Switching From HMVC back to MVC

[eluser]Davcon[/eluser]
Hi Ho,

I've been using HMVC for a while now on Codeigniter and I think it's fantastic.

Over time I've built up a fairly substantial collection of modules and I can happily and quickly bolt them onto new websites as and when I need them. There is no doubt, in my mind, that the HMVC way of doing things is vastly superior to MVC and I'm sure all of the HMVC users here would agree with that.

However, I have a problem with HMVC. A big problem.

The problem is, if I get busy and I need some help then HMVC severely limits my choices in terms of outsourcing web development. Sure, there's many thousands of Codeigniter developers and it's a very active and vibrant community. However, the minute you advertise for an HMVC Codeigniter developer then suddenly you've just shut out the vast majority of CI developers out there. Even on sites like Elance I think you'll have a hard time finding decent HMVC developers for CI. This is a major challenge.

So, I am therefore considering ditching HMVC and moving back to MVC (out of the box CI).

I'd be grateful if anyone could offer some comments or feedback on this. Is my reasoning sound or would a move back to MVC be a step in the wrong direction?

Thanks!

[eluser]kanjimaster[/eluser]
I don't have any hard research to back this up, so it's just a personal opinion ... but HMVC isn't a big step up for even a modestly talented developer, so I'm really surprised that requiring it has a significant impact on pool of developers available to you.

But that's your experience so let's go with it. The developers that you're losing while requiring HMVC are going to be those who either don't understand the benefits of proper modularity, or don't value them.

You clearly understand, value and benefit from HMVC. Therefore it would not only be a big backward step to give it up, you'd also be opening up your jobs to less able developers and the frustration that would come from reducing the re-usability (and potentially quality) of the work that they produce for you.

I suspect that what you're really seeing here isn't a lack of HMVC skills, its that really good developers, who share your philosophy and experiences, don't have problems finding work, so don't hang out in the places that you're looking.

[eluser]Davcon[/eluser]
Thanks for your reply and your kind comments. I'm grateful.

Anyone who has used a modular framework would surely agree that it's the way to go. As we speak all of the major frameworks appear to be using MVC, although some of them are adding modular functionality. Looking at the logic, it's only a matter of time before all the major frameworks move away from MVC and go modular. When that happens - and it surely will happen - then we'll all be tearing apart CI version 2 websites and starting again from scratch.

I've heard a few rumours that CI will go modular in the future however I have failed to find anything from Ellislab which confirms that.

As a web developer I am persuaded that HMVC is the way to go. However, as a business owner I think MVC (out of the box CI) makes more sense. The people who hire me don't care about whether or not their contact forms have been built by talented developers. All they want is something that works.

I think it's unfortunate that this kind of painful decision has to be made. I hope that the good people behind Codeigniter make it modular by default sooner rather than later. The sooner they make the switch then the less painful it will be for us all.

[eluser]CroNiX[/eluser]
[quote author="Davcon" date="1334274417"]
I've heard a few rumours that CI will go modular in the future however I have failed to find anything from Ellislab which confirms that.
[/quote]
Look at the different branches in their official github repo. (hvmc-lite)

[eluser]Davcon[/eluser]
As far as I can tell that's a particular branch from Github. As brilliant as that may be it's a far cry from being the official version that's getting used by many thousands of people.

Thanks for the reply.

[eluser]Jason Tan Boon Teck[/eluser]
I find the difficulty of HMVC is at the beginning stage of building the application. The architecture is slightly different. But once that's all done, building modules is fairly straight forward just like normal MVC with slight differences.

I am sure you can guide the developers on the differences to adapt to your architecture.

So, my suggestion is not to state HMVC as a requirement. Tell them about it only after you have established contact. ;-)

[eluser]Davcon[/eluser]
Nice!

I like the way you think.