The other day, I posted a question regarding what tools developers used in managing their projects and I received quite a few responses and a lot of links to various tools. In looking through the various tools mentioned, a thought came to mind. My assumption is that most people reading this blog are technical developers, probably having at least something to do with ColdFusion. What struck me when looking through the list of suggested tools was that none of them were were ColdFusion based and this would seem like a tool set that almost any developer would have a need for. Is there not a market/need for a ColdFusion based project management toolset? Is there just no desire to create such a tool set? If a toolset that existed that was as good as or better than some of the others, would you consider it? I know free open source has the issues of development time and support, so what if you had to pay for it such a tool set? Would it still be considered?
No ColdFusion Solutions?
February 29, 2008
DougHughes.net 
Comments on: "No ColdFusion Solutions?" (24)
There are a few Trac like projects on RIAForge. We are evaluating project mgmt. tools as well but have some special requirements and will probably roll our own and I imagine leverage a lot of the existing ColdFusion projects out there for parts of it…
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The ColdFusion developers are too busy developing actual apps and sites. 😉 Lol, that is a JOKE. Like Jim alluded to, there is Russ Johnson’s Skweegee project, but my understanding is that it is still in early stages.
I have to admit, Jeff, that I was perplexed by this myself when I went tool-searching in mid-2006 and eventually picked Trac. I did develop some custom ColdFusion code that modifies my Trac installation via some Ajax, though, so that was fun.
Getting back to my original teasingly-snarkish comment, though, there’s actually truth to it: I would love to develop my own CF-based tool, but just have no time.
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@Joshua – I know what you mean, tools to support our efforts tend to get left behind in favor of paying work even though they might make life easier.
I have looked at Skweegee a couple of times and it always seemed to problem with most CF open source apps …. no time for support or development as there is no money involved.
I have done quite a bit of work with Trac myself and it can be quite limiting and frustrating at times. If there was a ColdFusion solution that did everything Trac did and more, would it be worth paying for? What about a hosted solution like BaseCamp that would require no setup / installation?
I am just trying to see if there might be any interest as the bean counters have to be appeased first.
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Personally, I am not a fan of the no-setup hosted solutions. At work, we want all our data in-house and not dependent on our Internet connection. For personal projects, well, I’m just a geek and so like having my project mgmt on my personal CentOS server. 😉
I think my work would be willing to sink a little money into a project mgmt tool (vs. an open source solution). However, I must admit that I don’t completely care about it being in ColdFusion unless its architecture is open so that I can augment it with customization and/or get customizations from a customer community.
HTH.
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Have a look at:
http://projecttracker.riaforge.org/
“Send messages, manage to-do lists, set milestones, share files, track issues, browse source code.. all from a streamlined interface taking advantage of the latest ajax technologies. Built using jQuery.”
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Seems like Project Tracker and Skweegee could merge and have a pretty complete solution????
This is one thing that frustrates me w/open-source at times. People will start new projects instead of chipping in to help with an existing project and you end up with two half baked solutions.
Not to say either of these is half-baked 🙂 but they do seem to have a lot of similar features…
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I do run a small, ColdFusion-based project management site called Oneworkspace.com. It’s a little like basecamp (although not nearly as well designed or “ajaxy”).
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We are evaluating Digital Crew’s Teamwork Project Manager right now for our new company, and so far I am really impressed.
It has the same type of setup/fee structure that Basecamp does.
http://www.teamworkpm.net/
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What about this product:
http://www.teamworkpm.net/
Its CF Based
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I’ve been using ProWorkFlow (available at http://www.proworkflow.com) since version 3 (it’s on version 5 and soon to be on version 6) as an internal tool. It’s available in multiple versions (it is not an open source product). You can assign tasks, and for those template projects, you can create a recurring workflow. it provides a Gantt chart and a calendar view of projects, and there is even an invoice plug-in. I’ve been very happy with it, and one of the reasons we went with it was that its written in CF.
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I’ve been evaluating Project Tracker for use with the public Transfer site.
