The Open Source NewsCloud Community Starter Blog

Wrapping up code on release 1.0 and upcoming changes

We're finishing up some final clean up items to the Release 1.0 Ruby on Rails codebase which runs the Observer's Insight application in Facebook. We expect to have this out in the next week or so. Stay tuned.

If you are one of the first five developers to install the codebase and get a Facebook application running, we'll send you a $25 iTunes gift card.

After this stabilization release, we'll again begin adding new features. Follow our discussions.

This release will likely be the last version with native FBML support. Facebook's iFrame application support has come a long way - it's pretty much equivalent now. So, to simplify new code and code maintenance as well as get away from the restrictions of Facebook's limited Javascript implementation FBJS, future releases will operate only in iFrame mode. Read these two blog posts for more information: Inside Facebook and CCheever on the iFrame vs. FBML issue.

First stable release of NewsCloud Facebook application based on Ruby on Rails

Release 1.0 stable is available at Github. Grab a fork! This is the same code running the Charlotte Observer Insight application on Facebook.

We're planning to post release 1.0 final with this feature set, but a bit more polished, around April 30th.

More later... 

First previews of Rails-based Facebook Application

Yesterday, the Charlotte Observer soft-launched its Facebook application, Insight, using our new Ruby on Rails codebase. Please try it out and post your feedback in our discussion forums.

Our Rails code also runs parallel on the Web with Facebook Connect. A hurried version of our Seattle prototype community site demonstrates this:

• The Needle on the Web with Facebook Connect 
• The Needle on Facebook as an Application

We expect to tag release 1.0 as stable by next week and then will be polishing and improving the release through April.

Our grant-funded development on the platform will continue for another year through April 2011 - so get involved in the open source community. Grab a fork!

Roadmap of Features for Future Releases

Check out what we're considering for future releases to the NewsCloud Facebook application. 

http://support.newscloud.com/discussions/app-wish-list/25-release-2-3-4-feature-roadmap

We may not do most or all of these features, it depends on the feedback we get and the time and resources that we have available to us. 

What is most important to you? What would you like to work on?

Are you an open source developer who would like to work on one of these features? 

First Generic Photoshop Comps of NewsCloud Facebook Application Redesign

Eye Level has delivered the first graphical comps of our NewsCloud Facebook redesign. Be sure to look at the current wireframes and planned features for the first release. 

TenderApps.com provides free support systems for open source projects like ours so that we're able to easily provide transparent publication of our work and gather feedback from stakeholders in the discussion threads.

 

NewsCloud Releases Alpha Code for Ruby on Rails Facebook Application

Today, we're releasing the first alpha test code of our Ruby on Rails-based Facebook news community application. We first wrote about the decision to migrate to Rails here.

The code for this project is funded by a December 2009 Knight Foundation grant which has just been announced here. All the code developed for this project will continue to be released via open source license.

This code is not ready for production deployment for an actual publication. The purpose of this alpha test release is to share the progress of our work and invite developers to participate. If you'd like to volunteer to take an active role in development of this application, working closely with our team, please post details about your interests and qualifications here. We're especially looking for developers who want to create new modules for this application. However, anyone is welcome to grab a fork and submit pull requests.

The current codebase provides a prototype of base level functionality from our existing Facebook application for testing purposes e.g. posting stories, commenting, voting, etc. Developers will be able to learn a great deal about our architecture and ongoing approach by reviewing the alpha code release. An initial production-ready code release should be ready in April 2010.

The current codebase provides the ability to publish a prototype application as a Facebook application, as a Web application with Facebook connect and as a simple mobile Web application and has the ability to support multiple languages. Note: the current codebase leverages our old Facebook design, not the new Compass-based grid design coming in the next release.

Some of the plugins we are using for this application include: Facebooker, il8n, Formtastic, VoteFu, Taggable, Restful Authentication, Routing Filter, Friendly_id, Rack, Simple RSS, Will Paginate, Cucumber, rSpec, HopToad, and NewRelic. We are also using Bootstrap, HAML, SASS and soon Compass w/960.gs. It may be helpful to review these plugins and technologies before diving into the code.

The codename for our Ruby on Rails platform is N2. You can download the code for this release at Github here: http://github.com/newscloud/n2. So, grab a fork! You can join our online support discussion about Ruby on Rails here. Constructive criticism, feedback and new ideas are always welcome!

