In this post, I plan to provide some background about open source efforts around Open Services for Lifecycle Collaboration Lifecycle (OSLC) and summarize the information we have gathered about OSLC open source implementations including Mylyn OSLC support, Mantis BT OSLC CM Server, FusionForge OSLC CM Server, Jenkins OSLC CM Plugin, Net OSLC PERL library, Bugzilla OSLC adapter, and Eclipse Lyo. I must acknowledge that this study is funded by a project named ALMOSS being executed at the Center for Open Middleware (COM) at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM).
As Steve Speicher explains in the following presentation (see the previous 2 slides) integrating heterogeneous Application Lifecyle Management (ALM) tools from different domains and different vendors has been a challenging issue for a long time. Michael Fiedler also explains more about this problem in his presentation. Open Services for Lifecycle Collaboration Lifecycle (OSLC) proposes an interesting solution to this problem using Semantic Web and Linked Data principles. If you are not familiar with OSLC, this 4 mins video will provide good introduction.
As Steve Speicher explains in the following presentation (see the previous 2 slides) integrating heterogeneous Application Lifecyle Management (ALM) tools from different domains and different vendors has been a challenging issue for a long time. Michael Fiedler also explains more about this problem in his presentation. Open Services for Lifecycle Collaboration Lifecycle (OSLC) proposes an interesting solution to this problem using Semantic Web and Linked Data principles. If you are not familiar with OSLC, this 4 mins video will provide good introduction.
Recently we have been looking at open source OSLC implementations and I would like to summarize what we have gathered from different sources in the Web (websites, source repositories, blogs, tweets, etc.) about the Open Source OSLC implementations. In this post, I will talk only about the open source implementations, a complete list of OSLC implementations including the commercial ones can be found in the OSLC website under the Software section.
Well, there is some good news and bad news. To start with the bad news, there are not many mature open source implementations available as you would wish for and further most of the available ones are limited to only to the change management domain. However, the good news is that most of the open source efforts seem to converge to Eclipse Lyo project and it is getting its momentum. It will provide an SDK to develop OSLC enabled tools, a set of test suites that can be used as Technology Compatibility Kit (TCK) for OSLC, a set of reference Implementations for OSLC (RIOs), and samples etc. Lyo already has Java and Perl implementations and already looking for expanding to languages like PHP, C#, etc. Lyo 1.0 Release and Graduation Review provides a good overview on about the upcoming v1.0 release of the Lyo project.We can not talk about OSLC open source implementations without giving a special mention to few pioneers who have pushed the OSLC open source efforts through out the years. Olivier Berger and the other folks from Institut TELECOM have been involved in many of the open source efforts in OSLC and had put a lot of effort to build an open source community for OSLC. Some of their work on Mantis, FushionForge, Jenkins OSLC plugins can be found in his presentation: "OSLC: open standard for interoperability of open source ALM tools" and his blog. Steve Speicher and the folks from IBM Rational also have contributed a lot of their work to the open source community strengthen the open source efforts. Eclipse Lyo project is thanks to their efforts on building an open source community around OSLC specifications. Further, the new governance model proposed in the OSLC Governance update targets to increase participation and adoption by empowering the community to make decisions by moving away from the model where IBM provides de facto governance (with support from other members) to a model where OSLC is governed by a Steering Committee that includes non-IBMers. IMHO, this move also will have a positive impact on building an open source community around OSLC.