So far it seems to be the best CF based project management solution out there.
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What’s wrong with the non-CF products?
There’s no operating system (that I know of) that is written in ColdFusion either. Do we need one? =)
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@Sammy: +1
Q: Why no CF solutions?
A: Because the non-CF ones are damn good!
Seriously, why would you go past Jira, Trac, Basecamp AND Mingle and start coding your own? Jira at least (and maybe Mingle) has a free license for open source projects.
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Of course there’s no reason to increase and solidify the ColdFusion open source landscape.
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@Calvin – I’m all for bettering the CF open source landscape, but if that’s the goal, I’d focus on apps where it makes sense to have in every language.
I don’t think each language needs its own project management tools any more than it needs its own OS (hence the comment).
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I don’t think any language ‘needs’ its own project management solution, however that doesn’t detract from the value of one being available, both as a tool and as an example of how certain things might be accomplished…
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Sammy sammy sammy.
Some of us don’t want to load PHP on our CF servers. Or support any other language.
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@Calvin – I see where you’re coming from now. That is quite true. However, the fact that the existing ones are good would still make me want to do a different project, that would hopefully have the same goals as you mentioned, but that also has the goals I mentioned.
The problem with doing something that’s already been done so well that has little mass-use comparatively with other types of applications, is that it’s hard to attract users. With few people using an application, it’s hard to keep a healthy desire to continue it. Then, you wind up with half-baked solutions.
Of course, if one can get past that, you might end up with something good!
If I were looking to create apps that “increase and solify the CF open source landscape,” I’d start by identifying types of applications that are used by many people, where there is an existing hole in the FOSS market in general or that would be useful in each language, so hopefully I’d have the best chance of success.
I’m not saying that PM software can’t be successful – just that it seems to me that it would be harder to achieve success than some other type of application.
@noname: I see. Well, that opinion is fine, and I don’t disparage anyone having it. =)
My own opinion is that there are some fine PM apps out there that already do what I need and want them to, so I’d probably investigate those before rolling my own.
My bet would be that I can get one of those existing ones up and running and start my project before I could make my own version and then start my project.
To each his own, however.
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Here is another one I stumbled on today:
http://www.project-open.com/
Make sure to check out the demos…
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Hi y’all…
Come and check out ours:
http://www.proworkflow.com
(PS: I’m the CEO – Julian) We’ve written ProWorkflow completely in ColdFusion and it’s been around for about 5-6 years now. Getting stronger all the time.
Here’s some stats… 2,199,142 Hours Tracked — 190,858 Projects — 729,106 Tasks — $219,914,200 Value of Hours Tracked (est.)
Who says ColdFusion can’t compete? We reckon it’s the best platform for this type of app. The solution is available as a subscription, code download (Encryped or open) and we’ve got free trials! Have a crack! It’s absolutely the most professional CF solution out there… most customers have thousands of projects entered and it’s still ticking!
We’ve been keeping a strategic low profile up til now, but help spead the word. This is a strong, commercial strength application, not just another BaseCamp rippoff that doesn’t cut the mustard like soo many others out there.
Julian Stone – CEO
http://www.proworkflow.com
PS: Check out my blog: http://www.julian101.com
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Hi Julian,
Your product looked great – and comparable price to fogbugz. However, I couldn’t find anywhere whether it integrated with SVN. We want to be able to have tasks associated with code etc.
ideas?
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Anyone know of a more lightweight or “real simple” product?
We setup mediaWiki with task templates.
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I’ve been seriously looking at solutions for public bug tracking in CF, and I think I’m at my wit’s end.
I’m actually starting to look at commercial products now.
I tried to track down MachBug (anyone know what happened there?) as it looked like a very promising project, from the archive:
http://web.archive.org/web/20070705213037/http://www.machbug.com/
Orignally I was looking at projecttracker, but that isn’t suited to being a public bug tracker at all. Not sure what to do either. Seems to be a real gap in the CF lanscape.
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Thanks for such a nice post.
Regards
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