Development@JumpJoe.com January 27, 2006
Ok, I admit it. I failed. I thought that Savane could be used on dreamhost, with some tuning. I’ve always been a dreamer. After some time fiddling with the product, I gave up. I hate to say this, but as most GNU (or GNA) tools, it close to impossible to understand or even just install quickly.
For this reason, I decided to switch to something else. What else is available? You will find out that web-based development applications are not very common. There are a few available, I will list what I have found to whom it may concern:
- Savane: a very complex application, with lots of features. It is made in PHP, it supports CVS, SVN, Arch, and has many other interesting gizmos. Installing it on a machine where one has a root account is a PAIN. You can only guess how it is on a shared host, almost impossible. And if this won’t stop you, be aware that it has the usability of a 1970 Skoda without wheels.
- Trac: looks like a nice product. And that’s about it! It is made in python, it has a wiki, several detailed project management features, and in general all that you need. But it can only handle a single project. Shame. There are some extensions to support multi-projects, but they are still in the early stages.
- GForge: a spin-off of sourceforge (like Savane). This is one of my favorites: it has lots of features, fairly easy to install, actually usable. Problems: it uses PostgreSQL. This would be a good choice per se, but Dreamhost doesn’t support pgsql so far. In addition, it requires a root account to handle all the user accounts, but I think it should be easier than with Savane to find a workaround.
- GBorg: not as nice as GForge, and uses PostgreSQL. Dropped.
- XoopsForge: uses the XOOPS framework to provide a sort-of SourceForge environment. The screenshots look good, but it has been unsupported for 2 years and the site is down.
- SiteForge: this has been my choice. It is based on the Sitellite CMS, a Canadian content management system that has the ability to drive crazy anybody with sense. Installation is fairly easy, but the actual use, configuration and development require some leaps of faith. Once one understands the unintuitive mechanics behind Sitellite it can become an effective product, although a bit simple. Luckily, extensions are easy, and I will be able to have SVN support implemented in little time.
Now siteforge is online at Develop@JumpJoe.com, and it will soon contain all the projects that I am working on now, or I have been working in the past. If anybody knows any other tool for web-based software project handling, please let me know.