OSCAR: Setting up an oganizational system

[Asellith]

Ok this project needs a good base to build on and I have some ideas. We need to build this with a open source software project in mind. I setup a little test on my own web server. I have been experimenting with it when I have time and feel up to it. Its a module called project for drupal sites and if I remember Admin mentioned to me that the member tutorial section runs on drupal. I sent him a message about it but I wanted to get some feedback from everyone specially the people who might have experience with open source project before.

The site is here: test.lostministries.org

Its a sub directory I use for testing modules and stuff. right now it is setup from this test. Here is an outline of my idea. The main library will have version numbers as well as the physical standard. These will be included as major projects in the setup and have version numbers to go with them. Obviously minor version number changes will need to not break a module designed for that version but if in a few years we need to drastically change the system we can create a version 2.0 and start over. This will let us build a better standard over time without worrying about older modules. Each module will need to state what version they work with and can be updated by anyone willing to do the work. These modules will exist as project inside the framework. If anyone is familiar with the drupal.org site and how they handle things that is the inspiration for the site. Each module will also have an issues cue to handle code bugs and hardware issues. The main library and Physical standard will have issue cues as well.

With this system we need a set of moderators that need to be appointed their job is to manage some things. Such as creating an initial project for someone who wants to begin development on a module. They will also keep thing tidy and grant approval to modules to go live I.E. release version 1.0. All 1.0 version and higher modules must comply with the standard and have been checked by someone who knows the standard inside and out. This system will support beta releases as well as RC (release candidate) status so that a module creator can upload a version that is labeled RC and then the moderators can go over it and transform it to a released module.

The project module for drupal handles most of the hard organizational work and keeps track of previous versions as well as letting us upload files.

Let me know your thoughts on a system like this

[Webbot]

Why not use something like SourceForge ? Since that lets you share the CVS source code - do version tracking, releases, documentation, bugs, has high bandwidth etc etc

Most open source projects use it or something similar.

[Asellith]

I am not familiar with the way sourceforge does things. The main reason I wanted to basically roll our own was to allow us to keep everything in one place. Project will handle CVS if it is setup correctly. I am not familiar with CVS yet so I'm researching it. Also Project lets us make subprojects that will work well with the module design. I could agree that bandwidth might be a problem so maybe using sourceforge as a storage depot and linking all files to sourceforge from our site would cut down on the bandwidth requirements a lot.

Again I am not familiar with sourceforge from a development side but what I want to avoid is a loose compilation of related projects in sourceforge. Instead I want to have a single site with all the data in one organized location that is flexible enough to handle whatever we need. For instance drupal.org uses it to keep track of literally thousands of modules with more contributors then we could ever dream of having.

[Asellith]

I have been playing with sourceforge a bit and I kinda like it. Not what I initially thought when thinking about the project but I think it will work nice and comes with a lot of cool features we can explore later. I'm trying to setup a test site now to see how it will work.

[Webbot]

@Asellith. Thats great. Of course its hard to be a site for all people for all things. But since OSCAR is 'open' then an 'open community' forum makes sense if it does most of what you need. The SourceForge guys 'approved' my project within minutes - and Im sure you will find the same. But I do recommend experimenting a bit, which you are obviously doing, before 'going public' - even if only to understand/document your own version/release process.

[Asellith]

The biggest issue I am having with sourceforge is the HTML or text based documentation system. I kinda wanted a system more like the tutorial system here where with the editor you can make some really nice documentation. The sourceforge system is annoying in that it uses limited html. Not being very proficient at HTML its hard to get something to look right. It really just designed to do read me style text documents not tutorial style documents with pics and videos. I guess a solution would be to host the tutorials here and then just write simple read me documents for the sourceforge end and use sourceforge to handle organizing version updates and community contributions and final tutorials hosted here that link to files at sourceforge.

I'm still playing with it and will continue to work on it for a bit. I have surgery in a week to remove my gallbladder. After that my health should improve but it also means not much time/energy to work on robot stuff for a while

[chelmi]

The biggest issue I am having with sourceforge is the HTML or text based documentation system. I kinda wanted a system more like the tutorial system here where with the editor you can make some really nice documentation. The sourceforge system is annoying in that it uses limited html. Not being very proficient at HTML its hard to get something to look right. It really just designed to do read me style text documents not tutorial style documents with pics and videos. I guess a solution would be to host the tutorials here and then just write simple read me documents for the sourceforge end and use sourceforge to handle organizing version updates and community contributions and final tutorials hosted here that link to files at sourceforge.

I'm still playing with it and will continue to work on it for a bit. I have surgery in a week to remove my gallbladder. After that my health should improve but it also means not much time/energy to work on robot stuff for a while

I think sourceforge offers a wiki for each project. The syntax is very easy and sometime there is a advanced editor for it.

Good luck with the surgery!

Chelmi.

[Asellith]

I found the wiki option in the setting very nice I will have to play with this and then just redirect everything to there. this will help out a lot.

[Webbot]

The easiest way to manage the HTML docs is by using something like Doxygen.

Doxgen parses your source code - looking for special tags within the comment blocks of your code. It then outputs the HTML for you. (a bit like Javadoc does in Java). This makes it easier to keep the documentation up to date as the documentation lives with the source code.

[dellagd]

no no no!
did OSCAR die again! I did see aseneth's contest entry but is it dead as a group thing?!?!?!?

[Razor Concepts]

Without proper communication, it is very hard to get projects like these going... as I kind of predicted months ago 

[Asellith]

Don't worry Christmas vacation for me is when I will be finishing my robot and building the proper documentation and a really good example for others to follow. OSCAR will live again even if it is just a personal project for me. Of course without community behind it i'd have to change the name to OSAR but... I have plans. and a little case of project ADD thats keeping me from concentrating on one thing for to long..