Development roadmap?

With the v5.0 release of JFBConnect, we published a 'quick' roadmap for the rest of the year. If you haven't seen it, check out the bottom of our Facebook for Joomla 3.0 released post.

In short, JFBConnect is going to start integrating Google+ and Twitter features. JLinked will stay it's own extension (for now), as it's more business oriented, and, frankly, LinkedIn has a very different API than the other social networks. Ideally, I can see having all social networks under one extension, but that won't be immediate.

So, JFBConnect should start integrating more social networks. JLinked will be upgraded to use OAuth 2.0, which is more similar to the other social network requirements. That wouldn't have prevented this latest problem, from what we understand. More features and integrations will be made between both extensions and one day both may be merged into one bigger extension.

We're hoping JLinked 2.1 will be out in late May which will have 1-click registration for users (no forms) and auto-linking to existing users with the same email address.

Hope that explains, but if you have any questions or suggestions, let us know.

Thanks,
Alex

Thanks for the kind words. We agree we're the best, and we have every intent of keeping it that way. As to your first list of what Joomla needs:
1) We agree. By the end of the year, we're hoping to have a fully integrated social suite of Facebook, Google, and Twitter. LinkedIn will likely still be separate at that point.
2) Yup, well on our way to that.
3) Yup, the latest JFBConnect and JLinked share the Social Profile plugins in anticipation of making sure that 'future' social networks can use the same system. It's already helped us develop and quicker and debug things.

For Joomla improvements:
1) Both JFBConnect and JLinked both let you hide the username and automatically set it for the user (email is an option). Joomla itself will never do away with the option though, because username's are displayed so much on the front-end. If that was the user's email on every site, the user's would go crazy.
2) "Create a simple activation link in the activation email instead " - I don't know what you mean by this...
3) How would auto-activation on creation work? The point is to verify the email address, so not sure what you mean here.. but curious.

As always, keep the feedback and suggestions coming!

Thanks,
Alex

1) No arguments about the username field.. however, it's so ingrained in Joomla (and mainly the 3rd party extensions), that it'd be difficult to remove.. For instance, our forum shows username. I can configure it to something else, but that's the default. Also, not everyone wants their real name, partial name, or especially their email shown. Since this site is fully public, most of those options could be bad. It is a noble goal though, and I agree, the world would be better without usernames.

2) Glad you were confused too

3) That's a really good idea. I agree with the "You get in this time" registration process where you can go around and then activate the account later on the next time you see your email. It'd be interesting to see how that could be done 'on top' of Joomla since I don't think that's making it into the core anytime soon.

As for your site, I just looked at it. Very slick design and great integration of the Login with LI functionality. I hope that's all working well for you. I didn't register, but the page looks great! Always good to see how things are being used.

Alex