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ColdFusion Open Source Update Says Goodbye

Posted on Nov 22, 2010

It wasn't supposed to happen this way. I had been gathering all the posts to do another ColdFusion open source update, and even though I had warned that this series was soon coming to an end, I hadn't planned on it occurring just yet. Unfortunately, circumstances got in the way. Mostly I was so caught up with planning and executing RIA Unleashed that the list of posts kept piling up for the last few weeks until I finally realized that the open source update had indeed already ended.

So, what drove this decision? Well, I have been doing this series for over 4 years now (first one was April 2006) and, to be honest, while it has been a lot of fun, it has also been a lot of work. The time spent on this weekly post has often prevented me from finding time to blog about other topics that interest me. This was compounded by the fact that the tool I had written to ease the work in writing these updates broke and I just didn't have the motivation to rewrite it to use a new supported API (it used Google Notebook which is still around but no longer supported and the plugin doesn't work in any browser anymore). The point is, lately the posts had been even more work and even more time consuming to write than before.

The other factor is in many ways, a positive one. Back when I started this series four years ago, it was in part a defensive response to those who claimed there was no open source development in ColdFusion. At the time there were probably about 100 projects I followed in total by a handful of open . There was no RIAForge and probably a full 15% of the projects were developed by Ray Camden alone. Now there are many hundreds of projects and hundreds of contributors. This is great for ColdFusion but not so easy for someone trying to track all the open source posts. If you are curious which blogs I followed (beyond daily emails from RIAForge and reading the entire Adobe Feeds and ColdFusionBloggers feeds), you can download this OPML file of ColdFusion bloggers to add to your subscriptions.

Lastly, when I first announced that this series might be ending, a number of community members offered to pick it up and continue it on their own. If you wish to do so, I have absolutely no issue with that. Thanks everyone for reading and supporting this post over the years. Hopefully the ColdFusion open source community will continue to grow in the years to come.

Comments

It was a lot of work - so I more than understand your decision. Thank you for your work and dedication Brian!

Posted By Raymond Camden / Posted on 11/22/2010 at 6:51 AM

Thanks for all the effort and time you've put in over the years while doing the updates. I've always found them really useful to easily see what activity was going on in the CFML open source community.

It's sad to see it go but maybe the community out there who'll miss this could get together and properly plan a replacement. RIAForge is great for seeing what's going on, but the personal touch you provided made it a much more useful summary.

Thanks again Brian :)

Posted By David Boyer / Posted on 11/22/2010 at 6:58 AM

Thanks for your years of commitment. I enjoyed and used this resource many times. I appreciate your reasons for this decision. Great work, true appreciated.

Posted By Curt Gratz / Posted on 11/22/2010 at 7:02 AM

Thanks for having done this for the last 4 years Brian, combined with the Ray's daily ColdfusionBloggers digest email this has been the best way to keep up to date about the latest and greatest in the community and will be sorely missed!

Posted By Remy Becher / Posted on 11/22/2010 at 7:03 AM

Thanks for your efforts, Brian. I used to use your list as a reference point for my work so it's very much appreciated.

Posted By Jura Khrapunov / Posted on 11/22/2010 at 7:07 AM

Thanks again Brian - your efforts were definitely appreciated.

It would definitely be good to see it picked up the community (especially if it can be done in a way to spread the load, and avoid being a burden).

Posted By Peter Boughton / Posted on 11/22/2010 at 7:24 AM

This is sad. Not only to see you go but also not seeing anyone else willing to pick up where you had left.

A community is not driven from 1 person, and this what I feel CF developers lack. Everyone likes to see the latest and greatest, everyone wants a snippet of code that they can build upon but no one has the time and the will to help others people "OPEN SOURCE" projects.

I have seen in the PHP, .NET communities where a situation similar to yours will raise and you will also see other people hands raise as well to help continue what is consider not a good but a great work, eventually helping thousands.

