Joomlatools

Finally 1.5 native version. Congratulations guys!

Congrats! Very excited. Easy to upgrade?

Wow looks great from the screenshots and all!! I have a feeling there’s a lot of excited people around….is there a demo anywhere? By the looks of it not? Well done on the hard effort, I’m sure you’ll get a lot of positive feedback.

thanks. I have been waiting a long time for this

I wonder if docman 1.5 has “Custom Fields” or not? its like a option to enable administrators to add special fields to the Front-end document submission form such as: version #, original publication date, ISBN number and many others.
i saw this feature in your italien presentation!
Mr. T

Totally removing DocMan from my 10 clients websites and finding another solution.

Not expensive.
I buy this component, joomlatools do a great work.
Thanks

Bummer €11.97 what do we get for it?
one time fee & every update 11.97?
life time fee?
support?
where are these info

Very excited to install it on my website. Has been waiting for this one for quite some time. Will buy it today after going home.

Can Docman documents still be tagged with Custom Properties or does the latter need to be updated in order to work again with the former?

Thanks for posting your questions. We are working on a FAQ to address them. In the mean time if you have more questions don’t hesitate to put them on our support forums : http://forum.joomlatools.eu

I’m sorry to hear your reaction. We have worked long and hard to bring you DOCman 1.5 and hope you appreciate our effort.

Charging a little for DOCman will help us invest in development and better support. Does this change anything? No, DOCman is still Free Software (as in Freedom) released under the GPL, just like Joomla. You still get the freedom to use DOCman as you wish.

DOCman does have custom field support be it a little hidden. In your administrator/components/com_docman folder you will find an docman.parameters.xml file this file includes a list of custom fields you can add to each document. If you have more questions about this please post them on our support forums http://forum.joomlatools.eu

A demo site is in the works and we expect it to be up in the coming days. Stay tuned.

We have tried to make the upgrade very easy. You just need to de-install your previous DOCman and install the 1.5 version. Detailed instructions on how to do this and also how to upgrade from older releases are included in the readme on purchase.

Thanks ! We hope it has been worth the wait.

Not sure what you mean with tagged with ‘custom properties’ ? If you are referring to the custom parameters you can add, then yes this feature is still available and will work out of the box after an upgrade. If you mean something else, please post your question on our support forums : http://forum.joomlatools.eu

Wow, you made thousands of dollars building 10 client websites and couldn’t accept $18/yr as a cost of doing business?

That’s only $1.80/client!!

You just made a very poor business decision.

Well, after having (to be honest an nearly 100% stable) 1.4 release for a very long time itwas time to publish an actual release.

But now the question: Joomla 1.6 is coming (very nearly).
I know that DM had always its own ACL, but with 1.6 this is not really needed anymore (and we – the user – could keep things simplier).
How will DM react on this – and on the whole 1.6?

Congratulations, well done Mathais and Johan. Is not far away form free as in free beer, but you have to pay for Wiskey and Rum, so the fee is absolutly ok :-)

Actually I do websites for small organizations and churches who really don’t have the extra funds and neither do I to splurge 150 extra for them. I really do love DocMan, but its impossible for me to continue use with it.

Oh and I didn’t make 1000s of dollars. Most of them I did for free.

i don’t mind paying for docman, but i would like to know what the terms of upgrading will be and quite honestly it came as a bit of a shock. i didn’t expect to pay for this upgrade and i feel like a payed upgrade should have been mentioned at some point instead of just hitting your patrons with it now. i will buy it because i think its a great product and great price, i think we should have been aware an upgrade was going to cost us.

Congratulations on the release of DocMan 1.5. The Joomla! community is fortunate to have your whole team working on such an important element of the Content Management System: Asset Management.

Making sure that system works securely and bug-free is an immense amount of work, and it is appreciated.

As an aside –

I also can appreciate the courage it took to make the principled decision to charge a fee to use DocMan, rather than continuing to offer it as freeware.

