Term Paper on "Open Source Development Tools"

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Community Involvement Analysis

This project involves the development of an e-commerce portal (online shop) for a & B. Pots and Pans Ltd., a company that specializes in the sale of modern and prestige cookware. The choice of shopping cart solution is a secure and yet open source shopping cart solution known as PrestaShop. PrestaShop is a free and open source e-commerce solution. Its ability to be integrated seamlessly with several payment gateways and processors like Google Checkout, Paypal, Authorize.net, Skrill as well as Payment Pro-by means of an API makes it an ideal software solution for many.

The software is available to users under the Open Source License and was launched successfully in 2007 for use by small and medium scale businesses. PrestaShop is based in the popular Smarty template engine is currently in use in over 100,000 online shops worldwide (Taylor,2011). PrestaShop was nominated and won the Best Open Source E-Commerce Application in the 2010 Packt Open Source Awards (Packt,2012) as well as the Best Open source Application in the 2011 edition of the Open Source Award.

The PrestaShop group was originally base din Paris where it was founded but recently it has opened an office in Miami. The software has over 40 languages with French and English being the only languages that enjoy the full support in all of the version releases. The software's technical support is only available on the company's official forum (PrestaShop,2012a).

PrestaShop extensively uses AJAX in its admin panel with the possibility of easy addition of module block in order to provide extra functionality to the store. These modules are often

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provide free of charge by the store's independent developers.

Community involvement analysis

The PrestaShop development team uses several methods in promoting as well as developing interest as well as community involvement from various participants. These methods includes free technical support and elaborate documentation from the general community of developers as well as the by updating its licenses on distribution of code to favor coders/developers.

Technical support

The fact that the development process of any software requires considerable levels and knowledge of debugging means that there has to be a corresponding level of technical expertise and technical support to deal with these. These elements of technical support are often expensive to get since it costs thousands and even millions of dollars to hire experts in the field of computer science / software development to handle any given situation. This is however not the case with open source software like PrestaShop. The fact that it is open source means that very developer who is part of the development community is automatically qualified to offer their views on any technical difficulty at totally no fee. The zero fee in gaining technical support means that applications can rapidly be developed, tested and deployed within the shortest time possible and at absolutely no fee. The high level of technical expertise which is derived from the development community is priceless. This method has been effective in having several coders and application writers to join the PrestaShop development bandwagon. The ease of installation as well as the readily available technical support has acted as a motivation for continued user support and environment within the PrestaShop development environment/community. It is therefore crucial for the PrestaShop development community to encourage continued participation in their forum since this is their basis of attracting and maintaining the invaluable assets of technical assistance base.The Prestashop forum is dedicated to the PrestaShop community as well as e-commerce enthusiasts who are on the look out for ways of sharing, providing suggestions, leaving comments, asking questions, exchanging ideas as well as contributing to the Prestashop development community. This method helps in the faster development of PrestaShop software, libraries as well as other forms of derivative work or modules.

The elaborate documentation system used by the software development team is invaluable to the users, developers and software reviewers alike. The documentation system is noted as one of the factors that has helped the company to develop a steady and rapid user and programmer base. With documentation, using and possibly debugging the system becomes quite easy.

Updating its licenses on distribution of code to favor coders/developers

The company announced sometime in 2011 (Dumez,2011) that they wanted to make the creation as well as distribution of the PrestaShop extensions as well as themes clearer and easier to their community. They did this by updating their licenses on distribution effectively. As of the date when the license was updated, the PrestaShop standard theme as well as modules have been published under the AFL 3.0 license while the entire PrestaShop program with only the exception of certain elements and 3rd party libraries have remained under the usual OSL 3. License without being affected by any changes.

According to these changes in licenses, any derivative work that is created by the application of Prestashop's default modules as well as themes will no longer be compulsory/mandatory to be made public. This condition also applies to the source code. It is worth noting that the AFL 3.0 license is very similar to the OSL 3.0 license with the only exception being that it never requires that the source code of the derivative work be made public as indicated by AFL3 .0-1c. Any changes or development that are made to any PrestaShop file published under the OSL 3.0 license are also to be made public under these changes.