As a CF Developer I feel we should have a "community" sense and help others in areas where needed. We all want the free time and to us is the most valuable thing you can get. But do you know how much time we save when we find a good piece of work, code in this case, and that we don't have to re-invent the wheel? A lot of CF developers say that CF is not dying, but things like this sure gives it a filling of it. When ADOBE conferences only speaks about FLASH and FLEX and CF is just a tool to support those platforms it sure feels that CF is dying.

We keep comparing CF with .NET, PHP, RUBY and imitating their frameworks just to say how capable is CF, but something that we don't do is give a hand to a fellow CF Developer who's time has beed consumed to help US, and this is as important as features and capabilities, knowing that someone out there is always willing to give you a hand to keep something we LOVE pretty much alive. But no, I'm just dreaming, we just know how to say, "Sorry, to see you go".

NICE!

Posted By Elias / Posted on 11/22/2010 at 7:26 AM

@Elias - didn't Brian say he had a number of people offering to take it over?

Posted By Raymond Camden / Posted on 11/22/2010 at 7:28 AM

I agree with what Elias said.

But this post is what got me started doing some open source work. I think what we really need is an open source community forum, how we can build up cf open source...powered by us the developer's, not adobe.

We are the fuel and oil that keep's the coldfusion engine of success going strong...

Live Long Coldfusion!

Posted By Craig M. Rosenblum / Posted on 11/22/2010 at 7:43 AM

@Craig - there is a forum. Already:

http://groups.google.com/group/cfopensource-contributors?lnk=srg

Took two seconds to search on Google Groups. Also tried houseoffusion too. I thought Michael had set one up but I didn't see it listed.

Posted By Raymond Camden / Posted on 11/22/2010 at 7:50 AM

Say it ain't so!

Brian you have done such an outstanding job keeping us up to date on the world of OSS in ColdFusion. It would be great if someone else could carry on the tradition, but I imagine that won't happen.

Thanks so much for all of your time and effort. The ColdFusion Open Source Update will be gone, but not forgotten.

Posted By Bob Silverberg / Posted on 11/22/2010 at 7:52 AM

@Criag - Also - I take issue - respectfully, with this comment:

"powered by us the developer's, not adobe."

I'm not sure what you mean by this, but I wanted to point out a few things:

a) Adobe helps support OS directly by paying for hosting for RIAForge. This is not cheap. Adobe also paid for the _dev_ of RIAForge. That's a great way to show support and should not be discounted.

b) Prior to Adobe, Macromedia also supported OS in CF with the DRK program. Apps like BlogCFC, Galleon, Soundings, and Canvas were all developed under the DRK program. I was paid to develop them - MACR had exclusive access for 6 months - and then they were free to the world. I really wish Adobe would bring back the DRK - but the point is - there is some great history of support there.

Now - if you point is that you feel it's something we should do ourselves as a community - I'll all behind you. I just didn't want you to imply that Adobe isn't doing their part.

And yeah - I'm kind of an Adobe fanboy/apologist/unpaid evangelist so I'm probably biased. ;)

Posted By Raymond Camden / Posted on 11/22/2010 at 7:58 AM

Of course, all of those interested in helping an Open CF thrive should know there's an OpenCF summit coming up:
http://www.opencfsummit.org/

Anyone who can get to Texas in February is strongly recommended to attend, to help ensure this is a popular and recurring event!

Posted By Peter Boughton / Posted on 11/22/2010 at 8:07 AM

I wasn't trying to imply that Adobe wasn't doing their job. But I just personally felt that the more ownership we took upon ourselves the better the community would become.

After years of being in Coldfusion, I have seen so many changes that to purely depend on a company to support our growth seems, uneffective.

I believe that we can be a better community, and I know I haven't done much if anything, and I would like to help if i can...

I am not anti-Adobe, I am just pro, realizing that more change and growth and innovation comes from us, rather than the traditional supports...that's all...

And yes, DRK was cool for those of us who could afford it. Which was never me, or any of the companies I worked for.

But thank you, nothing wrong with Adobe, but this should not be the death of open source, but maybe we just realized how important the updates were, and if we can help out we should...

