openFIRST / News: Recent posts

Previously, we've limited developers to be current high school students, to meet FIRST's requirements for the Website Award.

We have realized that this is ridiculous.

To be disqualified from the award because you have used a pre-written CMS is foolish. Many would say that using a CMS is good practice. So we are opening up development to anyone who is interested in openFIRST.

If you are interested, contact Jamie the project admins.

We have begun migrating to Subversion. We will lock CVS modules one by one and move them to the SVN repository, starting with www.

There will also be some restructuring of the repository. You will be able to checkout the trunk or any tag and get the correct file layout. Not all of the modules will be moved, specifically the old, deprecated ones.

openFIRST v2.0 ("long haul") has now entered alpha! The modules released include:
- openfirst.base (the openFIRST core)
- openfirst.awards (award display & management)
- openfirst.modules (displays information about modules)

I thought I would update all you webmasters about the features I know you're salivating over. ;)

Currently what is in CVS has a working module system (although not fully tested) that I was able to install from scratch. Many of the auxilary APIs are implemented:
-settings is done but not tested
-editors needs work but preliminaries are done
-Slug resolution is written but not tested, slug advertisment (a skin thing) is not done... read more

The openFIRST project will be ending support for old versions of the openFIRST Portal System as of November 1st, 2005.

OPENFIRST, July 11th, 2005 -- In a move to reduce the burden on core developers caused by the requirement to maintain support for old versions of the openFIRST Portal System modules, the openFIRST Project has created a plan to phase out support for the oldest versions of the software. Every effort is being made to reduce the burden that the removal of support for old versions will have on those who use software from the project. This includes providing a large window of support between this announcement and the deadline, as well as the deadline having been chosen to be after we believe most FIRST teams will have resumed for the upcoming season.... read more

Looking for an interesting project?
Want to help out other teams?
Have a big idea?
Need a challenge?

Consider volunteering to help with the openFIRST project. We're always looking for new people with bright ideas. We're currently in the process of revamping the code for a major release, and we'd like some help. There's a variety of jobs for a variety of skill levels and talent sets. If you're up for it, or know someone who is, take a look at http://www.openfirst.org/... read more

This is a status update to let you know what's currently planned for the 6 week build period immediately following the Kickoff. Most of the current project members will be focusing on the projects of their own team (such as their team website, and their team robot). During the build period there will be minimal patching made. No new feature development is currently planned for during the build period.... read more

The openFIRST project (http://www.openfirst.org/) is currently looking for someone with a basic knowledge of proper HTML to locate and fix improper HTML code on the openFIRST project site and throughout the openFIRST code.

Training and guidance will be provided if needed. This would be an ideal way for someone without any previous experience working on a website in a team environment using CVS/submitting patches to gain the experience. The time commitment is very flexible, and the contributing individual(s) may choose to make as many or as few pages as they like validate (any pages that are fixed are a step in the right direction).... read more

http://update.openfirst.org/test/ - The openFIRST Update System (which allows you to manage/update a single/multiplee openFIRST installations automatically) is now undergoing beta testing. The update system gives fast access to the openFIRST system to those people who would otherwise have to wait a substantial amount of time to download it by directly communicating with the server where the installation will be performed (rather than requiring a webmaster to download the install files, then upload them to their server).

As many of you know, on July 13th, 2004 PHP 5 was released (not just a beta version) and is available for download from php.net .

openFIRST is not currently 100% compatible with PHP 5. For those attempting to install openFIRST on a PHP 5 system, there are currently three choices:

A) Wait until a PHP 5 compatible version is released (one is currently being worked on)
B) Run a version of PHP 4 for now, and upgrade to PHP 5 later (once a compatible version of openFIRST is released)
C) Install database tables manually by running the queries in setup/setup.mysql of each module, and live with what works, for now.... read more

In the past week, I've been working hard to publish new versions of all of the modules. I'd like to thank everyone who helped with this overly-stressful process in the short time frame, particularly those new contributors to the openFIRST project (Dan Schilling, Steven Herold, Bryan Howarth). A lot of bugs are fixed, those that aren't, may now be reported more easily. Last minute features include support for the PEAR Database Abstraction Layer, and other goodies. I'd also like to mention that new developers are always welcome, and should contact an existing project member for more information.... read more

Team 1006 won our bid for the Chairman's Award at the 2004 FIRST Canadian Super-Regional. The openFIRST project is a major component of our bid for FIRST's most prestigious award. I'd also like to congratulate the other openFIRST teams on their success-- all made it to the final matches and put on a fantastic show in what in my mind is without a doubt the finest regional that FIRST has.

