[GO-ESSP] Setting up a GO-ESSP Portal re-use repository

[Stephens, A (Ag)]

Dear all,
 
Those of you that attended day 1 of the GO-ESSP meeting a fortnight ago might recall a short presentation I gave on re-use of portal components. As promised (and delayed as usual ;-) this is a follow-up message to test the water and solicit some interest from those of you that might want to:
 
    - use other people's code in your web (and maybe Web Service) applications
    - give your code freely to other web (and maybe Web Service) applications
 
I mentioned in my talk that sometimes we are unable to adopt entire solutions from each other but there are a multitude of functions, applets and forms that we should be able to share very easily. An example where re-use has been successful is in the LiveMap applet produced by Jonathan Callahan [http://tmap.pmel.noaa.gov/~callahan/ JAVA/map_v3.0/LiveMap_v3.0.html] which certainly saved me weeks of potential coding time. The key is that each of these components needs to be packaged in a way that others can get to it without needing ask any questions or make contact with the author.
 
Hence, I propose creating a Portal Components Registry, based on a Web site (portal?) for co-ordinating:

  1. A register of portal components
  2. Rules for adding components to the register
  3. Rules for managing the register
  4. Some policy statement on what we consider to be a 're-usable' component
  5. A wish-list for new components
  
What should the rules be? My first attempt at a list is that any component added to the register should be accompanied by:

- Installation documentation
- Usage documentation
- A working version demonstration (visible via the web, if possible)
- A development plan
- A list of existing implementations
- Download details
- A standard table of browser (in-)compatibilities

I propose that I would set this up within the NDG or BADC web site but that decision-making and management of how it works would be the responsibility of a small GO-ESSP committee. All the work should be electronic so there shouldn't be any need to meet up. We just need to get some examples up and see if we can attract some more code/attention. I suggest that (at least initially) we use the main GO-ESSP mailing list to discuss this topic to gauge interest. We can also use that to build a 'wish-list' for components that our wider community would like to see built.

Let's stop writing the same functions in 25 different places and just write 1 great one!

Thanks for listening.

Ag
-- 
Ag Stephens				Tel: +44 (0)1392 884263
 BADC - UK Met Office Coordinator	Fax: +44 (0)1392 885681
Met Office,  A2 - W004,  FitzRoy Road,  Exeter,  EX1 3PB,  UK.
E-mail (Met Office):	ag.stephens at metoffice.gov.uk
E-mail (BADC):		a.stephens at rl.ac.uk
Home page:		http://home.badc.rl.ac.uk/astephens

BADC details:      British Atmospheric Data Centre, 
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory,               
Chilton, Didcot, OX11 0QX, UK.   	http://badc.nerc.ac.uk