Any changes that are made to various files that are copyrighted as well as distributed under the OSL 3.0 license are noted by Dunez (2011) to be considered as forms of derivative work.It is also important to note that any business or developer have a choice of making their derivative work's source code accessible or not so as to preserve their trade activity as they wish.

The implication of these changes is that the developers/contributors to the PrestaShop development team will have a choice of how to distribute their source code. This freedom helps in the rapid development of derivate works/modules in the software.

Project fitness analysis

In this section, we compare as well as contrast Prestashop open source software against the proprietary shopping cart Volusion. This analysis is done by commenting on the appropriate range of relevant factors in the selection of a software solution.

PrestaShop

Volution

Security

Secured with SSL encryption and is equipped with a security module having an anti-fraud analysis system.

Also secured with SSL encryption and is equipped with a security module having an anti-fraud analysis system.

Hosting

The user provides hosting space/facilities

The user provides hosting space/facilities

Web Design

Has several features for setting up a functional website with features

Also has several features for setting up a functional website with features

Maximum number of products

Unlimited but 250,000+ products significantly compromises software and server performance (PrestaShop,2010)

Unlimited

Hard goods (Tangible products)

Soft Goods (downloadable)

Built-in POS system

Available but not inbuilt (can be bought as an separate module)

Real-time Credit card Processing

SSL-Secure Socket Layer encryption

Automatic tax and shipping calculation

Fraud Protection tools

Affiliate Programs

Available though its Post Affiliate Pro-module/Addon

Coupons

Social Media Connectivity

Product Comparison module

Daily Deals module

No daily deal module

Abandoned Cart e-mail

Loyalty Program

No loyalty program module

Telephone Support

Technical Support is found sites official forum

E-mail support module

Knowledgebase

FAQ section

Tutorials

24/7 Live Support

User Guide

The factors that are significant for a & B. Pots and Pans Ltd. are;

Security

This is because the high level of security would allow the company to suffer less losses due to fraud cases. The use of a fraud-detection technology would also reassure the clients to transact over their e-commerce website

The 24/7 Live Support

Good customer service is an important element of a successful e-commerce website. This is because it has been shown that customer service functionality is an integral element to be considered when designing an e-commerce website (Akhter & Bashir,2008).

Social Media Connectivity

Social media is an important tool for driving up sales. A & B. Pots and Pans Ltd. can use this tool to promote as well as advertise its products online.

The less important features are;

Soft Goods (downloadable) module

This is because the company deals with physical products only.

Maximum number of products

This is because the company deals with products that are less than 250,000 in regard to type

Hosting

The company would easily host its website in multiple locations due to the affordability of web hosting solutions.

License analysis

The PrestaShop runs on a license based on OSL 3.0 (Rosen,2007). The OSL 3.) is noted by Rosen (2007) as a reciprocal (or rather copyleft) license. This is because it effectively imposes a reciprocal form of source code disclosure obligation which is somehow similar but in actual sense narrower that the one of GPL.

This is because under the OSL 3.0 license, the derivative works of an OSL 3.0 licensed original work must be licensed under the OSL 3.0 themselves. The source code is the Derivative… READ MORE

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Quoted Instructions for "Open Source Development Tools" Assignment:

“

The company (AandB Pots and Pans Ltd) wants a report that explores issues and makes justified recommendations using appropriate supporting references. This is not related to the scripts to be written but to such areas as:

*****¢ the advantages and disadvantages of using proprietary or Open Source software;

*****¢ the conditions and terms of Open Source software licences versus proprietary software licences;

*****¢ how a small team of three novice programmers can work together and with a

larger community to implement a solution. The company will want to use some of its current staff to implement the application: three novice programmers with very little programming experience. A major problem for them is that they have never worked on a large project requiring a team effort; they are much more used to working in isolation.

The company wants to see a clear selection of the best choice for its website. All the factors that need to be considered in making such a choice need to be laid out for the company, together with their level of importance. The proposed solution and another rejected option then need to be explained in terms of the factors used to select the solution.