Open Source OSLC Implementations
With that background let's take a look at open source OSLC implementations. In the next sections of the post, I will provide summarize the information using the following template.Tool | Application Lifecycle Management tool that is OSLC enabled |
Specifications | which OSLC specifications are supported by the implementation |
Type | whether the tool is a OLSC provider, consumer, or both |
Integration | OSLC implementation done using three approaches: Native Support approach, the Plugin approach, the Adapter approach. Plugins can be native (hosted in the same source repository as the tool and maintained by the tool community) or 3rd party. |
Initiation | the stating month of the project (These information were mostly extracted from the source repositories and most of the time corresponds to the initial commit) |
State | Active (frequent activities in the source repo), Maintenance (less activity mostly to keep the implementation up to date with the rest), Active (almost no activity) |
Main contributors | people who developed the implementation ( again, based on the source repository statistics) |
Contributor affiliations | companies or projects that supported/ are supporting the implementation |
Feature requests | Feature requests in the tool's issue where the progress of the implementation is tracked |
Source | where the source code of the implementation is available |
Language | the language programming language the implementation is done |
License | which open source licence is used to distribute the source |
Documentation | documentation about the implementation |
Mylyn OSLC support
| Tool | Mylyn |
| Specifications | Change Management v1 |
| Type | OSLC Consumer |
| Integration | Native |
| Initiation | November, 2009 |
| State | Maintenance |
| Main contributors | Steffen Pingel, Robert Elves |
| Contributor affiliations | Tasktop |
| Feature requests | Produce Java API for OSLC CM 1.0, Other OSLC related issues |
| Source | org.eclipse.mylyn.oslc.core, org.eclipse.mylyn.oslc.tests, org.eclipse.mylyn.oslc.ui |
| Language | Java |
| License | Eclipse Public License Version 1.0 |
| Documentation | Mylyn/OSLC Connectors |
Mantis BT OSLC CM Server
Mantis BT is an open source bug tracking system written in PHP. Mantis OSLC CM server plugin provides a REST server module for OSLC integration support for Mantis BT. This implementation is led by Olivier Berger and has been used as the base for both the Mantis BT OSLC plugin and FusionForge OSLC CM Server plugins.
| Tool | Mantis Bug Tracker |
| Specifications | Change Management v1 |
| Type | OSLC Provider |
| Integration | Plugin (3rd party) |
| Initiation | December, 2009 |
| State | Inactive (since September 2010) |
| Main contributors | Olivier Berger (olberger), Madhumita Dhar (mdar), Sabri Labbene (sabrila) |
| Contributor affiliations | HELIOS, COCLICO, Institut TELECOM |
| Feature requests | |
| Source | Helios platform repository in sourceforge.net |
| Language | PHP |
| License | GNU General Public License, version 2 |
| Documentation | REST API server module for Mantis Mantis OSLC-CM Server Roadmap |
| Demo | Service discovery aspects of the OSLC OSLC Queries OSLC-CM Creation OSLC-CM Delegated UIs |
FusionForge OSLC CM Server
FusionForge is an web-based project management and collaboration software which provides integration with version control, messaging with message forums and mailing lists, issue tracking, task management etc. FusionForge OSLC CM server plugin provides a REST sever module to allow other tools integrate with FusionForge using OSLC. FusionForge and Mantis OSLC plugins shared the same code-base initially.
| Tool | Fusion Forge |
| Specifications | Change Management v2 |
| Type | OSLC Provider |
| Integration | Plugin (Native) |
| Initiation | December, 2009 (common module with Mantis) September, 2010 (in FusionForge source repository) |
| State | Maintenance |
| Main contributors | Sabri Labbene (labbenes), Roland Mas (lolando), Olivier Berger (olberger) |
| Contributor affiliations | HELIOS, COCLICO, Institut TELECOM |
| Feature requests | Support OSLC-CM API to ease integration with ALM platforms |
| Source | OSLC plugin at FusionForge source repository |
| Language | PHP |
| License | GNU General Public License, version 2 |
| Documentation | REST API server module for FusionForge trackers Introducing OSLC, an open standard for interoperability of open source development tools, ICSSEA 2011, Paris, France. |
| Demo | Jenkins + FusionForge trackers integration with OSLC delegated creation dialog Short preview of Jenkins - FusionForge interop over OSLC-CM + OAuthFusion Forge Live Instance |
Jenkins OSLC CM Plugin
Jenkins is an open source continuous integration server that is used to automate the software build process. The Jenkins OSLC plugin enables Jenkins to act as an OSLC consumer and to integrate with other applications in the change management domain, for example bug trackers. More concretely, this plugin allows creating an issue in a bug tracking system when a build fails.
