Open letter from David Clark/Simpilot

[simpilot]

6-23-17

I have seen phpVMS go through many different phases in what is nearly 10 years since I stumbled across it. Nabeel has been able to create the defacto application for people that want to start or run a virtual airline and keeping it free and open source deserves nothing but appreciation for Nabeel. I as many others have benefited from his work, both financially and not.

I apologize to all those that were/are affected by my absence for quite some time both here on the forum and at SimpilotGroup. Things have changed in my life and my attention can not waver from my real world responsibilities for the foreseeable future. While I had hoped things would get to a point that I could focus time back to phpVMS but it is obviously not coming to realization. Family comes before all else I have learned and hope that others hear this as well, you can not get time back after it is gone.

phpVMS & vaCentral - Currently, the domains for phpVMS and vaCentral are being transferred back to Nabeel and when that happens the sites will be moved to his server. I do not think there will be any interruption of any great consequence. The code for the newer version of vaCentral will transfer to Nabeel as well. I can not speak to if it will remain in use or if the site will return to the original code base, I know there have been many opinions as to what was/is best for the vaCentral site, that will be a decision for Nabeel to make.

phpVMS3 - As of the end of January 2017 I had almost the complete backend of phpVMS3 coded with a converter for phpVMS2 in CodeIgniter, I have not picked up the code since. I do not see any sense in releasing it as phpVMS4 looks to be built on the Laravel platform. phpVMS3 is dead for all intents and purposes. Thank You to the airlines that had it in operation for testing.

simpilotgroup - I never thought that when I started the site it would be around almost 10 years later but with the support of the community it has remained. With the changes I will be closing the site down sometime in late July 2017. I have made sure that all modules that are on the site are compatible with the phpVMS 5.5.x edition on my GitHub. I can not guarantee that they are compatible with other addons from other developers or your own customization work.

GitHub - All the open source modules and code hosted at GitHub will remain there until GitHub does away with free open source hosting of code, if that ever happens.

Blue skies to everyone and the future of phpVMS.

[ProAvia]

Hi David

Yes, family always comes first and foremost! Thank you for your many years of tireless work in this community.

Have you given any consideration in how support for your payware modules may be provided in the future? Would it be possible to provide that here on this forum through PM only? What will happen to your payware modules once the Simpilot site is shuttered?

Thanks again for your many years of commitment to our hobby!

[t_bergman]

On 6/23/2017 at 7:13 AM, simpilot said:

Blue skies to everyone and the future of phpVMS.

Thank you David for all that you have done for the community. 

[magicflyer]

David is one of the pioneers of the modern-day virtual airline softwares. This phpVMS platform is what really got me into the world of Web Development, and you were a great example to learn from. 

Best of luck with your future business endeavors.

[Nabeel]

On 6/23/2017 at 7:13 AM, simpilot said:

6-23-17

I have seen phpVMS go through many different phases in what is nearly 10 years since I stumbled across it. Nabeel has been able to create the defacto application for people that want to start or run a virtual airline and keeping it free and open source deserves nothing but appreciation for Nabeel. I as many others have benefited from his work, both financially and not.

I apologize to all those that were/are affected by my absence for quite some time both here on the forum and at SimpilotGroup. Things have changed in my life and my attention can not waver from my real world responsibilities for the foreseeable future. While I had hoped things would get to a point that I could focus time back to phpVMS but it is obviously not coming to realization. Family comes before all else I have learned and hope that others hear this as well, you can not get time back after it is gone.

phpVMS & vaCentral - Currently, the domains for phpVMS and vaCentral are being transferred back to Nabeel and when that happens the sites will be moved to his server. I do not think there will be any interruption of any great consequence. The code for the newer version of vaCentral will transfer to Nabeel as well. I can not speak to if it will remain in use or if the site will return to the original code base, I know there have been many opinions as to what was/is best for the vaCentral site, that will be a decision for Nabeel to make.

phpVMS3 - As of the end of January 2017 I had almost the complete backend of phpVMS3 coded with a converter for phpVMS2 in CodeIgniter, I have not picked up the code since. I do not see any sense in releasing it as phpVMS4 looks to be built on the Laravel platform. phpVMS3 is dead for all intents and purposes. Thank You to the airlines that had it in operation for testing.

simpilotgroup - I never thought that when I started the site it would be around almost 10 years later but with the support of the community it has remained. With the changes I will be closing the site down sometime in late July 2017. I have made sure that all modules that are on the site are compatible with the phpVMS 5.5.x edition on my GitHub. I can not guarantee that they are compatible with other addons from other developers or your own customization work.

GitHub - All the open source modules and code hosted at GitHub will remain there until GitHub does away with free open source hosting of code, if that ever happens.

Blue skies to everyone and the future of phpVMS.

Hey man, you've been a great help since day 1 and graciously took over when my own real-world commitments had to come first. We'll be around, for sure. Cheers man, have a few cold ones on my behalf!