Whether folks agree or disagree with that decision is up to them. Whether software being freeware or feeware is not nearly as important to the community as its source being open. When it’s open, others can help improve it for themselves and for the community; and when it’s open and fee-based, then the original developer stands a better chance of having the resources (and incentive) to continue to innovate and improve as well.

Take away that fee, or disrespecting the development team (as in the previous threatening post) for charging a fee, and the community is wrongfully expecting the originator to not only share all the secrets for others to learn from, but to do it as if he or she were an indentured servant to us all.

Free beer is great, but peeling the drunks away from the kegger at the end of the night is a bitch. Ironic, ain’t it? ;)

Glad to see DocMan back!

-John Coonen

I respect the decision that one has to pay for DOCman now. It does take a lot (!) of time to develop and maintain such a wonderfull component. At the same time I find it a bit of a disappointment that ‘the suprise’ that was announced seems to be that it is a paid extension now, and that the decision that you have to pay for it was not put in earlier news articles about 1.5.

Having said that, the first 12 euros plus VAT I am ever going to ‘earn’ from my site are going to DOCman…

I agree with your points.
As soon a FAQ is available (Updates? Restriction in Use like Domain? etc) with a description, I’ll maybe take it.

My opinion:
I missed an (pre-) announcement for this change or did I miss a blog-entry?. Sure it’s a cheap price, still they way it was introduced was.. a bit .. well.. not what I would doing (if I didn’t missed a blog entry)

My 2 cents ;)

I’m glad you guys are charging for it. Don’t listen Jessi

I was eagerly waiting for the Docman update and when it finally saw the day light I was first disappointed because of the price tag. I know it’s not that much but since I creating websites for different non-profit organizations so any price tag, big or small, seems to be to much.
But after the FAQ and especially after the Demo site was published I am now totally assured that the product is and excellent piece of true professional work. So no hesitations anymore, I’m sold! Thanks for the great work!

For the FAQ please see our latest blog post : http://blog.joomlatools.eu/2009/12/docman-15-faq.html

I appreciate your feedback on the announcement. We discussed different approaches and in the end decided to just put it out there. We prefer to just make things happen, instead of talking about them. We are listing though to your feedback and are taking into account for the future.

Thanks for your feedback. It’s great to hear that our FAQ has helped to elevate your concerns.

Irene, thanks for you feedback. The ‘surprise’ we talked about was not about the price tag but about the new theme that we put into the 1.5 release. We never intended to mis-lead you. My apologies if this was the case.

Thanks John, your comments are very much appreciated. One small comment : DOCman has never been ‘freeware’, it has and always will be ‘free software’. There is a small yet important difference.

Thomas, for more information about the upgrading terms please check our FAQ : http://blog.joomlatools.eu/2009/12/docman-15-faq.html

Thanks Robert !

At the moment Joomla 1.6 is still very much development. When Joomla 1.6 reaches beta stage, we will start working on a compatible version of DOCman. Our goal is to release this at the same time as Joomla 1.6 stable.

There are a number of feature request that involve improvements to our ACL system and we are looking forward to the new ACL features Joomla 1.6 is bringing.

I understand that even with the low price tag, some people can’t afford it. This is precisely why we are dedicated to keeping DOCman 1.4 free of charge forever. Granted, the 1.5 is better, but that doesn’t mean that 1.4 all of the sudden is worthless. It was a great extension when we released it in February 2009, and it still is. If any security issues are discovered, or major bugs, we will fix them in a new 1.4.1 release, which will also be free of charge. So in a way you could say that DOCman 1.4 is the free version, and 1.5 is the pro version for people who can pay for new development.

In short, uninstalling DOCman from all your sites might be a bit drastic :-)

Trying to distinguish between “free” and the other “free” is like me calling a woman across the room “hot” and later, trying to convince my wife (who is hot, in my opinion) that “uh, honey, I meant she looked really warm, almost feverish. Gee, I hope she’s OK.” Even if I legitimately meant “she looked warm,” (ya right), I’m best off avoiding that word – for all eternity and until the end of time. Free is never, ever ever ever interpreted as “freedom” by the marketplace (ever).

