Open Source project hosting has seen many changes in the last 15 years. When DNN first started, we had few options for hosting our source code and packaged releases. We have been around long enough to see sites like GotDotNet, Google Code and others come and go. Finding a reliable project host is an ongoing challenge. Even after you find a host, you need to be vigilant to ensure the host continues to offer the features and support you need for your project and your community.
In November 2008, after many months of internal debate, the official DNN repository was moved from SourceForge to CodePlex. SourceForge had undergone some management changes and became less friendly to Open Source projects. SourceForge no longer served the needs of the project or the community and so the project was moved.
In 2013 we faced a similar decision. Development on CodePlex was falling behind the features of other major Open Source hosting locations. GitHub had become quite popular with the OSS community and it offered tools and capabilities which just didn’t exist on CodePlex. Even Microsoft was choosing to host many of its Open Source projects on GitHub rather than on CodePlex. We decided that GitHub was a better home for DNN and took the first steps to move off of CodePlex.
Since we made the move to GitHub, most of the DNN projects in the Forge have moved there as well. Now almost all of our project work is done using Git and GitHub. At the time we moved to GitHub, we made the decision to leave the DNN package distribution on CodePlex since it still had project analytics, and more capable release management tools than were available on GitHub. In the last three years GitHub has added many new release management features to the site. With these changes, GitHub became a viable location for hosting our releases.
As part of the DNN Platform 8.0.4 release we have made the decision to consolidate the DNN Platform on GitHub. For the past year, we have been hosting the release packages on both GitHub and CodePlex so that we could ensure that GitHub tools could support the needs of the project. Now that the GitHub tools are finally mature enough to handle our release management needs, there is no reason to keep the source code and release management separate.
Going forward, all new DNN Platform releases will be hosted exclusively on GitHub and the CodePlex site will point visitors over to GitHub for all DNN 8 releases and beyond. We will continue to maintain the CodePlex site for historical releases but new releases will only be available on GitHub. Of course, the Community Downloads page on DNNSoftware.com will always point to the appropriate repository.
GitHub has been a great source code repository for the platform over the last three years and they continue to make significant improvements in all aspects of their project hosting tools. This move will help ensure that we are able to take advantage of modern tools in maintaining the DNN Platform and will reduce the maintenance burden of splitting our project hosting responsibilities.