If there's one person who represents action in Joomla, it could be Roland Dalmulder. For a long time now, he's been moving forward without looking back, even running, wearing the Joomla colors! And when he stops to take a breather, it's only to set off again! 
This marathon coder is back this year with the firm intention of helping users of his renowned extensions, as well as getting even more involved in the Joomla! project.

Hello Roland, Joomla users are familiar with your extensions, but don't really know much about you. Can you give us a quick introduction?

My guess would be that they do know I run and quite a bit actually, 3 marathons this year and a few other runs :) Years ago we did have more Joomlers running under the hashtag #jrunning That was fun. Apart from running, I spend quite some time with my daughter of almost 6 years. You need that family time, it is important. One of the things we do is bake, we make our own granola, granola bars, quark balls, and other things. When the weather is better we throw in the BBQ as well.

What was your first encounter with Joomla?

Actually it started before Joomla, that encounter. My first encounter with Joomla was phpshop for Mambo which we nowadays know as VirtueMart for Joomla.This started out as me doing the Dutch translation but when I needed an online shop I naturally went with something I had seen before which was VirtueMart by that time. I have never looked back. That shop, it didn't go so well, it never reached production 🙂

When did you start developing? At the same period before or later?

Development started pretty much around the same time. As I was working on the shop, a lot of products had to be imported. VirtueMart did offer an option for import and export but it was too simple for my needs. That is when I started with CSV Improved in 2008. Now, 2024 and almost 2025 we are still here and still improving although now under the name RO CSVI. We are full of ideas for the future and we will keep on developing for the new versions of Joomla.

What led you to create your Joomla extension in particular?

What led me to create RO CSVI I have explained above but the development of RO Payments was quite different. This started as an idea to offer a Joomla extension for the Dutch market to allow payments on websites using the Dutch payment system called iDEAL. Since we are a small country we did not expect many other developers to offer such solution as it also requires a Dutch bankaccount at the time. This was a time before we had all these Payment Service Providers. After many years of doing that I was looking for a more technical challenge and found that in RO Single Sign On, this extension is technically more challenging and requires a lot of fine-tuning. This is also not an extension for small websites but I am happy to see that the Joomla Identity Portal has been running it for the past couple of years.

What challenges did you face? How did you overcome them?

The challenge is mostly in delivering high quality software and staying relevant. You never overcome these challenges, this is an on-going effort. Listen to your customers what they tell you, stay informed of upcoming changes in Joomla, offer top notch support and enjoy what you do.

Did you start earning a living quickly or was it complicated?

There was no magic plan for earning a living, it went quite naturally. As CSV Improved grew it took more time to develop and offer support to the point where it became a full-time job. That is when I switched to a paid model because I cannot work full-time for free 🙂

Is this still the case?

Earning a living is a lot harder nowadays, at the moment it is doable but it is a lot of hard work. The future will tell us how much longer we have.

Are you in contact with other independent developers? How can this kind of collaboration work?

Yes, I am in contact with developers whose extension I support in my extension. This kind of collaboration is important to building a quality product and supports both me and the other developer. The end-user gets versatile software.

This works by reaching out to other developers and ask for their cooperation. Just reach out, it is that simple. Most of them are willing to collaborate.

What are the most common misconceptions about your extensions ?

Talking about RO CSVI the biggest misconception is that data management is a single click of a button while it requires planning, implementation and testing. Most users do not realize how complicated their data set is and you need to be creative to make things work.

What is the one thing people don't know about your extension?

How versatile RO CSVI is in manipulating data during import and export.

What are the topics people always ask for support?

The main topic is, How do I import file X?

Do you get a lot out of the Joomla community?

I do believe I get a lot out of the community. The friendships and willingness of people to help you out.

What is your involvement in the Joomla community?

Currently I am managing the Identity Portal, Volunteer Portal and Patch Tester.

What do you think of Joomla's ecosystem?

To me, the ecosystem is pretty good actually. The Joomla Extension Directory (JED) is highly regarded by the community and that is a real asset to us developers and the Joomla brand. Once we get The Update Framework (TUF) up and running that will be a very valuable addition to the JED.

How do you see your future with Joomla? Do you have any surprises up your sleeve?

I took a year away to do some other things and in 2025 I am coming back to what I have been doing for nearly the past 2 decades. Develop my extensions and help the Joomla project in areas of interest.

Anything else you’d like to say to our Joomler friends?

Find some time to help the project, you are not only helping yourself but many more people. If we all spend some time to help the project, we keep moving forward. An hour here or there is enough with all the Joomlers we have. This will also relieve the ones that spend a lot of time on the project. We need to work together, all of us.

Roland's extensions website  : https://rolandd.com

• RO CSVI
• RO Payments
• RO Single Sign On
• RO Users