Our goal is to be as transparent and open as possible with our ongoing development roadmap. We invite you to review our upcoming design (created by Eye Level), join our feature wish list discussions and review the next release milestone definition.

I also want to give a shout out to the GitHub and TenderApp folks for offering free services for open source projects like ours and the Rails community for such a nice welcome last month!

NewsCloud's Migrating Our Facebook Application to Ruby on Rails

Last fall, I began studying switching the NewsCloud Facebook application code over to a framework to help us improve the robustness of our code, the efficiency of our work and to make it easier for open source developers to collaborate on our project.

I looked most closely at CakePHP but had concerns about the breadth of documentation, tutorials and the comparative robustness of its developer community. I was also concerned by the departure of a leading Cake developer to start another new framework. Then, I began looking more closely at Ruby on Rails (RoR).

Moving away from PHP was not our first choice, but ultimately the advantages, robustness and relative maturity of RoR made it an ideal choice for us.

We began by prototyping a migration of our PHP code base and data architecture to RoR. The results of this work were impressive and conclusive. The speed of our progress and the quality of our prototype implementation led me to overwhelmingly favor continuing in this direction.

Developers can debate the value of various frameworks until the cows come home - each has its own strengths and weaknesses for particular applications. This is how RoR fits into our particular needs.

What are the advantages of migrating our code base to Ruby on Rails?

* RoR provides modular support for simultaneous publishing to multiple platforms: a Facebook application, a Web application with Facebook Connect, a mobile Web application (potentially iPhone & Android Applications too) and RSS/XML. For more information, see Facebooker and JqTouch.

* Multi-lingual support (via I18n) - for providing internationalized language support and multi-lingual applications e.g. click to select French, Spanish or English

* RoR uses a Model View Controller framework (MVC). All RoR applications are structured the same way vs. PHP where each application can have a different architecture. MVC makes it easier for partners or open source developers to jump into a project and get up to speed quickly. MVC makes development faster and more efficient with less bugs. The bugs that exist are generally easier to resolve. 

* We hope that RoR will excite developers about the NewsCloud Facebook source code - RoR is a framework for the future, whereas PHP is an older programming language that lacks a framework. According to this blog post analysis of GitHub, the web-based code collaboration manager we use, "Ruby projects recruit contributors astoundingly well, with Python a close second. Java, Javascript and PHP projects, on the other hand, do particularly badly."

* RoR is extremely well documented and has a vibrant developer community. I was particularly impressed with Railscasts. There are many excellent plugins for enabling common functionality, and reducing the code we need to build from scratch.

* RoR supports HAML and SASS which simplify HTML/CSS code and will allow for easier customization of design skins for clients and open source adopters

* Rails applications offer easier solutions for deployment and hosting upgrades including forward and backward migrations of databases

* RoR applications are generally less vulnerable to security threats than PHP-based applications. Writing secure code should be easier with RoR.

* RoR provides a framework for automated test suites which over time can prove to be huge timesavers and help with validating and integrating work from open source community members.

* RoR provides an excellent suite of programming tools that make coding more efficient including the interactive console and rake command line utilities

* RoR can be easily integrated with HopToadApp, LighthouseApp and NewRelic for tracking errors, managing bugs and tuning/monitoring performance

What are some of the disadvantages of RoR?

* PHP developers would have to learn RoR to contribute to our RoR open source work. Some of our team has to increase its proficiency at RoR as well.

* RoR has a reputation for being difficult to scale partly due to high profile Twitter outages. We do not believe these kinds of issues will affect us or that they apply globally when proper practices are used. Also, most of our projects are moderate in size at this time.

* Our PHP architecture is capable of running multiple sites on a single code installation (which makes managing them easier). RoR, like Drupal for example, is best used with separate code installs for each site. However, RoR's deployment and migration capabilities make managing hosting much simpler than with PHP.

What will we do with our PHP codebase?

* We have updated our PHP codebase with an improved installer and some basic updates so that organizations and developers that wish to use it may do so simply and easily. 

* We will continue hosting existing sites, but most will want to migrate them to the new RoR as soon as it is ready

* We will maintain an area in our open source community tools for PHP work. Whether some development continues in PHP within our open source community (with or without our hands-on support) will be determined by the level of interest.

