MyFacesProposal

Proposal for new project MyFaces

17 June 2004, The MyFaces Team (contributions by: Martin Marinschek, martin at marinschek dot com; Ted Husted, husted at apache dot org.)

(0) rationale

The goal of MyFaces is to create and maintain a complete and correct open source implementation of the JavaServer(tm) Faces specification. JavaServer Faces (JSR 127) is the new standard user interface framework for building web applications in Java.

MyFaces encourages the community to provide additional components that can be used in the JavaServer(tm) Faces framework. MyFaces strives to provide an environment where open source developers can create new components and contribute them back to the community.

(0.1) criteria

Meritocracy:

The development of MyFaces is consensus-based. Discussions take place on the Developer list at SourceForge. The developers work as a team. Individuals sometimes take the initiative, and other times an idea is discussed at length before it is implemented. Developers often employ Apache conventions, such as "+1", when coming to decisions.

Community:

The MyFaces project was founded two years ago. Interest in the project has grown steadily as the JSF specification neared completition. Currently, the project is hosted at SourceForge, where 13 developers act as "Committers". Currently, the two mailing-lists have over 150 subscribers, with over 1300 posts. Over 60 problem tickets have been filed and 6 remain open.

Core Developers:

The MyFaces project was founded by two developers, then freelancers. Today, one of them is an employee of the OeKB (Oesterreichische Kontrollbank AG). The projects other developers hail from many different companies and organizations. Their work on MyFaces are individual contributions, and all developers have already filed Contributor License Agreements with the ASF.

Alignment:

JavaServer(tm) Faces is part of the J2EE infrastructure, and so MyFaces aligns with any ASF project that utilizes the J2SE or J2EE infrastructure. Of particular relevance are projects such as Geronimo, Struts, and Jakarta Taglibs.

(0.2) warning signs

Orphaned products:

All of the active developers would like to become MyFaces Committers or PMC Members and plan to remain active in the project. The first release of the JSF specification was finalized only this year, and a long lifecycle is expected.

Inexperience with open source:

The MyFaces project has operated as healthy, public open source for two years. Several of the developers work as committers on other open-source projects.

Homogenous developers:

The developers have no no strong association with any single organisation or company. Geographically, the community is widespread (mainly the US and several European countries). Development discussions take place on the public developers list.

Reliance on salaried developers:

None of the developers were hired to work on MyFaces. All came to the project voluntarily and work on MyFaces because they are interested in the project. Some of the developers use MyFaces in the web applications they write for their employer, others use MyFaces as part of their university studies or research projects.

No ties to other Apache products:

MyFaces has strong ties to several Apache projects, especially components of the Jakarta Commons. Developers are working directly with Struts to ensure the Struts Faces taglib works well with MyFaces. As work on Geronimo proceeds, MyFaces will likely develop strong ties with that project too.

A fascination with the Apache brand:

MyFaces shares a common culture with the Apache Software Foundation and now a common license. The developers believe that by joining the ASF, the MyFaces community will continue to grow and continue to attract top-grade developers. The developers respect and admire Apache products and would like MyFaces to become one.

(1) scope of the subprojects

As an ASF project, the scope of JavaServer(tm) Faces is broad enough to merit a top-level project. However, MyFaces may also work well as a subproject of an existing Apache project, such as Geronimo or Struts. Our initial preference would be to enter as a TLP, but we leave it to the Incubator PMC and ASF Board to make the final decision.

MyFaces would likely have three related sub-projects:

• MyFaces JSF API Implementation - implementation of the JavaServer(tm) Faces API (javax.faces.* classes) defined in the specification
• MyFaces JSF Core Implementation - the actual JSF implementation, which is the core of the MyFaces project
• MyFaces Components and Extensions - custom JavaServer(tm) Faces components and extensions to standard components which should ideally run with any JSR-127 conformant JSF implementation
  

(2) identify the initial source from which the subproject is to be populated

Source- and binary downloads can be found at:

http://www.myfaces.org/

The source-code is provided under the Apache License, Version 2.0

(3) identify the ASF resources to be created

(3.1) mailing list(s)

• myfaces-dev
• myfaces-user
• myfaces-cvs
  

(3.2) Subversion or CVS repositories

A CVS-repository with one module:

• apache-myfaces
  

The developers understand that a migration to Subversion will happen at a later date.

(3.3) Issue Tracking

MyFaces-Bugs MyFaces-Features MyFaces-Components

(4) identify the initial set of committers

(4.1) Already ASF committers

(4.2) Scheduled Apache users

(4.3) Not scheduled, Contributors

(4.4) Unknown

(5) identify apache sponsoring individual

• Ted Husted, Champion (ASF Member, Struts PMC, Jakarta PMC)
• James Holmes, Mentor (Struts PMC, Jakarta PMC)