Is the news of Smith Project going open source actually a death knell?
Smith ProjectA few weeks ago, upon the news that Smith had open sourced its CFML processing engine, I started to get excited about the prospect of a good, open source and free option for our CF based web sites/applications.
In that vein, I started http://cfopen.instantspot.com and began putting together some documentation on how to set up Linux/Apache/MySQL/Smith servers. Even creating a couple virtual machines that developers could use to test their code.
While doing my own testing, I encountered some pretty crucial (in my view) issues that should at least be discussed with the Smith team. So, I immediately sent some emails and made some forum posts over at Smith Project's forums . To this day, I haven't heard anything or seen any replies to the forum posts. And, you may notice if you check out their forums, I'm not the only one not getting replies.
Could it be that the reason Smith went open source was because they no longer wanted to work on it? If that is the case, is there anybody out there that would want to get involved in improving Smith and making it a viable option?
Known Issues with Smith
Smith ProjectI made a similar post on the cfopen blog, but I wanted to make sure I made note here.
I started trying to run some code with the CentOS VM yesterday. I started with MachII 1.1.1 and immediately ran in to some issues that need to be addressed. (<cfrethrow>, CreateObject())
I then tried to run cfshopkart (an open source CF shopping cart app), and ran in to some other, different issues (Application.cfm,custom tags). So, I decided it was time for a round of bug/issue reports to Smith
From http://cfopen.instantspot.com :
As of this posting the issues I have encountered and since reported to the Smith team:
I have reported all of these issues to Smith via email, and if they hadn't been noted on their forum already, I made note there as well.
- <cfrethrow> tag not supported
- CreateObject() not supported. (NEED this!)
- NOTE: <cfobject> and <cfinvoke> ARE supported
- Application.cfm doesn't seem to be behaving the same as in ColdFusion. In order to get the Application.cfm code to run I ended up needing to it at the top of a template.
- Custom tag paths are a mystery right now. No mater what I tried, I couldn't get custom tags to execute.
If anybody has any Java skills and wants to help the Smith team out, that would be incredible. Or, if anybody else has any issues they know about that is keeping them from considering Smith as a viable alternative, please leave a comment here http://cfopen.instantspot.com/blog/index.cfm/2007/6/6/Known-Issues-with-Smith
cfopen Virtual Machines ready for download
Smith ProjectThanks to Ryan Everhart for offering to host these two VM's for cfopen.
Currently there are two choices:
CentOS 5 (server with gui)/Apache/Tomcat/MySQL/Smith
OR
Ubuntu Server (with fluxbox)/Apache/Tomcat/MySQL/Smith
If you can, please take the time to download and use either of these machines. Or, read through the documentation (rough drafts!) on how to set up a Smith stack of your very own.
Also, let me know if you have any suggestions/criticisms/etc.
We are currently working on a much more stripped down VM (no GUI, hopefully small enough to fit on a CD...or smaller).
Read more about cfopen at http://cfopen.instantspot.com .
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SLAM: The hot new CFML stack (or, what about CLAMS?)
Smith Project
This post is a little premature, as I don't have the fully distributable VM ready yet, but that said...
I have put together a 100% free CFML processing stack virtual machine using CentOS 5, Tomcat 5, Apache 2, MySQL and Smith Project.
Smith
Linux
Apache
MySQL
(Or "CLAMS", because it's funny. The "C" would be for CentOS)
Eariler today, the Smith Project team posted an updated war to address the Smith admin not accepting changes (see here). Once I downloaded the newest war, I was able to add a datasource connecting the instance to the MySQL and do some simple queries.
The challenges for distributing this VM...
- It's big. It is a full install of an OS (albeit a stripped down one).
-
I neglected to keep the virtual disks at the 2gb per file size, so it won't work on filesystems that can't handle files larger than 2gigs.
I plan on recreating this VM using the 2gb/file size approach (very soon), and also beef up the documentation on how to set this up if you wanted to do an install on another machine (hopefully soon).
So, stay tuned for updates when I find a place to host this thing for downloads. If anybody knows of something good/free please let me know.
Also, I would be willing to share the VM in its current state, if you can deal with a ~4gb VM.
I would love to see this effort (even if it is not my initial attempt) really take off. I am really pumped to see a freely downloadable CFML processor (thanks Smith Project!).
Smith is an open source, cross-platform ColdFusion® engine, written entirely in Java. Running on top of Java Runtime Environment and Java Servlet Container, it can be virtually deployed on any operating system and work with any web server. Smith represents lightweight, yet reliable alternative to the existing ColdFusion® servers. It supports most important ColdFusion® features (see Features) and already drives several large ColdFusion® applications.
Deeply integrated in J2EE, Smith works as part of ordinary Java Web application and can easily be used together with servlets and JSPs. The server behaviour is easily configurable through the simple Web interface where database connections, debugging options, server mappings and more can be set.
Smith is open source software, which means that it comes with permission for anyone to use, copy, and distribute it.
Download and try fully functional version of the Smith engine.
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