v1.6

The “data extraction layer” release**, which introduced the concept of having an independent query layer between the UI and the data. The extraction layer could be included by other PHP websites on the same server, so they could easily pull data out of Formulize to display it themselves. This was the first formal attempt to integrate Formulize with other systems.

A data extraction layer was necessary because all the data that users entered into Formulize was stored in one giant table, from which multiple records had to be collected together in order to retrieve a single “entry” in a form. The absurdity of this structure, inherited from the precursor XOOPS module that Formulize was forked from, would become apparent as performance had to be constantly improved in future releases, which prompted the completely revamped data structure in version 3.0, which in turn allowed for the completely rewritten data extraction layer in version 3.1, four years later.