Posted By Craig M. Rosenblum / Posted on 11/22/2010 at 8:07 AM

@Ray,

Thanks for linking to that mailing list, didn't know that one existed... although it doesn't look too active.

@Craig,

I'm all for the community pulling together to continue these updates and perhaps more. Don't think we should exclude Adobe though (or anyone else) as they have a decent track record (as Ray has highlighted) and could prove a valuable resource for any community effort.

@Everyone

I've seen several people suggesting continuing Brian's effort or possibly expanding on it. Is anyone willing to take the lead on this? If we've got several volunteers, it makes sense to pool resources and share the work load. I'm willing to help out but who wants to be Captain? :)

Posted By David Boyer / Posted on 11/22/2010 at 8:13 AM

@Brian - thanks for all your work on keep us (the community) up to date on the OSS CF projects.

A while back I, along with a few others, talked about taking this over. Is there any possibility to obtain the data that you have compiled?

@David - yes, there were a few of us that talked about taking this over.

@Everyone - I'd be willing to take on the Captain role. I'll talk to Russ Johnson, as I think he had access to the OpenCFML.com domain, which would be a great place for this information.

Posted By Brandon Moser / Posted on 11/22/2010 at 8:24 AM

Brian thanks for all your hard work! Looking forward to seeing what kinds of things you will start blogging next.

Posted By Pete Freitag / Posted on 11/22/2010 at 8:34 AM

Thanks for the years you put into this, Brian. A few years ago, when I was "returning" to CF development, your CF Open Source Updates (and your blog in general) introduced me to the online ColdFusion community, which also led me to start attending the Boston CFUG (which you were the manager of at the time). I think it's cool that, years later, we're now friends and I've appeared in your updates a few times.
While I will definitely miss the updates, I'm looking forward to reading those other blog posts you'll now have more time to write. Take care.

Posted By Tony Garcia / Posted on 11/22/2010 at 8:38 AM

Brian,

Thank you for everything you've done over the years to contribute to the CF community. Thanks for having kept this list for so long. And, for the love of God, don't apologize for having to do what ya gotta do! ;-)

Posted By Matt Quackenbush / Posted on 11/22/2010 at 8:39 AM

i always looked forward to the OS updates, so "thanks for all the fish" ;-)

any idea of how many OS cf projects aren't on RIAForge? if they're all pouring onto RIAForge maybe it *is* to put the OS update to sleep?

again, thanks for all your hard work.

ps: what are you going to do with all that free time you now have on your hands? paint?

Posted By PaulH / Posted on 11/22/2010 at 8:47 AM

RIAForge definitely does NOT have everything. There is quite a bit of usage of Github as well. One thing RIAForge tries to do is allow for folks who want to host elsewhere and just 'list' themselves at RIAForge. So if you prefer Github, or Sourceforge, you can use RIAForge just to list your project and make all the links external. (Sorry for the commercial for RIAForge. ;)

Posted By Raymond Camden / Posted on 11/22/2010 at 8:50 AM

Brian, it's been awesome my friend. I still remember the first time I got mentioned on your OS list - I almost passed out with excitement :) As you say though, it's awesome that there is so much juice CF public work taking place that it's becoming overwhelming. These are exciting times!

Posted By Ben Nadel / Posted on 11/22/2010 at 8:53 AM

The CF OS Update was more than just a list of new/updated projects.

Even if RIAForge was updated to have a "new since last time" feature, it still wouldn't be a complete replacement.

Posted By Peter Boughton / Posted on 11/22/2010 at 8:54 AM

@Raymond Cadmen - Yes he did mention, but please understand that this is not the first CF project that I have seen drop in the last few months. I know that the JEDI MASTER is always mentonring us and helping the community.

I would like to see more CF programmers involved, and caring more about these projects. Please note that I'm looking to inspire more CF developers to help each other and motivate them in the sense that we all are ONE group of people that want the same things out of the community and eventually create a "REVOLUTION" inside the community to push CF to the limits.