Report structure

Your report should have the following sections:

Project overview

In this brief section, you should describe a piece of Open Source software that you have chosen from the company*****'s wish list:

*****¢ lighttpd (http://www.lighttpd.net/) web server;

*****¢ openSUSE Linux (http://www.opensuse.org/) operating system;

*****¢ Git (http://git-scm.com/) distributed version control system;

*****¢ PrestaShop (http://www.prestashop.com/) e-commerce software;

*****¢ CouchDB (http://couchdb.apache.org/) document-***** database.

You should give the name of the software you have chosen, briefly outline its purpose, and provide some background information on its history.

This section, probably no more than a paragraph or two, should serve as a base for the discussion in the following sections of the report.

Community involvement analysis

In this section, you should consider two methods by which your chosen Open Source software project promotes or develops interest and community involvement from other participants. At least one of the methods must deal with how code is contributed to the software project, e.g. with a traditional version control system, a distributed version control system or some other mechanism.

This should not be just a description of what the software project currently does. You are making a supported argument, so a critical analysis of how the method contributes to the success (or lack thereof) of the software project is required. You may choose to examine a successful existing method mixed with a currently unsuccessful method. It is even possible to suggest a completely new method. Regardless, you should consider the following questions for each:

*****¢ What is the method?

*****¢ How does this method promote community and developer involvement (or not)?

*****¢ How does this method contribute to the success or lack of success of this software

project? This section is bundled together with the project overview in the marking criteria at the end of this booklet, but it should comprise roughly two-thirds of the section*****s content.

Project fitness analysis

When contrasting software, you need to consider various factors. In this section, you will need to:

*****¢ Compare and contrast your chosen Open Source software against an equivalent product, ensuring that you consider and comment on an appropriate range of the factors relevant in selecting a software solution.

*****¢ Explicitly rank or prioritise three factors as more or less significant for AandB Pots and Pans.

*****¢ Discuss why these factors are important to AandB Pots and Pans. No conclusion need be made here. That will be done in a later section. This is purely an analysis of how various factors are applicable to the chosen software products and a comparison. You can contrast against another Open Source product or a proprietary

product, so long as you are not comparing dissimilar software. Contrasting a web server versus a word processor would be incorrect, for example.

You can assume that the company will be able to acquire suitable hardware or software for any solution.

Licence analysis

Given your knowledge of software licensing and methods of distributing software, an***** your Open Source software*****s existing licence. The company will need to abide by the terms of the existing licence, but they may wish to make modifications to the software or even sell it. In this section, you will need to make a supported argument that the licence is appropriate for the software currently and will allow the company to modify and use the software in a variety of scenarios. Your analysis should consider the following questions:

*****¢ What licence is used for the software?

*****¢ What type of Open Source licence is this? Public domain? Copyleft? Something else? What does it mean to be or not be copyleft?

*****¢ If the company wants to use the software in a commercial venture, i.e. on their website to sell pots and pans, how do the terms of the licence support that?

*****¢ If the company wants to rename and distribute the software under a different licence, are they able to do so? Why or why not?

*****¢ If the company wants to embed the software in a product they then sell, will they be able to do this under the current licence? Why? If not, is another Open Source or commercial licence a better choice?

Recommendation

This section ties the whole report together. In previous sections you have examined the fitness of your chosen Open Source software project, looked at community involvement, and an*****d its licence. In this section you need to make a supported argument answering the question: *****˜Is the chosen Open Source software appropriate for AandB Pots and Pans?***** Perhaps the company should be considering a different Open Source product or even a proprietary product. Why or why not? Make a recommendation for a software solution and support it, drawing on the an*****s performed in earlier sections and additional evidence as required.

Your discussion must address the following questions:

*****¢ What is the best choice of software for the company? Is it your chosen Open Source software, different Open Source software, or a proprietary product? Be specific.

*****¢ Will the company*****s novice programmers be able to contribute to an Open Source software project? Why or why not?

*****¢ Why is your recommendation the best choice for the company?

*****¢ What is the most important thing the company should know about Open Source that you learned while doing this module?

Reporting tips

Focus on the general issues and tools covered in the module such as licensing, total cost of ownership, maintenance, CVS, etc. Do not review products at a deeply technical level. The module doesn*****t investigate individual tools and products in detail, and if you try to do this you will use up too much of your word count. For the same reason, don*****t exhaustively review all the available products.

*****

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