If you haven’t already heard, I finally got around to tweaking the MBG Scaffolder code enough that I felt it was ready for beta release.  The MBG Scaffolder package has now been officially released under GNU’s general public license.  For those unfamiliar with the MBG Scaffolder project, please check out my previous post for download and demo links, as well as a complete list of features available.

For this particular project, I opted to make the code available under open source licenses because I’m a big believer in open source software and I really feel this project has something to offer.  Hopefully the latter becomes reality and someone else can finally benefit from my efforts, like I have from others all these years.  With the exception of Password Meter, the MBG Scaffolder package is the first major piece of code I’ve released under the GPL.  But I certainly don’t plan for it to be the last.  I have several other PHP classes, as well as a Javascript or two that I hope to make available under GPL as well.

In my opinion, open source projects are a huge benefit to developers because they get the code out there for others to use and review.  This process lends itself quite nicely to project expansion through other developers and community feedback.  Typically, the more popular a project is, the better the code and feature-set because there’s a genuine interest in maintaining and maturing the final product.  I realize that most people these days are looking to make money whenever possible, but I honestly wish more companies would look into releasing their code under OS licensing.  To me, it seems like a win-win situation.

To answer a lingering questions, some of you may be wondering why I’ve built yet another PHP-MySQL scaffolding tool.  I found a few other scaffolding utilities out there that did some of what I needed, but most of these other apps weren’t very intuitive and required a lot of modifications to the back-end database to make them work correctly.  The MBG Scaffolder was designed with minimal requirements in mind.

With few exceptions, the MBG Scaffolder utility is fully configured and ready to go.  Drop it in a web-accessible directory and using the proper credentials, you can easily access any MySQL database server using a fully qualified domain name.  It’s just that easy.  The only real requirements come in the form of PHP and MySQL version support and some minor table comments to support advanced joining options.  The following is a rough gist of MBG Scaffolder’s abilities:

It’s pretty easy to talk up my own product though, so I’m looking for testers and feedback to make the MBG Scaffolder even better.  My testing has been pretty limited so far so I’m looking for more worldly feedback based on database parameters outside of my own controlled environment.  Quite a few updates were included in the last push so there’s still a possibility of some bugs.  But I did my best to eliminate any issues I came across.

Please feel free download the package and give it a try and let me know what you think.  If you don’t have access to a PHP-enabled web server, check out the demo site to get a feel for MBG Scaffolder’s abilities.  The only feature that’s missing on the demo is the file uploading.  I’ve blocked this for security reasons.  But file uploads are fully enabled in the download-able release.  Don’t forget to pass this on to anyone you know that may have need for a PHP-MySQL scaffolding utility.

Thanks in advance and have fun!

Jeff @ Meta Beta Geek

I am a coder… a programmer… a developer… a designer… a database administrator… a software engineer.  There are many terms used to describe what it is I do these days.  But I guess the easiest way to describe it is to tell you that I build dynamic web applications.  I’ve actually been working with code in one form or another since the mid-90s but didn’t really get into server-side and data-driven applications until early 2002.  Since then I’ve spent a great deal of time digging around and learning everything I possibly can about coding, development, design, databases and more.  I have an avid interest in anything related to databases or web application programming so any time I get my hands on some new library or coding technique I turn into a two-year-old with a new toy.  And I gotta say… It’s awesome!

Although I plan to stand up my own site at some point, I’m drastically short on time and overloaded with projects at the moment.  So for now, WordPress has rescued me from the depths of my own digging.  As of this writing, I have several development projects that are fully releasable and several more that are near completion.  I’ve sunk countless hours into the code behind these projects, many of which are now on their 2nd or 3rd full iteration.  But so far, I’m the only one who has benefited from their usefulness.

Having reaped the rewards of open source licensing for many years now, I think it’s high time I return the favor by contributing something useful back to the pool.  The majority of my projects have universal applications, making them great candidates for an open source license.  So hopefully soon, one or more persons out there will be enjoying the fruits of my labor in the form of GPL-released code.  As for this blog… it will serve as the initial location for documentation behind each project with more detailed documentation to follow at a later date.  So check back soon for more updates!