Suggestion for Helping MOD Authors

[Christian A. Herrnboeck]

Hi All,


I was recently surfing JoomlaForge for some components, and it came to me: Why doesn't SMF have the same type of system for its MOD authors?

JoomlaForge is powered by a software called "Sourceforge", which provides bug-tracking, downloads, mailing lists, CVS, task lists, project management, etc. etc. If you're familiar with sourceforge.net, you'll know what I mean


If SMF had something like this, it'd be clearly ahead of the pack, as neither phpBB, vB, or IPB (AFAIK) have anything like it.

I'd be more than happy to put up the hardware, software, and expertise to set something like this up as third-party, or donate it if SMF would like to run it itself.

I'd just like to see if the SMF community supports something like this.


Regards,
Christian

[青山 素子]

gForge (SourceForge fork) isn't bad, but I like Collabnet better myself.

It is an interesting idea, but I wonder how many mod authors would take advantage of a system like that.

[Rudolf]

Well, I am working on a website (SMF based) where (eventually) mod authors could have their own board for themselves. There's still lot of work to do with it, but I'm almost done with a first "launcheable" state. I am doing it for my mods, but if there's interest from mod authors I would open it up for other mods too. It wouldn't be a full issue tracking system though, just a forum where I/they can give support for the mods, discuss development (bugs included) and get feedback.

[Christian A. Herrnboeck]

Well, I am working on a website (SMF based) where (eventually) mod authors could have their own board for themselves. There's still lot of work to do with it, but I'm almost done with a first "launcheable" state. I am doing it for my mods, but if there's interest from mod authors I would open it up for other mods too. It wouldn't be a full issue tracking system though, just a forum where I/they can give support for the mods, discuss development (bugs included) and get feedback.

We already have that, here at SMF... It's called the MODs board

[Rudolf]

But there's only one topic for each mod. I want more "space" per mod. That's why I am working on a forum at least for my own mods.

[Oldiesmann]

If you do need more than a single topic for each mod, then you should just start your own support board for the mod(s)...

[Rudolf]

And how would I do that on this forum? I can't create boards here. AFAIK.
That's why the need for my own forum. This and to have them all in one place.

[SleePy]

I think thats what Oldiesmann was saying Rudolf

[H]

Joomla has more of a need for it than SMF does. Joomla is a portal which is designed to have major functionality added whereas SMF generally has smaller modifications which don't require CVS, task lists etc

[karlbenson]

I dislike SourceForge in itsself.

I'd prefer there to be just a few more pages  to each mod, because with some complex mod, theres alot to get on one page.

Version Log | Manual Installs | Bug Tracker | Comment Topic

Version log = because its handy to track the changes, fixes and features through the versions
Manual Installs = (using Daniel15's parser, it could quickly write out the 'FIND this', replace with 'this' bits automatically rather than the mod author having to post them) On a separate page because they can get quite extensive for some mods
Bug Tracker = a place for the mod author and other people to post potential bugs


And with some more predefined boxes to fill, because some mod authors post alot of info, and others post next to nothing.

Requires Other Mods? (name them)

Incompatible with mods (name them)

Install process (standard|fiddley|complex)

[Daniel15]

If you do need more than a single topic for each mod, then you should just start your own support board for the mod(s)...

Indeed, that's definitely true. The SMFShop topic was becoming way too messy, which was why I started my own forum for it

JoomlaForge is powered by a software called "Sourceforge", which provides bug-tracking, downloads, mailing lists, CVS, task lists, project management, etc. etc. If you're familiar with sourceforge.net, you'll know what I mean


If SMF had something like this, it'd be clearly ahead of the pack, as neither phpBB, vB, or IPB (AFAIK) have anything like it.

I'd be more than happy to put up the hardware, software, and expertise to set something like this up as third-party, or donate it if SMF would like to run it itself.

Please feel free to use mine... That's what it's there for: http://dev.dansoftaustralia.net/. Anyone may use it if they want to . It's still a work in progress (I haven't finished the theme, for example) but the functionality is there.

It's powered by GForge, and offers most of the features provided by SourceForge (SVN, File Release System, bug/issue trackers, news announcements, mailing lists, todo lists). Note that I do not offer CVS, as I never got around to setting it up. The web hosting service is set up, but you must contact me if you want to use it.

[Daniel15]

For everyone that signed up for mine yesterday, my email server was misconfigured, so no activation emails were sent. I've fixed the server, and activated everyone's account now

I'd be more than happy to put up the hardware, software, and expertise to set something like this up as third-party, or donate it if SMF would like to run it itself.

So, you're saying that you'd donate hardware for us to host our own system (similar to mine)? That's quite a good idea, I may ask the rest of the team about it .
I'd be more than happy to set it up and administer it... The only problem is the hardware .
Mine's just running in two virtual servers (one for the system itself, and one for the project websites) on my little AMD Athlon 2000+ server

JoomlaForge is powered by a software called "Sourceforge"

Their one is actually powered by GForge AS (Advanced Server), a commercial version of GForge