BackPress is Coming Back From the Dead

photo credit: Frankenstein (1931) – (license)

WordPress developers Roy Sivan and John James Jacoby have taken a keen interest in reviving the BackPress project. They will be discussing their plans to bring it back to life on a live Google Hangout at 1PM PST (8pm UTC) today, June 16.

BackPress is a PHP library of core functionality for web applications. It essentially provides the core of bbPress and powers the GlotPress application, which enables WordPress, BuddyPress, and bbPress to be translated into different languages.

It’s no secret that bbPress project lead John James Jacoby is an ardent fan of BackPress, but few could have predicted that the project would be making a come back. In Sivan’s announcement in the Advanced WordPress Facebook group, he briefly outlined their intentions for BackPress’ future:

After a few conversations at WordCamp Miami, we both want to bring it back. My vision is for it to be up to date with current WP, and for it to be the WP you install when you don’t want the Dashboard, but to build something from scratch using modules / plugins.

Commenters responded positively to the announcement and Sivan and Jacoby plan to open the project up to contributors in the near future.

“The current state of BackPress is a mess,” Sivan said. “Unfortunately, it can’t be just overwritten, so our main goal is to talk action plan, how to get it to a place that is more up to date, then start adding modularity to it.

“My vision is you still get the easy installer, but things like wp-admin are just modules, and even modular within that per UI, but that shall be discussed as we move forward.”

Once the BackPress code is up to date, the duo hope to turn it into a usable starting point for application development.

“This + JSON REST API could be the next evolution of WordPress for developers,” Sivan said.

For more details on the history of BackPress, check out Jeff Chandler’s 2010 interview with Beau Lebens. If you’re interested in the future of the project, make sure to tune in at 1PM PST. The Google Hangouts link will be posted in the comments of the announcement. Here’s a link for those who are not part of the group: