Dirigible/DirigibleLabs

Dirigible Labs

Overview

What is Dirigible Labs?

Dirigible Labs is a community of open source projects that build technology based on the Eclipse Dirigible Cloud Development Platform. It provides the infrastructure services typically required by open source projects, such as code repositories, bug tracking, project web sites, and wikis. Dirigible Labs is hosted by GitHub at https://github.com/dirigiblelabs.

What are the rules of hosting a project on Dirigible Labs?

All projects hosted on Dirigible Labs are in accordance with the Dirigible Labs User Guidelines.

Are projects on Dirigible Labs official Eclipse projects?

No, Dirigible Labs projects are not official Eclipse Foundation projects. Dirigible Labs projects are not hosted by the Eclipse Foundation and do not have to follow the Eclipse Foundation development and intellectual property policies.

There are a number of things Dirigible Labs projects cannot do since they are not official Eclipse Foundation projects:

• They cannot include the word Eclipse in their name.
• They cannot use the org.eclipse namespace for their bundles names.
• They cannot use Bugzilla, Forums and Wiki at Eclipse.org web site.
• They cannot participate in the annual Eclipse release trains, unless they are included in an official Eclipse project.

Why should I consider using Dirigible Labs instead of starting a project at the Eclipse Foundation?

There are a number of benefits and obligations for hosting a project at the Eclipse Foundation. The benefits for your project include:

• more exposure with the Eclipse community through the eclipse.org website, newsgroups, Eclipse conferences, etc. This may make it easy for you to build a community of users and contributors.
• official recognition as an Eclipse project, so you can use the org.eclipse namespace and use Eclipse in your project name. This strong association with the Eclipse brand may be important to some organisations and individuals.
• potential to be included in the annual Eclipse release train. As a result, the project can be included in any of the packages that are visible on the eclipse.org download page. This will expand the distribution and potential user community for your project.
• participation in the Eclipse IP due diligence process, an important check for some downstream consumers of open source technology.

The obligations for being an Eclipse Foundation project may increase the effort and decrease the flexibility of starting an open source project. Dirigible Labs has been established for projects that don't want to come under the process and rules of the Eclipse Foundation, but still want to be part of the greater Eclipse community. We would recommend projects starting on Dirigible Labs, if one or more of the factors are true for your project:

• The project is an optional extension to the Eclipse Dirigible itself for a specific use-case.
• The project is experimental, and the committers are not sure of the future direction.
• The project is new with a limited community.
• The committers are new to open source with not a lot of experience in leading an open source project.
• The project is targeted at a small niche and might not benefit from the wider exposure of being an Eclipse Foundation project.
• The project shows specific feature(s) of Eclipse Dirigible as an example project.

Is it possible for an Dirigible Labs project to become an Eclipse Foundation project?

Yes. In fact we hope some projects will start at Dirigible Labs, build a community and technology, and then eventually migrate to the Eclipse Foundation. If you believe that at some point you will want to move your project to the Eclipse Foundation, we suggest you ensure that:

• You keep track of all contributions and ensure they are contributed under the EPL.
• You do not include or link to any code that is licensed under the GPL. Unfortunately, that license is incompatible with the EPL.
• You should also be aware that there are important restrictions on the use and distribution of LGPL code by Eclipse projects.

I have an existing project on GitHub, can I migrate it to Dirigible Labs?

If you have an existing project on GitHub that you would like to migrate to Dirigible Labs, file an issue here. Once an issue is filed, you will be contacted within the next 48 hours with instructions for how to migrate your project.

Why is the open source license selection restricted to EPL or Apache 2.0, MIT License, Mozilla Public License or New BSD?

Projects hosted at Dirigible Labs are expected to be Dirigible applications, built with Eclipse Dirigible technology. Therefore, the open source license you choose must be compatible with the Eclipse Public License (EPL).

User Guidelines

Dirigible Labs is a place to build open source projects based on the Eclipse Dirigible cloud development platform. Dirigible Labs is governed by Eclipse Foundation and hosted on GitHub. We ask all projects hosted on Dirigible Labs to respect and follow these guidelines.

• The Eclipse Foundation supports Dirigible Labs by promoting the service to the Eclipse community. The Dirigible Labs name is used by permission of the Eclipse Foundation, Inc.
• Projects hosted on Dirigible Labs are not considered official Eclipse Foundation projects. Therefore, we ask project owners to respect the Eclipse Foundation trademark guidelines, including:

 a) not using Eclipse or an existing Eclipse project name in your Dirigible Labs project name, and
 b) not using org.eclipse as the prefix for your bundle or package name. 
 c) projects hosted on Dirigible Labs should not portray themselves as official Eclipse Foundation projects.

• Projects hosted on Dirigible Labs are expected to be applications and plugins built using Eclipse Dirigible technology used as optional extensions to the Eclipse Dirigible itself. Therefore, the open source license for your project must be the Eclipse Public License (EPL) or one of these compatible license: Apache 2.0, MIT License, Mozilla Public License or New BSD.

We expect some projects on Dirigible Labs will eventually move to become Eclipse Foundation projects. If you wish for this option to be available to your project we suggest you do the following:

 a) select the EPL as your initial license,
 b) all contributors must sign the Eclipse CLA
 c) keep track of all contributions and ensure they are contributed under the EPL.
 d) do not include or linked to any code that is licensed under GPL and LGPL. Unfortunately, those licenses are not approved for use by Eclipse projects.

Thanks and credit to the Eclipse Labs guidelines and requirements https://www.eclipse.org//org/foundation/eclipselabs/faq.php