D5's CMS going OpenSource

[Cjmovie]

The CMS that I've developed/designed for http://d5robotics.org/ is going OpenSource in time for the 2008 "website season". It's got a lot of features I've found useful over the year, adding and subtracting to its abilities. A highlight is:

+ Skinning System (Copy+Paste folder to add skin)
+ Forum Integration (Single Log-In)
+ Wiki-Like Page Editing (WYSIWYG soon)
+ Messaging System (with Javascript popups)
+ Media Gallery (Including flash video)
+ User Point System (Points for visiting, posting, and replying)

Most of these things can be seen by visiting our team website. Editing pages, though, isn't available unless you're a team member. But I can give you a glimpse of the uploader for the Gallery: http://d5robotics.org/Content/Upload.php You can try to upload anything you like, but it'll give you an authorization error when it's uploaded (and thus won't do anything -- give it a try, if you like).

I've tried to make the code slowly more and more site independent...I'd say I'm about 3/4's of the way there. The current requirements for it are:

php (5 recommended, 4 may work) (with a couple of plugins, especially GD2)
mysql server (I may support more in the future)
ffmpeg (optional, for flash video conversion)

Most of my code is fairly well documented, so I'm hoping that it'll be understandable enough to tweak for each install if the webmaster so wishes. I'll also create a basic default skin and maybe a tutorial on creating a new one.

I'm currently looking at using a GPL license with a few amendments/changes. Also, a few things are still in development. I'm overhauling a few more pieces of the listing for media gallery images (such as using albums instead of having one huge list) and trying to track down a really elusive bug in the popup message system. Speaking of which, you can try it by running this while on any page in the site, from the address bar:

javascript:void(MS_CreateMessage("hi","test"));

So basically, I've got two questions. First of all, is there interest in this? And second of all, the current system uses punBB quite heavily for its interfaces (mainly authentication, but the message system, for instance, uses an admin plugin to send custom messages). Would there be more interest if it were ported to use other forums, such as phpBB?

If you have any questions, let me know. I figure that if I spent this many man-hours on a site, someone else could save some time, and my work could get a little more use :-)

[jtdowney]

Note that at the very top of the GPLv2 and v3 it says "Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this license document, but changing it is not allowed." So I wouldn't plan on amending or changing the GPL for your program. I believe the only thing you can tailor is the licensees right to apply future versions of the GPL to the code without the copyright holders permission. I believe the Linux kernel does this. The GNU has this in their FAQ at http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#ModifyGPL

[Cjmovie]

Thanks, I'd never seen that before. I've seen so many opensource projects use it and other licenses, some with further requirements, some without, that I hadn't expected something like that to pop up. Of course, I'm still undecided on under what I'll release it.
Questions still stands though, does anyone have any interest?

[shawger]

What changes would you be making to the GPL? There's probably another open source license that would fit your wishes better. You also mentioned something about using punBB. Keep in mind that punBB is licensed under the GPL, so if you are using punBB code then your code will have to be licensed under the GPL as well.

As far as interest for this type of thing goes, there's already a ton of open source CMSs. That being said, more code is always better and at the very least people could see what you did and try to adapt it into their own website even if they weren't using your CMS. I'd say go for it. Opening up your code so people can look at it and see the cool things you did is never a bad thing.

The other thing that could happen is that other people will be able to help you with development. If you plan on using this CMS again for your website then you might find yourself with a couple more features than you would have had.

[Cjmovie]

Looking things over a bit more, I actually have no gripes releasing under the GPL. And I interface with the PunBB API, but don't use it - although that still locks me in, the way I'm doing things. It's all good, though.

You can follow my progress in converting it to the final version at http://cjmovie.net/ (which is currently an install of the CMS itself, for testing. I've thus far finished the auto-installation script and built a new style for that site (a crappy one). Next on the list is fixing up the gallery and then a few more admin features).

And although I do realize there are tons of CMS systems out there, there are a few reasons I think mine would serve best for a FIRST site:
As the OpenFIRST site says (and as far as I know) websites must be designed entirely by high-school level workers, which allows this CMS to be used under the website competition.
It's relatively lightweight, and any features a FIRST site would need should be built-in. Things such as videos, pictures, page editing, and even the extra of the Forum when installed with punBB.
I'll be listening directly to feedback in these forums (and from the community of FIRST web developers), so anything that a FIRST site needs will get the highest of priorities. Plus, I'll be around for help.