| Tool | Jenkins |
| Specifications | Change Management v2 |
| Type | OSLC Consumer |
| Integration | Plugin (Native) |
| Initiation | March, 2011 |
| State | Maintenance |
| Main contributors | Madhumita Dhar(m-dhar), Olivier Berger(olberger) |
| Contributor affiliations | HELIOS, COCLICO, Institut TELECOM |
| Feature requests | OSLC CM Component at issues.jenkins-ci.org |
| Source | OSLC CM Component at github.com/jenkinsci |
| Language | Java |
| License | The MIT License (MIT) |
| Documentation | OSLC CM plugin documentation Introducing OSLC, an open standard for interoperability of open source development tools, ICSSEA 2011, Paris, France. |
| Demo | Jenkins + FusionForge trackers integration with OSLC delegated creation dialog Short preview of Jenkins - FusionForge interop over OSLC-CM + OAuthFusion Forge Live Instance |
Net OSLC PERL library / Simple Defects
Net-OSLC-CM is a Perl module to help implement an OSLC client for Change Management, according to OSLC CM v2 specification. Stephanie Ouillon, a student of distributed services architecture at Télécom SudParis developed the Net-OSLC-CM module as her second-year project under the supervision of Olivier Berger. In her demo, She used the Net-OSLC perl library to integrate Simple Defects with Bugzilla using OSLC adapters. The code is now contributed to Eclipse Lyo project. Oliver is now looking for new students to continue this project.
| Tool | PERL library / Simple Defects |
| Specifications | Change Management v2 |
| Type | OSLC Consumer |
| Integration | Adapter / SDK |
| Initiation | March, 2012 |
| State | Maintenance |
| Main contributors | Stéphanie Ouillon (arroway), Olivier Berger (olberger) |
| Contributor affiliations | Télécom SudParis |
| Feature requests | App-SD: Implement OSLC-CM consumer to sync to any compliant tracker |
| Source | Net-OSLC-CM at git.eclipse.org Net-OSLC-CM at arroway.github.com |
| Language | Perl |
| License | Eclipse Public License Version 1.0 |
| Documentation | Net-OSLC-CM homepage Implementing the support of OSLC-CM in the bugtracker SD |
| Demo | Eclipse Lyo Perl Modules for OSLC |
Bugzilla OSLC adapter
Bugzilla is a popular web-based general-purpose bugtracker originally developed by the Mozilla project. Dave Johnson wrote a great tutorial on "Tutorial: Integrating products with OSLC" which provides a great step-by-step guide to creating an OSLC provider and OSLC consumer implantation using Java. The tutorial provides the source code for a Bugzilla OSLC adapter which is originally committed to OSLC tools project and is now available in the Lyo project.Tool | |
Specifications | |
Type | OSLC Provider / Tutorial |
Integration | Adapter |
Initiation | May, 2011 |
State | Active |
Main contributors | Dave Johnson, Samuel Padgett, Steve Speicher, Michael Fiedler |
Contributor affiliations | IBM |
Feature requests | |
Source | |
Language | Java |
License | |
Documentation | |
Demo |
Eclipse Lyo
In June 2011, a proposal to move the OSLC project to Eclipse Foundation under the Eclipse Technology Container project has been established and Eclipse Lyo project has officially started. The OSLC community believes it will give more visibility to the project and also will provide a better governance model under Eclipse Foundation. Eclipse Lyo project is expected to complement other Eclipse projects like Mylyn and Orion.
Eclipse Lyo project is lead by Michael Fiedler and Steve Speicher. The goal of the Eclipse Lyo project is to provide an SDK, including candidate reference implementations, test suites, and code libraries, samples and examples, for enabling OSLC implementations by tools in the ALM, PLM, and IT Service Management across different languages and platforms. “Eclipse Lyo Project” and “Eclipse Lyo: Re-thinking tool integrations” provide a good overview of Eclipse Lyo project. Eclipse Lyo project contains
- OSLC4J: Java toolkit for building providers and consumers
- RIOs: Lyo Reference Implementations for OSLC
- OSLC Test Suite: Test cases to assess the service provider implementations
- OSLC Perl client libraries
- Documentation
- Samples (eg. adapters for Bugzilla, Excel, Sharepoint)
Eclipse Lyo 1.0 Official Release is coming soon !!
Tool | N/A |
Specifications | |
Type | SDK / Test Kit / Reference Implementations / Samples |
Integration | N / A |
Initiation | July, 2011 |
State | Active |
Main contributors | Dave Johnson, Samuel Padgett, Steve Speicher, Michael Fiedler |
Contributor affiliations | IBM |
Feature requests | |
Source | |
Language | Java / Perl |
License | |
Documentation | |
Demo |
