Opensourcing a starter web application

Question

I am just starting with a web application to maintain a household budget.

I really want to opensource it and let anyone who wants to work on it do so, as it is a hobby I don't really have the time to develop on it that much well

The only problem I have is that if this is an app I want to host on my domain, how do I go about doing this?

Should I set up an SVN and allow other people to check things in, and how do I manage checking the code that others write. I dont want to spend all my free time checking to see if someone else is trying to put in an exploit.

Answer 1

Why not use an OSS hosting service, like sourceforge? You can still run a copy on your own domain for your own use?

One thing to keep in mind, if you're starting an application with "I don't have time to work on it much", I wouldn't expect many people to join in and do the work for you. OSS projects work best when there's a basic product already developed by a single developer (or a small group), then, as you gain users, you will start gaining more developers too.

Answer 2

I would recommend using something like http://sourceforge.net or http://www.assembla.com/ and not trying to host it on your own. You may end up wasting more time in setting up your project and maintaining it than actually developing it if you try and host it yourself.

Answer 3

Should I set up an SVN and allow other people to check things in, and how do I manage checking the code that others write. I dont want to spend all my free time checking to see if someone else is trying to put in an exploit.

Then don't bother. The people willing to contribute to the app that you are running on your own website is going to be very small. And if you don't have critical mass, it will be too easy for people to put in security exploits if you don't have a system to vet diffs or changes.

Just write it yourself and put the read only repository out somewhere for people to download the source if they are so inclined. If someone gets really excited about it and wants to help, you can vet them before giving them access.

Answer 4

There is a VERY rough version ready, and I have a TON of features in my head that I would like to do. I tend to work on it 7-10 hours per week, but if there were a lot of users with a lot of good feedback I would probably work on it some more.