Allon Moritz began by developing extensions that improved the use of Joomla and made them public. He also invested time in the Joomla development teams so that he could give back to the community what he had received from the content management system.

His experience of coding well is useful and worth asking how he feels about being an extension developer and a member of the core Joomla development group.

Thank you for participating in this interview! Could you tell us a little about your extension(s)?

Thanks for this opportunity. I started in 2007 with my first extension, it was a simple Google calendar integration into Joomla. Since then, DPCalendar became a fully featured event and calendar extension with external calendar integration (Google, iCloud, Microsoft365 and more) and a powerful booking system. For example, https://events.joomla.org was made with DPCalendar.

Besides that we released some more stuff, like the simple attachments extension DPAttachments. DPMedia enhances the core media manager with external systems like Google drive, Dropbox, etc. So basically we have a handful of extensions which we publish to the public in the JED and we have some which are custom made for our clients.

So what came first for you: contributing to Joomla or developing extensions? Could you take us through your Joomla journey?

I first did Joomla extensions and then started to contribute to Joomla. My big involvement came as I went full time on extension development and founded Digital Peak in 2015. A result of this change in my life was that I contributed custom fields to the core. After that I helped in the Joomla 4 working group and basically did the new extension architecture of Joomla 4 (and now 5). I’m still active in core development, currently I’m focusing on cleanup the core from using deprecated code.

Automated system tests are also an area where I put a lot of energy in as this is something which gives a lot of stability to the core CMS. And last but not least, I’m a release manager of 4.4 and then 6.0.

Why did you start contributing to Joomla?

Since I got my foot into the community, Joomla became more than a hobby for me. It is a heart thing. As I could then make a living out of it, the decision for me was clear that I want to give something back.

Over time I met a lot of great people and made friends with many around the globe. Working together on Joomla was always fun.

You have been  a member in several Joomla Teams. What are you doing at the moment?

Currently I’m an active member of the maintainers team, where we basically take care of the whole code base of the free CMS code on GitHub. I’m in the release team because of my role as release manager. I’m also involved in the automated testing team and a bit in the bug squad. You see, every team I’m in has something to do with coding, as this is where my passion is. Some people are good at marketing, some in writing documentation, some keep the community alive and some do coding.

In your opinion, how does Joomla benefit from extension developers contributing?

Their efforts, providing an extension for use cases which are not covered by the core CMS, are invaluable. I still think that extensions are the main driver behind the whole ecosystem and the power they bring into the community does always surprise me.

The sad story is that extension developers do not contribute much to the core code, often because of the difficult atmosphere on Github. But this is another story for another interview.

In your opinion, how does the extension developer benefit from Joomla contributing?

Since the start of Joomla 4 development, we changed the plattform to modern web standards. The PHP back end uses state of the art design patterns, the front end (browser code) is made with the latest but stable trends in front end development. All these changes lead to a more professional and secure coding practice. When developers contribute to Joomla, they have to deal with that which will make them better developers. That’s why I encourage everybody to learn from the core code and help improve it.

Would you advise other extension developers to contribute as well?

There are many different ways extension developers can contribute, not only code on GitHub. And I think many of them do that already, either in the global community or locally in their country.

In terms of code I really hope that more people, especially the ones who make money out of Joomla extensions, help the handful of maintainers to fix bugs and drive the core forward. There are many areas where we need help, documentation, system tests or plain code in the core CMS. The atmosphere on GitHub has changed in recent years (with a few exceptions) and is nowadays more welcoming.