Johan? No seriously, nevvvv errrr. I can see you thinking about slipping it back in just to make a point but….nn..evvv…nnever.

Jessi, I betcha you could ask just ONE of those churches you did all that volunteer work for, and in no time, you’d have enough funding for Docman (and then some). Give it a shot! I think you might be under-estimating how much the parishioners appreciate your time and talents.

I fully understand Johans reasons for requesting money from now on for DM – and fully agree with it.
On the other side (of this Joomla world), Joomla is going that way i saw 4 years ago: commercial.

Like obe said here: this price is too high (even it is only 12 Euro), i can understand this point of view.
Today if you build a complete new site with Joomla, with all needed and wanted extensions inclusive template the cost for it is approx. between 170 and 350 Euro (starting with the template at 40, buying DM for 12, mybe JomSocial for 140, etc …).
And that is defenitely too much!

So, for organizations are making non-profit (and are qualified for this), Joomlatools should offer DM for a donation.

Finally (in my opinian): churches do have as well money – and if not, what for do they need a website?

Thanks for the release of the FAQ.
I’ll agree that in some points it wouldn’t make much difference, if you announce a price system or not…(there will be always complains against it)

In the other hand, they way it was handled, can damage your reputation. Even now the possible fact, that all the neat additional tools could be charged again …

In my opinion, you should now discuss (in your team) the roadmap of pricing and announce them. I’ve payed for DocMan now, but I like to know, what will be the future…

I will not accept if Docman 1.6 will be released and 1 hour before release it will be announced, that it will cost 25$ per Domain… or that whatever could be.. (That’s the uneasy feeling some people might get, after they way it was handled with 1.5). I’ll hope you don’t get me wrong and understand, where I’m pointing?

I’ll make some suggestion about the price system in the FAQ Comments (Mathias ask for them)

Thanks for the feedback. It’s a bit early to do analysis, after all we’ve only released for 48 hours. In a one or two months, we will be able to look back and figure out how we can improve things. Your ideas are most welcome.

JomSocial has a proprietary license, which, among other things, means you have to buy a license per site you install it on. DOCman on the other hand is licensed as GPL, which gives you a number of freedoms proprietary software doesn’t give you: for example, you can install DOCman on as many sites as you wish.

If you build 5 sites, you need to get a 5 site license for JomSocial at $477, yet you still only pay €11.97 for DOCman. So it really isn’t that expensive at all :-)

It is hard for me to understand how can free software be sold. For sure I understand You, as lot of web developers are not giving anyting back thus keeping open source sirit alive, but … I am little disappointed.

Is there a way that docman becomes free software in future or it will be comercial for ever?
What about translations, do translators earn something for their work?

No matter which type of license!
If I develop a new website for a customer (!!), it is in my responsibility to pay for each extension this customer wants (or to say it better, the functionality it provides).

In my understanding this means I have to pay for EACH installation of DM!
And that should be clear for every honest developer.
But if YOU say that it is okay for YOU that I pay only once and can install it x-times – well okay.

And about the ‘ … is not really expensive at all ..’): as I wrote, count any extension you need, and than IF you are under 200,- Euro – than goes something wrong (or you are stealing).
DM costs only 11.97€, but it is the summary of all!

Free Software is a matter of liberty, not price. You should think of ‘free’ as in ‘freedom’, not as in ‘free beer’. When developers release Free Software, they choose to give you a number of rights. Most importantly, you are given the freedom to run the program, for any purpose you wish. This is a huge difference with typical proprietary software licenses. For more info about commercial GPL also see : http://commercialgpl.com/

DOCman will always be Free Software. It’s not because it’s commercial, by charging a small amount for it, it’s not Free Software.

Our testers have already received a gratis version of DOCman 1.5, we are also working on a solution for translators. If you contribute to the success of DOCman we believe you should get something in return too.

