenbership v1, should be considered standard in Zenbership v2. Features listed "In Limbo" will most likely be removed in favor of integrating with 3rd party providers.
Technology Stack
While much deliberation went into whether to use PHP for Zenbership v2, it was determined that, for accessibility and general ease-of-use, PHP (7.3+) is still the best option available for mass-distributed open source software. With that said, the application will use PHP for backend content delivery, while using modern React to create the user interfaces.
With a focus on producing a highly modern codebase, the application will be deployable to a number of cloud-based providers, all while also integrating with one-click installation tools available on shared hosting environments.
Other notable changes over Zenbership v1 include defaulting to using Postgres over MySQL as the primary data store.
FAQ
What license will this be released under?
A decision has not yet been made. With that said, the goal is to open source the application.
Is the Zenbership v2 codebase available to review/use?
As of September 4th, 2020, the application's codebase has not been made public. Additional functionality is required before this can happen, and choices need to be made regarding licensing. Visit the news page for regular updates.
Do you intend to make the codebase public before the entire feature set is completed?
Yes. At some point, once I feel like a baseline of functionality is available, thereby making the application usable, I will make the code repositories public.
Can I help you with the development?
Help is always welcome! If you have experience with modern PHP (7+) or modern React (hook-based), please reach out to me on Twitter to inquire about contributing.
When did work re-start on Zenbership v2?
The original push began roughly 1 year ago in the fall of 2019, however it was sidelined for work reasons. Work has picked up at a healthy pace again as of mid-August 2020.