It wasn't too long ago that RIAForge was announced. Just in case you don't know what it is - RIAForge is a site that offers hosting for open source projects built in Adobe technologies. You can host your project files, Subversion, forums, blog, and issue tracker at the site, or simply just list your site if you already have an existing project site.
This morning the site crossed 100 active projects!
Along with 100 projects, we have had:
Total Views: 127030
Total Downloads: 11715
Total Verified Users: 801
Thank you to everyone who has used the support, bugs and all. I also want to give a shout out to Rob Gonda, who wrote the SVN code for the site. Thanks Rob!
Archived Comments
LOL - Sure wish they would release RIAForge as a project... I have a use for something like it with my development teams in-house.
Heh, well, it is my code, and I can tell you it isn't anything to get excited about. ;) Rob's SVN code is cool - but my stuff is mainly just simple CMS stuff. It really is a bit hacky and I'm slowly improving it over time.
Hint for those posting projects to RIAForge - don't double host the zip on your blog and RIAForge like I did - it's much more fun to watch your project download stats go up on RIAForge! I'd probably be in 2nd place if I didn't double host the zip ;)
Besides the obvious fact that folks who come across the zip on your blog will not be getting the latest version (which is part of the whole beauty of RIAForge).
Ray - Even you "hacky" stuff is better than I have seen in some COTS packages (grin)... We use lighthouse predominantly in-house for development tracking, but something like RIAForge would give us a more "cross-department" venue (graphics dept, CF Group, newly forming FLEX group, etc)
Congrats! It is good work. Now, if I remember correctly, Rob's SVN stuff was going to be released wasn't it?
Sid - I will definitely consider it. Not as a project of course, but just as something to download. I don't consider it quite abstract enough where someone could easily change the look and feel.
To be honest, I am working a "side-project" in my "spare time" to see if I can't find a way to integrate Lighthouse, BlogCFC, and a couple of your other apps into 1 "portal-style" (single logon, mutli-app) framework. If I succeed in that, you can expect several items on your wishlist appearing for you. {grin}
SWEET!
Ray Replied:
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Sid - I will definitely consider it. Not as a project of course, but just as something to download. I don't consider it quite abstract enough where someone could easily change the look and feel.
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Sid - that sounds awesome - look forward to that one!
Ray - any chance you can whisper in Adobes ear to have a function on RIA so a user can sign-up to be notified of changes/updates to a project? There are a few on there I'd like to be kept up to date with, but keep forgetting to check back to the site for the latest files...
Ray, I'm with Brendon on that request
Brendan: That's me you would be whispering too. ;) It is something I want as well. It is on the list. I promise. :) The big change this week was N categories per project.
Brian: I keep yelling at Rob to add it, but then I yell for tech support, so I can't yell all the time. ;)
nice one :)
Amazing job Ray - it is very cool.
Quick question. I have a couple of pure CF projects that I'll be poting (LightWire is already up there), but I also have another project: LightCSS. It is lightweight CSS framework and while I think it'd be useful to CF developers, it is a little outside the boundaries as it wouldn't be built using Adobe technologies.
Just thinking out loud, while it'd be nice to be able to put it on RIAForge, if that was allowed we'd probably end up with JavaScript frameworks and all kinds of stuff. Might be OK, might be annoying/a mess.
My question is should I post it to RIAForge? And I guess my backup (if the answer is a no which it probably should be) would be to add a little CSS generation Wizard in CF which would then make it "built with Adobe technologies"!
Peter - just a quick response. I am looking into this and will have a 'proper' response later.
Thanks, no rush! I'm just about evenly split as to whether it would be cool to have sections for JS and CSS frameworks so this would be a one stop shop for Adobe developers (hey, we all need CSS and JavaScript) or whether it should keep more tightly to the clear mandate of "built with Adobe technologies" so it isn't a one stop shop for web developers but it IS "everything Adobe".
I don't think it would do much harm to have a couple of categories for supporting frameworks and it would be yet another reason for people to use the site - perhaps even introducing people who don't use Adobe products to the site and the possibilities of CF and Flex and the like. On the other hand I would get the argument that it should just keep its focus on exactly what it does and what it is about.
Will be good to know one way or the other once the decision has been made!
If I could offer an opinion on this, one of the things that is hardest in any project of this nature is trying to maintain focus. For instance on my open source list, I kept getting requests to add open source and free projects that support ColdFusion development, like CFEclipse for instance or for projects that were purely in the planning stages. I think one of the things that has kept the list useful is that, while many of these projects are very worthy, I chose not to include them so that I could keep the mandate of the site narrower and thereby more focused on meeting a specific need.
While we do all need CSS, JavaScript and other supporting technologies, I think hosting a purely CSS or JavaScript or otherwise project would be a mistake. That is not to exclude projects that use an Adobe technology like ColdFusion for instance to integrate these items (for example, much of AjaxCFC is a set of JavaScript functions, but there is also a component to ease integration).
I think the mandate of RIAForge as it exists is plenty broad since there is such a wide array of Adobe products. I think broadening this further would just create a mess. For example, why not a pure Java project which I might want to integrate with CF but which itself includes no CF integration? My point is that it is a slippery slope and RIAForge could end up just another SourceForge, hosting anything and everything.