All of the openFIRST team members will be present at the FIRST Canadian Regional at the Hershey Centre later this week. For more information about the Canadian Regional, see http://www.firstcanadianregional.org/ Also, a number of updates are forth-coming; at the moment most us developers are bogged down with other things, like making our team robots work, course-work, university preparations, and the like. If anyone is interested in helping out, please volunteer, there's plenty of work to go around :-)

Thanks to David Burley (SF user: burley) who seems to be acting as the SF.net guardian angel for this project the CVS facilites are now restored. Those developers and users who wish to use CVS may again proceed to do so.

Also, as the FIRST web site judging can start on the 20th (a mere four days from now), I'd like to wish everyone good luck, and hope that all of the team web site developers get the recognition they deserve. I imagine we'll see some impressive last-minute updates (hint hint).

Those of you experiencing problems with checking out certain modules or making changes will have been noticing problems with lock files. The support request to the SourceForge.net staff in order to fix this has been filed. The inaccessibility is the result of my error in making changes to the CVS configuration in anticipation of bringing new features to the openFIRST website (such as a 5 most-recent commits list, etc.) So, be patient and CVS access will be back to normal soon (and shortly after there should be a number of new commits).

To put an end to the literally thousands of e-mail messages per day which could be sent to each developer in the event of a malfunctioning script, even one which is not part of the openFIRST system, we have implemented Bugzilla with some custom additions. The Bugzilla system will allow us to more efficiently deal with issues and feature enhancement requests.

It may be accessed at:
http://bugzilla.openfirst.org... read more

A new batch of modules has been released.

Humourous Story: http://www.openfirst.org/night-before/

The openFIRST system now includes a debugger (in CVS as of this morning). The debugger acts as a replacement for the PHP error handler function, and allows the developers to more efficiently locate errors throughout the entire openFIRST system. It also notifies the webmaster of the particular team site about each error.

Due to the surprising number of minor, non-critical errors this has found, the release of certain modules may be delayed while the openFIRST team tracks down all outstanding issues.

Feature enhacements in this newest version of the openFIRST web portal software include: support for multiple databases, and a version checking system. With this newest release, contributions from several new developers are introduced. This version of the base module maintains compatibility with older versions of the other modules, while simulatneously allowing newer versions of those same modules to utilise the functionality of any of a vast array of database software.... read more

The openFIRST system is nearing a release which posesses many enhancements. Included in this release will be added database support (for non-MySQL systems) and several new modules. There will also be an automatic updating system of some kind implemented shortly.

If there are any community members with outstanding changes which should be incorporated into this release, please submit them to a developer as soon as possible. Auditing of the code has begun and a release is expected before the end of this weekend (provided all goes well).

On November 22nd (a Saturday), the St. Michael's Archangel Robotics Team will be hosting a large robotics workshop. Both myself and Tim Ginn (being lead developers of openFIRST) will be the webdesign topic speakers.

During this session we will be teaching other students how webdesign and development is works. We will be basing a portion of the session on openFIRST, to help expand the projects use.... read more

Well I finally got around to updating the website with the new design. Sorry it took so long but we have been worry busy with school starting and tons of robotics meetings to attend.

Like a true openFIRST patriot I sat and FOUND the time to get the website done. As a result of my work we now have a very nice website to look at, well atleast I think we do :-).

I hope everyone is as excited as I am because openFIRST is almost READY for a complete release. No more pre-release dates and bug test phases. We want to have this system out and ready for people to use as soon as possible.... read more

Thanks to the dedication of Tim Ginn we are proud to announce that openFIRST now supports MSSQL. Not only does openFIRST support cross-platform development, but now it supports two important database configurations. Switching between the database is as easy as changing a system value.

Enjoy!

By popular request, I have just finished implementing a nightly build system. This will allow all interested parties to download the latest openFIRST modules, fresh from the CVS repository. Also, there is a nightly build of the entire openFIRST system (all modules) available.

The openFIRST project, through colaboration with Hans-Jrgen Petrich, creator of a DHTML editor, rights to utilise the advanced HTML editor. The HTML editor will soon be implemented into areas of the openFIRST project such as Messenger, Members, Guestbook, and Manual and others. Many thanks to Hans-Jrgen Petrich for his co-operation and support.