I respect what ADOBE, RAILO and Blue Dragon project of standardizing CFML in the past, but as you well know that didn't went well, and my feeling of that was that the priority and interest were very different among these peers, and even all of them were thinking for the COMMUNITY.

I just want to say we cannot let good projects die just like that. We need to keep motivating, helping, writing beautiful code in the community so that every new CF developer that walks in do the same.

Lets create a COMMUNITY CULTURE where every developer has the responsibility of motivating, helping, writing beautiful code and contribute in the community with these principals so we can grow stronger, better and feel pride of being a CF developer.

Posted By Elias / Posted on 11/22/2010 at 9:05 AM

This has been one of my "must reads" for a while. Thank you very much for keeping it going all these years. Looking forward to what else you blog about.

Posted By Sam Farmer / Posted on 11/22/2010 at 9:15 AM

Brian, thank you for all the work you did maintaining this blog series. It was for me both a great resource and a source of encouragement.

Posted By Brian Swartzfager / Posted on 11/22/2010 at 10:05 AM

Read every post. Thanks for all the hard work.

Posted By John Allen / Posted on 11/22/2010 at 10:24 AM

Brian,

Thanks so much for doing this series. I never missed a week of reading it. I loved seeing what OS projects were being contributed to the ColdFusion universe.

Posted By Steve Bryant / Posted on 11/22/2010 at 11:05 AM

@Brian, thank you so much for your efforts so steadily over the past 4 years. It has been a great addition to the community to have a one-stop source of info on the projects that are out there and what people have been working on. All the best to you in your other endeavors ... I know the time I have devoted to a number of my side projects have certainly dropped off over the past few years. It's good to realize when you need to refocus elsewhere, but thanks for the commitment you've given all of us through your newsletter. Much appreciated!

Posted By Jason Fisher / Posted on 11/22/2010 at 11:51 AM

I enjoyed this cfos list for years amd was always happy to see a new post ;-) Thanks a lot Brian!

Posted By Daniel / Posted on 11/22/2010 at 1:45 PM

Brian, I want to thank you for all the work you've put into the open source updates over the last nearly half-a-decade - I've really appreciated the updates and I can only begin to imagine just how much you've put into this over the years!

I hope someone else will take on this work (but I expect most folks are simply too busy - all the more reason we should be extremely grateful to Brian for all his effort over the years!).

Perhaps this is an opportunity for folks who are writing open source projects to be more diligent about updating their project pages on RIAForge so that the automated alert emails that get sent out can help fill this gap? (although a few updates to RIAForge might make that easier - Ray, I'll ping you directly about some ideas I have for improving the daily digest!).

Posted By Sean Corfield / Posted on 11/22/2010 at 6:21 PM

@Everyone who has commented...

For those of you who are interested in possibly taking up the mantle of the ColdFusion Open Source Update (or even taking it further), I've created a Google Group to hopefully aid discussion of it.

http://bit.ly/cfml-os (CFML Open Source).

---

Thanks again Brian for all your hard work :)

Posted By David Boyer / Posted on 11/23/2010 at 1:20 AM

David, what is the real URL for it?!

Posted By Peter Boughton / Posted on 11/23/2010 at 1:50 AM

Sorry, was too busy getting the short URL as I was going to tweet it ;)

The real URL is...

http://groups.google.com/group/cfml-open-source

Posted By David Boyer / Posted on 11/23/2010 at 1:52 AM

Brian,

Thank you so much for your years of hard work, it is very, very much appreciated!

Posted By Mark Mandel / Posted on 11/23/2010 at 3:04 AM

Thanks for all your hard work!

Posted By Andrea Veggiani / Posted on 11/23/2010 at 4:52 AM

Brain,

thank you for everything you've done over the years. these posts are a lifesaver when i'm searching for open source cf projects. you really did a great job explaining the projects and what was updated in them.

a suggestion for the community to continue this (and i don't know if it's already been done) would be to just to agree to a trend tag on twitter (#cfopensource for example) and have everyone tag their tweets announcing their project updates with it.

again, thank you for everything.

Posted By tony petruzzi / Posted on 12/01/2010 at 7:22 AM