The development of Joomla 4 and JED4 is progressing well. For us, it implies a renewal of the practices to the current times. Today, we introduce the specific support of Cloud Services and SaaS extensions.
When JED was originally created, the ecosystem consisted of simple components, modules, and plugins. Nowadays, the average size of an extension has increased and there are even extensions peaking at 15 MB. On top of this, the cloud has evolved and Joomla sites are now frequently integrated with independent cloud services.
We have realised that our current rules and decision-making processes needed a review to better support these extensions, so we’ve introduced a new ruleset for cloud-based business models.
The GPL license still applies to the distributed extension files, but the subscription models offered by cloud service providers can vary - a number of examples are listed in the rules below.
These are the new rules for Cloud Services / SaaS extensions:
List C2.3: Entries bridging to Cloud Services / SaaS
| Item | What? | Is the entry publishable? |
| 1 | The extension requires an account on a Cloud Service / SaaS | Yes, but only if the extension is distributed as GPL |
| 2 | The extension is distributed for free and requires a free account on the Cloud Service / SaaS | Yes, but can only be listed as 'Free' if the Cloud Service / Saas offers a free tier that always remains free. |
| 3 | The extension is distributed for free and requires a free trial account on the Cloud Service / SaaS | Yes, but must be listed as a paid extension |
| 4 | The extension is distributed for free and requires a paid account on the Cloud Service / SaaS | Yes, but must be listed as a paid extension |
| 5 | The extension account integration limits the GPL license | No, the Cloud Service / SaaS integration must allow all freedoms granted by the GPL license on the distributed extension. |
The full checklist can be found here: https://extensions.joomla.org/support/knowledgebase/item/jed-entries-checklists/
Do you want to collaborate with JED?
Most of the time, we are reviewing new extensions and looking for ways to improve the site. If you want to give us a hand, please, join the team to collaborate and help the community.
Photo by Perry Grone on Unsplash
Author
Aníbal SánchezRead more https://extensions.joomla.org/blog/item/new-support-for-cloud-services-and-saas-extensions
