GSOC 2019 Project Ideas

Welcome to Joomla GSoC 2019 Projects Page

The application for students is going to open soon!

Welcome to the Joomla Google Summer of Code (GSoC) 2019 projects page.

If you are interested in participating as a student please review the materials on applying that are available at Google. We strongly encourage you to ask questions about process and projects on our joomla-gsoc mailing list and join our public Glip / Ringcentral chat tool.

Note: The GSoC 2019 projects are displayed in no particular order

Project I: Webservices in Joomla

Project Description

Continue the work done on implementing Web Services in Joomla 4, which has been successfully started during the two last years GSoC projects.

1. Integrate existing web services stack with the existing MVC layer - so minimal error handling
2. Continue the work on the entities layer in Joomla (basically a new MVC layer for Joomla that is more web services friendly and better error handling, and concept of relations etc.). The existing work can be found at https://github.com/joomla-framework/entities

Knowledge Prerequisite

• PHP, object-orientated programming, ideally some experience with the Joomla MVC stack. Start by looking into the work done so far at https://github.com/joomla/joomla-cms/pull/23424

Difficulty

• Hard

Mentors

• George Wilson (main mentor)
• Andrei Isac

Project II: New frontend template: Page-builder

Project Description

Joomla is already in some ways a page builder in the way it builds its template (you set up a base page and add in dynamic numbers of modules and component). This project aims to bring this one step further. The page builder template rebuilds the index.php and the template.xml in a GUI component in the backend of the template.
Depending on the status of web services, it might be a com_ajax plugin and template.
This project is aimed at multiple students and multiple GSoC editions and one of the long term projects of Joomla.

Knowledge Prerequisite

• PHP, HTML, VueJS, JavaScript

Difficulty

• Medium to hard

Mentors

• Benjamin Trenkle (main mentor)
• Viviana Menzel
• Harald Leithner

Project III: Joomla SEO Improvements

Project Description

Joomla! Is a CMS used by ca. 7 % of websites of the web. For our CMS we are looking for talented GSoC students that help improve our SEO. For this purpose, an SEO plugin for the backend needs to be created. It will consist of multiple fields as well as Facebook (open graph) and Twitter cards as well as some checks and overrides in comparison to the system today. If you have an interest in SEO and you are looking to create quality code, this project is just waiting for you! Apply now! Read more about the details here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MaOtEpp0Ma-e_d7xuXVAnGXP72ec9Ar1XrKtPQvnw4I/edit?usp=sharing

• CORE PART. Yoast style integration in core:
  • OpenGraph Integration: http://ogp.me/
  • Metadata Integration: Schema.org (Basic Editing)
  • Custom title for articles (com_content)
  • Ability to add Custom meta tags (like twitter:card)
• CORE SUPPORTED EXTENSION. Google Tools - See this article
• Basically Google Analytics integration and statistics

Knowledge Prerequisite

• Must have: PHP
• Nice to have: Joomla MVC, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Analytics

Difficulty

• Medium

Mentors

• Christopher Wagner
• Tony Partridge

Project IV: Joomla 4 Feature Enhancements

Project Description

1. Placing modules on a page (in the menu item form) is currently tedious. Ability to change the module menu assignment in the menu item (menu module assignment tab, currently read only).
2. Add information of the selected menu item (like article title) to the menu overview list (expose=true in the menu default.xml for example). This way we wouldn't have to access the item each time to find out what's assigned to it. Make sure you only allow a single exposed item.
3. Show Cookie Consent (Plugin)

Knowledge Prerequisite

• Must have: PHP, XML
• Nice to have: Joomla MVC

Difficulty

• Medium

Mentors

• Harald Leithner
• Luca Marzo
• Nicola Galgano
• Yves Hoppe

External Consultant

• [axilpapa@gmail.com Achilleas Papageorgiou]

Project V: Joomla 4 Accessibility

Project Description

While accessibility in everyday life is already being considered in many places, in the areas of web design and web development, it is only treated negligently.

The Joomla Project already invested a lot of work in making Joomla 4 the most accessible CMS out there. The goal for this project is to improve the level of accessibility in Joomla 4 even further.

Sites built with Joomla 4.X should have the WCAG AA compliance level in backend and in frontend (read more about WCAG AA compliance here: https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/ and about Authoring Tool Accessibility Tools here https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/atag/.

Therefore it’s not enough to focus on an accessible backend for Joomla but we also need to support the users and editors in providing accessible content throughout the whole webpage.

The two biggest challenges are:

- Support the users and editors in providing accessible content even if they are not trained in the field of accessibility (by providing supportive technologies)

- Help users navigate through multiple navigations and numerous elements on a site, as in the Joomla backend.

Knowledge Prerequisite

• HTML, CSS, PHP, Accessibility, Javascript

Difficulty

• Medium

Mentors

• Astrid Günther
• Lukas Jardin

External Consultant

• Stefan Wadja