Septuro

I spent some time this weekend working on the Septuro Builder application. I put a lot of work into the objects and the mysql database. Cant wait to get this working with the form plugin that Steve Phillips is working on.

So, anyone who saw this site prior to today would notice something – that theme is awful. Well, screw you, I was in a hurry. I chose the old Wordpress default theme over the new one for one reason – the new one didn’t list the author name. Now, I know what you’re thinking, we created Septuro – we know code, I could’ve edited it. Yeah, I could’ve edited the new default theme to show authors, but I was just trying to get this set up on a stable host, since SourceForge’s hosting is pretty crappy. Well, today I updated to the iNove theme, which looks clean enough and shows the author names of each post.

One of these days, I’ll get the theme looking even better, but for now, this theme is acceptable and does what we need it to do. At some point, we’ll have this site running on Septuro, but until that time, this Wordpress blog is good enough for what we are using this site for – to just post on where the project is at.

Speaking of that, the project is still moving smoothly, and we’ve got our development machines working with DOMi and Septuro in such a way that we keep fixing DOMi bugs while doing Septuro work – so we’re now advancing both projects smoothly. The same thing will happen once we get Yeakum started, as it is just an extension of Septuro into a full blown CMS, but I can’t talk about that project too much… yet. Once it gets rolling, you’ll be hearing about it.

I am an extremely rabid fan of open source software, and Phil and I plan to release Septuro as an open source project. However, one hurdle that we are now encountering is not fully knowing how to do the open source copyright to make it complete and enforceable. This is the first open source project that either of us have worked to this extent. We did DOMi last year, but it was a standalone file that doesn’t have anywhere near the complexity that Septuro has.

We originally planned to use the Creative Commons 3.0 BY-SA license, but after a bit of research, I find out that their license is not ideal for software, and is more intended for works of art. I looked a little bit further, and now we are looking at using the GNU GPL license, and figuring out what we need to do to make it apply to Septuro. I have gone ahead and added a notice to each of the core source code files (a lot of the extended objects are pretty minimal and unimportant, so I don’t see the need to put the notice on everything).

If anyone out there could give us some pointers, I would be very appreciative. We want this software to be freely available to everyone. Part of that will be to make sure nobody else can come along and clamp it down, should we not set up our rights properly. This weekend, I’ll be doing some research into open source copyright law, and I’ll hopefully have this sorted out soon, so we can protect Septuro the way we want it to be protected – by protecting it’s free nature and make sure nobody can lock it down.

I am working on an application that will be a part of Septuro called “Septuro builder”. Septuro builder will have two modules called appBuilder and mocxsBuilder. The appBuilder module will work with the new form plugin to dynamically create a form that will ask all the questions needed to build the basics of an Septuro application. Once the form is filled out and submitted, an application folder with all that is needed for the basic start of an application will be created in the applications folder in Septuro. Once an application is created you will be able to use the mocxsBuilder to create a mocxs(module, object, css, xsl, and script) that will all works together and have the same name. Since I am a Disc Golfer I will use examples that have to do with Disc Golf. Lets say you want to build a website for Las Vegas Disc Golf. The application would be called lvdg(Las Vegas Disc Golf). Just run Septuro’s Builders appBuilder form, answer all the questions, submit, and a lvdg application will be created for you. Once you have the application built you will run the mocxsBuilder to create an object like “Golfer”. You will answer all the question(question like: What will the properties of this object be?) in the mocxsBuilder form and a golfer mocxs will be created in the lvdg application. At this point you should be able to set your VirtualHost for lvdg and have the bascs for a dynamic website users can enter their information in as a Disc Golfer in las vegas. The golfer mocxs will be able to use the form plugin to dynamically create a form for itself. Sweeeeeeeeeet.

Phillip Brown
Developer