2013-08-01

opensource micro projects hosting

It is time to split playground kitchen sink set into independent subprojects. Question is

what opensource hosting platform will serve the project better? 

It should serve as contributors as developers who use it, project discoverability and popularity.

Required components:
  • Version control( SVN, HG, GIT )   with 
    • http(s) protocol
    • free for opensource
    • project with contributors ACL
    • private repositories *
  • Ticket tracking(Jira,bugzilla,Track,etc)
    • link to VC via commits*

  • Wiki(w/ comments)
  • FAQ( w/ comments)
  • Forum
    • web+mailist
    • spam control
    • filters( aka out of office removed )
    • moderation (permissive and by approval)
    • voting
  • project management *
  • public discover-ability/self-advertisement
  • demo site
    • static content with own JS
    • active content (php,.net,py,java)
    • SQL
  • integrated continuous builds and tests environment *
What is missing?

* nice to have but for micro-project alone has no value, just as potential to grow into complex or commercial project.

There are some commercial suites like cloudforge.com, offering free service; free ones like sourceforge.net.

The popularity of GitHub among of opensource community is unquestionable and it grows along with GIT popularity itself. While the startup commercial pricing is loosing to bitbucket.org, should the herd instincts be accounted as more significant factor for opensource project?

Conclusion.


  • Host VC, bug tracker, Wiki on GitHub, outsource demo to JsFiddle + PHP hosing, mail list/forum either to google groups or one of PHP+maillist apps. Static pages and forum could be over GitHub Pages but need some extra effort to learn jekyll.
  • cloudforge.com - all including continuous integration. As integration requires $20/m (standard account+integration daemon) multiple projects could be integrated into common test flow. Active back-end and demo outsourced.
  • sourceforge.net hosts most of services. Developer web given PHP,  Perl, Python, Tcl, Ruby, and shell scripts. No direct build integration.
  • codeplex.com - .NET centric Microsoft source hosting proj. Has all except of content hosting.
My preliminary choice is GitHub for VC+Tracking ( has GIT with SVN bridge, best visibility and toolset ), CloudForge for test integration as cumulative proj; external demo hosting, forum TBD(perhaps CloudForge or SourceFourge).

Helpful links:
jsfiddle.net - front-end code demo site (JS, HTML, CSS, web service simulation)
GitHub Pages hosts myproj.github.io and uses static HTML (could be with HTML generator jekyll with disqus blog services- run by ruby locally and committed to github )

ajaxian.com - popular blog on Web 2.0 subjects.

Comparison of open-source software hosting facilities




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