Mic, The GPL license where DOCman is licensed under gives you the freedom to use DOCman on as many sites as you wish. You don’t need to pay for each installation.

Offcourse we welcome very much your gesture to do so. It helps us to make DOCman even better then it already is today.

About translations: good question – the answer?

About ‘Free Software’: DM IS free software (see GPL).
What do have to pay for is the work behind this extension!
And that cannot be hard to understand.

This statement ‘ .. It s hard for me to understand … etc. …’ is what too many are thinking outside: GPL software MUST BE FREE – it IS free (you can look always inside the scripts). You are paying the work behind, not the scripts.

You can call what ever You want, but it is not anymore free if everybody has to pay for it.
Of course I can buy one and give to others for free, but it would be bad idea.
As I never tried selling software, I never diged into bunch of these licenses.
Actually 1.4 will be valdi until middle of next year when Joomla 1.6 gets stable.

Hopefully You will get Your desiered feedback.

I’m sorry to hear you feel like this. DOCman’s freedom is a matter of liberty not price. This is the free(dom) we refer to when we talk about free.

Just like everyone else we have families to sustain and we need to eat too.

Ok, I would call it playing with words, but it does not matters. You have Your point whitch is important.
But it comes out that realy free after some time becomes “free”.
For sure I will buy DM if I will not find better solution.
But I think this ir road to nowhere.
I think there will be no 2.x, but maybe I’m wrong.
Smell of money is so destructive.
But for sure have good luck. I mean it seriosly ;)

I agree ‘Free Software’ is a confusing term. We didn’t invent it, it was created by the Free Software Foundation. I would have preferred something like ‘Open Software’ or ‘Freedom Software’. Free has 12 different meanings in the English language, hence the confusion. So it is not our play of words.

In any case, the Free Software Foundation never meant for all Free Software to be free of charge — quite the opposite. You can read about it at http://commercialgpl.com , also check the links at the bottom.

For us, it’s a matter of conviction. We could release our software under a proprietary license, encrypt it and charge for per-site licenses. However, we strongly believe in the principles of the Free Software movement.

Getting paid for all work we put in DOCman is definitely not ‘a road to nowhere’. It enables us to spend a lot more time on development than ever before.

At least I hope you give us the benefit of the doubt. There will be a 2.x … watch us !

Ok, will see.
I will never contribute to comercial project, if I have no deal in it.

Is there way that one day You will cover development costs and it will become free again?

Lets go back to work :) Have a good day.

I’ve been waiting for DocMan native 1.5 for some time, and will be delighted to purchase it for such a low price.
I’m sorry some of my fellow native English speakers have given you a hard time about the meaning of “free”. Unfortunately English has one word which means both “gratis” and “libertas,” but if English is all someone knows it is easy to become confused. Other languages tend to have different terms that translate the two concepts, so “free” isn’t so confusing. But that’s an aside. Great work on the component, and again, I for one am happy to be able to support the project. Free as in Freedom!

I am from Vietnam. i want to buy Docman 1.5.
How can i get it.
Thanks.
cinhmong@yahoo.com

You can buy DOCman here : http://www.joomlatools.eu/store.html all you need is a creditcard or a paypal account.

Great work on the component, Thank you!

Just want to share this link http://www.joomlatools.eu/store.html, if you are interested.
You’re a great developer of fabulous DOCman 1.5, now there’s software for me to explore again.

As an added bonus, the new DOCman release was given a brand new front end theme.

This is really cool. Do they have a free trial for this version?. I want to try it first before purchasing.

For testing purposes you can download our the 1.4 version of DOCman. This version is freely available here : http://www.joomlatools.eu/products/docman/free-version.html

excellent!

I have been working with Joomla for years and it just gets better and better!

ciao!,
For sure I understand You, as lot of web developers are not giving anyting back thus keeping open source sirit alive.Is there a way that docman becomes free software in future or it will be comercial for ever?

awsome component,thank you very much

Great! Thank for information, I’m looking for it for a long time,