Forum OpenACS Q&A: Integration advice needed

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Posted by Marc Beneteau on
I am CTO of a non-profit corporation www.peoplink.org, we are
developing a global e-commerce system for the benefit of third-world
artisans among others, plus inexpensive web hosting and other
services such as international payment and shipping.  Full details at
www.catgen.com.

We are considering integrating our platform into OpenACS which will
probably require open-sourcing it (at least the host part, we also
have a client).  Would really like to talk on the phone but here is a
summary of my questions
- what is status of OpenACS 4.2.
- will new ACS versions automatically port to OpenACS without redoing
work that already been done
- Will OpenACS run with Apache + mod AOLServer - has anybody done this
- Licensing issues - GPL requires that all modifications to source be
open-sourced, what about integrating other code into OpenACS would
that require open-sourcing new code.

Of course lots of other questions, start there and would very much
appreciate a phone number.

Marc Beneteau

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Posted by Jonathan Ellis on
OpenACS 4 status -- I'll pass on this one, but you can see the latest status report

There will be no more new ACS tcl versions. ACS java will of course not be ported to openacs, but aD is looking into getting it running on postgres, as well.

Yes, openacs will run onn mod_aolserver; it's been done.

The GPL only requires you release your modifications if you distribute the new code, so if you just use OpenACS to build a site you don't have to release the code. Of course in the spirit of making life better for everyone you can still release all or parts of your code for integration in OpenACS.

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Posted by Roberto Mello on
Just to complement Jonathan's response.

ArsDigita is not developing ACS Tcl anymore. It's focus is completely on Java. But the OpenACS community will continue to develop and enhance it. The software lives on. OpenACS currently supports Oracle and PostgreSQL.

If you have software written for ACS (Classic), it will have to be modified to work with OpenACS. How much you will have to modify depends on how your ACS package was written, but most of it should work with OpenACS.

Regarding the GPL, you don't have to open source your modifications to OpenACS (or any GPL'd software). You only have to do so if you going to redistribute that software or sell it. In that case your modifications AND source code have to accompany your product.

If you incorporate (say) a proprietary product to OpenACS, that product does NOT have to become GPL'd, but the modifications you made to OpenACS so it works with that product have to be GPL'd IF you are going to redistribute those changes.

Let us know if you have any more questions. The community is very friendly and willing to help.