Quote from: smashingred at May 21, 2008, 09:20 PM
I was just thinking about some of the great addons and extenders that are unleashed to MODx and I wonder if it makes sense to have a development forge of some sort on MODx or if it should be served by Google Code somewhere or if it can be rolled into a feature of the new repository.
All three actually; let me try and explain.
I envision that the Web Transport Facility (a "reference" add-on in itself) will allow the emergence of MODx Transport Providers who can distribute any kind of transport package, whether it be an Add-On, an Extension, a Theme, a Sample Site Definition, Tutorials, Content Packs, whatever. This can be separate from the developers of these packages, or one and the same, and these developers can choose whatever development tools and source control tools they want.
With this more robust ecosystem, development teams can build trust as providers of quality components, and we can focus on keeping the core a viable platform for developers to utilize. I think this is very important to our success; if we don’t attract component developers and allow them to work the way they want to, we will risk rifts in the project forming that could lead to forking as well as potentially miss out on the innovation this freedom should encourage. We can best serve the development community by continuing to improve the core platform, and providing a select list of "reference" components and processes that exemplify best practices in developing for MODx.
Quote from: smashingred at May 21, 2008, 09:20 PM
As an example, a snippet is released but the original developer doesn’t want to maintain or support it. Why not allow some sort of development team form around a project.
The forums don’t seem to be great for developing MODx projects so some sort of SVN repo for addons might be cool. This may be too resource heavy for MODxCMS.com servers and if that is okay I would say forget it as somthing to aspire to but it would be nice as this woudl handle releases, branches and trunk development and could be opened up to bug tracking as well as links to the forum support.
What I envision is some sort or SourceForge like system where projects are registered, devs and contribs can sign on and releases/diffs and patches can be rolled. Release notes, changelogs and releases can be serialized and standardised.
Maybe this already exists or is too ambitious but I know of at least two orphaned projects that could do with a new admin and would welcome a development team to form around it.
Here is what I’ve had in mind.
If an Add-On or Extension wants to use the MODxCMS.com Atlassian stack for managing development, there will be a Reference Component Process which I am finishing up as quickly as possible. It is based on the Eclipse Process, but will be minimalized and condensed for brevity. These Reference projects will be subject to reviews at each stage of the process to ensure they exemplify best practices for MODx component development. Every project will start with a Proposal, will be Incubated by team mentors, and will revolve around Peer Code Reviews that will be required in the Release phase. More on this as soon as possible.
Quote from: smashingred at May 21, 2008, 09:20 PM
Obviously licensing is an issue as well as ownership but I think that whatever attribution should be based on a licence of choice or release to public domain.
This is the main delay in finishing and releasing this process, but I think we have a satisfactory solution for this delicate and controversial issue which will be revealed as part of a MODx Contributor’s Guide. Ultimately, we just want to be very, very clear on how important it is not to contribute code to the core project or reference components with unclean IP or GPL incompatible licensing, protect contributors and the project from liability in the case someone does, and provide a set of simple, clear guidelines that will not be a barrier to participation.
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