Dropping iDEAL integrations in cciDEAL for some extensions

Once in a while I review the extensions that are supported in cciDEAL to make sure it’s still logical and economically interesting to support implementing iDEAL into them. This is only the second time I have researched this, and this time five extensions will be “dropped”. It’s necessary to do this because a lot changes in our industry in just a few years time. 

How did we come to this decision?

The decision to not support some extensions was not taken lightly and is based on research. You might be interested in knowing how I researched this, so here is an explanation. I created a Google Spreadsheet with all extensions currently supported by cciDEAL, in which I added as few columns: Status & notes, JED, Support issues and Forum activity. 

• Status & notes: in this column I can add basic status information like “active” when the extension is healthy and getting attention from it’s developer. I can also add “no development” for an extension where the original developer does not actively development the extension anymore. Or “EOL” for “End Of Life” for an extension like RSEvents, where a new version of the extension (RSEvents Pro) was released and the old version was no longer to be used. I researched the status of every extension. 
• JED: I checked every extension on the JED. I compared the position of that extension to others in the same category, the amount of recent reviews, what users said in those reviews, whether it was actively supported and developed, when the last update was, if it supported Joomla! 3 and so on. 
• Support issues: A search in our support email system will show tickets where the extension is discussed. There can either be a lot of support emails for an extension, or just a few. Just a few tickets can be an indication that the extension is not popular (anymore) or that it’s just very easy to set up. So this is not “hard” data that can be used, but it does give a better indication combined with the other factors I looked at. 
• Forum activity: I also searched the Dutch Joomla! forums (joomlanl.nl and joomlacommunity.eu) for questions about that extension. Most of time time, if people are still using  the extension, you will find at least the occasional forum post asking general questions about the extension. If there are no recent forum posts in the Dutch Joomla! forums about an extension, it’s a pretty bad sign.  

During this investigation, I also found it important to realize that the JED stops Joomla! 2.5 support this year, and Joomla! 2.5 already is no longer supported by the Joomla! project. 

Based on the above results, and a little more soul searching, I have decided that the following extensions will no longer be supported in cciDEAL, effective immediately.

• JoomISP
• SobiPro
• RSDirectory
• SimpleCaddy
• redSHOP

My recommendation it to not use these extensions for new websites where you want to use cciDEAL. I also advise not updating cciDEAL in websites that use these extensions, because we will remove support for them after cciDEAL 4.4. And, last but not least, it might be time to consider searching for alternatives. Have a look at the Joomla! extensions with iDEAL we do still support.