We have just completed a new Joomla 1.6 component creator that we intend to release when Joomla 1.6 is made public. It will probably replace our current component creator. While developing it I have stumbled over a few bugs in the upcoming 1.6 and have reported them all. This one however is not really a bug, but it is still bugging me so I vent through our blog instead. As a Joomla 3rd party developer, I have been confused many times between the word “Preferences” and “Config”. You see the term interchanged throughout the Joomla documentation and framework. In 1.6 there is an new kid on the block that one would hope helps clear things up: “Options”. But sadly “Options” is just here to make everything even more confusing. Take a look at this example:

JToolBarHelper::preferences('com_component'); 

The above code use the phrase “preferences” to load a button that says “options“. The default values for the preferences (or options?) are set in a file called config.xml. This is just one of many many examples of this. It is all over the code, documentation and the forums.Maybe it is time for Joomla to make a choice and stick with it?

Update: We are very busy with a large web site with a hard deadline to the release of the 1.6 component creator is going to take a while.