Why?

Simply put, EasyTable is a victim of it own success - thank you for that by the way.

Our originial goals were to release to the Joomla community a component that allowed users to import CSV files and display tables in the front-end.

Something that was both simple to use, adhered to the Joomla 1.5 MVC model and provided HTML/CSS mechanisms to allow you the users to format the output anyway you wanted to. If EasyTable does what you want, now, there is no need to read further, however, if you need more out of EasyTable or us then read on.

Support

Of course, we realised that even though we were releasing it as free software with no discernable source of income to support it, some form of support would be asked of us. To address this we created community driven support forums, FAQ's and a series of EasyTable articles. Finally after a few insistent questions we provided "Subscriber Support" options which included access to a forum monitored  by us (well me mostly) that also included early access to new versions of the EasyTable component. I'm grateful to be able to say that we have had people take up the subscription option just to send us some money - clearly we did get some of EasyTable right.

Our community forum has also been relatively successful - but user numbers are low on the forums (about 1~2% of the people using EasyTable have registered on the forums). I'm hoping this means that the majority of you are installing and using EasyTable without any problems and we acheived our goals for the component.

Feature Creep

We added "Linked Tables" before it even got to a stable useable state to solve a particular users problem. Along the way other bits and peices have been added and we even had a user contribute a change to the code which we rolled in the rush before the 2009 Holiday Season (and have subsequently reversed and rewritten to correctly support the whole Joomla framework). Of course that started a few feature requests through the various channels.

Here-in lies a problem - we have received more request for features/help through other channels (personal email, business contact forms & phone calls) than we have registered users on the Support Forum. It probably wouldn't matter so much but some users are less than polite about what they want from us for free, some have specific opinions about what we should and shouldn't add to EasyTable and tell us where it should be heading.

Of course our registered users on the community and subscriber forums also have things they would like to see in upcoming versions of EasyTable - and they're polite about it. All of these features though, take us further away from the original concept of EasyTable.

Commercial GPL?

To keep the original goals we had for EasyTable and to support the cost of providing the component to the community we have decided to create a fork of the original EasyTable component and add to it the features that make the most sense while still keeping it GPL software. This version will be EasyTable Pro.

Of course, EasyTable Pro will be a commercial GPL product and as such you will need to pay for access to it, after that it's just like regular GPL software you can install it on any of your websites and you can modify it to your hearts content.

Right now you're asking yourself a bunch of questions, like:

• Why would I pay for it?
  • More features, monitored support forum access, free upgrades while your subscription is valid.
• What features will it add?
  • A lot - see the comparison table below.
• How much is this all going to cost me?
  • Well if you're a Support Subscriber - nothing. As long as your support subscription is valid we'll provide access to the download area for the early release and Pro versions of EasyTable and of course you get access to the Subscriber Support forums so you can get any problems resolved.
  • If you're not a Support Subscriber and you want the extra features and access to the monitored support forums then you will need to sign up for at least the minimum support subscription, which is 3 months long and currently costs US$29.95.

Your Thoughts!

Naturally this will be a talking point for some and for others it will be no big deal - if you have thoughts or comments please add them to the community forum announcement on EasyTable Pro. Do not send me an email directly or to our support accounts or through any of our forms, as it will not add to the conversation nor benefit the users of EasyTable.