In Conclusion

We hope you're as excited as we are by this migration. We expect to release an alpha of our Ruby on Rails codebase within the next month. Please stay tuned. Be sure to follow us on Twitter @newscloud.

You can join our online support discussion about Ruby on Rails here.

I also want to give a shout out to the GitHub and TenderApp folks for offering free services for open source projects like ours!

Small update to Open Source PHP Release

Earlier, we released a preview of our easier to install open source PHP release. We've now added a few minor updates to address issues that some developers ran into with virtual hosts and web directory permissions.

Get the latest code at Github now. Please try to install this release and let us know if you run into any difficulties or have questions.

We believe an experienced developer should be able to set up and install the application on Facebook within 15-30 minutes with our configuration menu.

Also, we still have four $25 iTunes cards for open source developers that successfully install this release to a publicly viewable/verifiable domain and post feedback for us on the installation process. Email your contact information to jeff at newscloud dot com once you've completed this.

Open Source Preview Release of NewsCloud PHP Facebook Application Update

Earn a $25 iTunes Gift Card: The first four open source developers to successfully install this release to a publicly viewable/verifiable domain and post feedback for us on the installation process will receive a $25 iTunes gift card (or authorization code if outside the U.S.) Email your contact information to jeff at newscloud dot com once you've completed this.

Preview Release Available: Developers, please give our preview release of a big update to our open source PHP-based Facebook application: Download the code at Github: http://github.com/newscloud/open-social-media-toolkit.

The big thing that's new is we've created a simple easy to use installation menu which should help you set up the application in a few easy steps:

• There is only one Apache site configuration needed now, instead of two
• There is a simplified constants_sample.php file and optional sample ini file to configure the source code to your environment
• The installation menu uploads all the settings you need to Facebook. No more messing around with the Facebook Developer application's myriad of settings.
• The installation menu now creates the database, configures it and populates test data for you automatically.
• There is an easy to use generic design skin

Check out the new readme.txt and you may be able to get your Facebook application running in 10 to 15 minutes from the time you download the code.

Other new elements of this release include:

• New features e.g. crowdsourced idea boards & answer knowledge bases, twitter rooms and photo streams
• A Photoshop design kit for customizing design elements and banner from the generic skin

Please post your questions to our new support community http://support.newscloud.com. We'd like to thank TenderApp.com for providing free services for our open source developer community.

This open source release is sponsored generously by a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Learn more.

Introduction to the NewsCloud application for Facebook

NewsCloud is an open-source Facebook application that brings the power of community to news organizations. It is powered in part by technology funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

NewsCloud:

• Enables journalists to post text articles and binary content for anyone on Facebook to see and respond to.
• Fosters interaction with the audience on Facebook by enabling users to share links and make comments.
• Can serve as a primary platform for news dissemination or be a supplemental presence, with links from the Facebook application to a news organization's primary Web site.
• Works within Facebook's advertising environment, creating a revenue stream unavailable on the open World Wide Web.

NewsCloud's Facebook application has been used in a variety of settings: academic research involving the environmental news service Grist (Hot Dish) and the University of Minnesota collegiate news service (The Daily), in classroom journalism projects at the University of Washington (in:site) and in nonprofit outreach at Genome Alberta (Genomics).

Among the other features of NewsCloud:

• Front-page news display.
• Tools for team-building and the award of points as incentive for activity. 
• Discussion forums.
• A page for resource links.
• Facebook Invitations.
• Send a gift.
• Push notifications via Facebook, e-mail, and cell-phone text messages.
• Integration of Facebook mini-feeds, and publisher and profile boxes.
• Facebook advertising.
• RSS.
• Automated Twitter publishing
• Statistics and membership analysis.
• Lending library for sharing physical things in local communities.
• Crowdsourced idea pages.
• Crowdsourced knowledge base Q&A

Currently, the application runs on PHP and MySQL, and the codebase is open-source. You can download the code for the current release of NewsCloud at github. Developers can get support and participate in our open source community here.

For those not technically inclined, NewsCloud offers consulting and hosting services at affordable rates. Design customization is available through our partner Eye Level.

You may also be interested in following the NewsCloud company blog or reading about our recent social media research funded by the Knight Foundation.

You can contact us at jeff@newscloud.com or ask a question.