Other Website Tools
Estimated Reading Time: 10 minutes Last updated on 19th March 2011
Here are a few pieces of open-source software that would fall into the category of website accessories. The list initially was a short one but is growing into a very eclectic collection. More will be added as they come my way. All of these are offline tools, rather than online ones like WhatIsMyBrowser.com.
Babel is a JavaScript compiler that transforms ES2015+ code into backwards compatible JavaScript for older browsers or environments, enabling features like syntax transformations and polyfills. It supports the latest version of JavaScript with plugins, can convert JSX syntax for use with React, and has presets for Type Annotations using Flow or TypeScript. Babel is pluggable, meaning users can compose their own transformation pipelines using existing plugins or write their own, and it provides source map support for easy debugging. It aims to stay as spec compliant as possible while remaining compact, fast, and with minimal dependencies on a runtime.
bbPress is a simple and flexible GPL-licensed open-source forum software developed by the WordPress community, focusing on web standards, speed, and integration with WordPress. It aims to provide a user-friendly experience by keeping things lean and allowing for add-on features through plugins. bbPress is available for download on the website, along with documentation and support resources.
PhpBB is an open-source forum software used by millions, offering features for both small groups and large corporate websites. It features an extensive administration panel for customisation without code editing, while appealing to advanced users with its ease of integration. Released under the GNU General Public Licence, phpBB allows direct code modification and access to a database of user-created extensions and styles. Documentation helps get the software running in minutes, and a community forum offers assistance.
Browsersync is a free, open-source tool for quick and efficient browser testing. It reduces repetitive manual tasks such as live reloads, URL pushing, form replication, and click mirroring. Customizable settings can be adjusted through the UI or command line to create personalized test environments. Compatible with various platforms including Windows, macOS, and Linux, setup takes less than 5 minutes. It has over 2 million NPM downloads a month and is used by thousands of developers at Google, Adobe, Paravel, Shop Talk Show, and Addy Osmani. Features include network throttle, interaction sync, file sync, UI or CLI control, sync customisation, URL history, and compatibility with build tools like Grunt and Gulp. To use Browsersync, install Node.js first, then run the command 'npm install -g browser-sync' to install the tool globally. Start by watching for changes in CSS files using either server or proxy mode, depending on your project type. For more detailed usage and integration guides, visit the documentation page on the website.
Comentario is a free, open-source web comment engine. It's a powerful and flexible solution for adding user interactions to your website without clutter. This lightweight software comes with various features such as Markdown support, images, comment replies, and more.
Discourse is a comprehensive open-source discussion platform designed to enhance online community and teamwork by providing meaningful conversations, real-time chat, moderation tools, customisation options, AI assistance, and integration capabilities. Founded in 2013 with a mission to democratize online discourse, Discourse offers an all-in-one solution for organizations of various sizes, including hosting, design, and development services. It's built on the latest technologies such as Ember.js, Ruby on Rails, Postgres database, and Redis cache, ensuring compatibility with major browsers. The platform is free to use under the GNU General Public Licence v2 and offers a range of plugins, integrations, and an API for customisation.
Less is a robust CSS preprocessor enhancing the functionality of standard CSS through features like variables, nesting, mixins, operations, and functions. These benefits include improved organization, reduced repetition, dynamic styling, and compatibility with traditional CSS. Implementation methods range from client-side processing to compiled approaches; the latter is recommended for production environments. Key advantages include a more efficient codebase and greater maintainability, especially for larger projects. However, there may be considerations such as potential performance impacts on older browsers and a learning curve for new syntax and features. Less revolutionizes CSS development by offering an array of features that enhance styling capabilities while maintaining compatibility with traditional CSS.
While I have started to evaluate Open Web Analytics, this has been my main self-hosted website traffic analyser. Using Google Analytics and Woopra is all very fine, but they are implemented using JavaScript scripts hosted on other parts of the web, and that can slow down page loading as well as giving blockers of JavaScript something else to do.
Matomo works well and has an attractive interface, but it can be sluggish to load, so much so that I have set it to load its work data in the database instead of the web server file system. For those wanting to stick with older versions for the sake of speed and/or reliability, there even is a repository of these.
MyBB is a free and open-source forum software developed by the MyBB Group, a community of volunteers since 2002. Originating from XMB, MyBB emerged after several team members forked the project in 2005 to create DevBB as a temporary solution while MyBB was being rebuilt from scratch. Released in 2005, MyBB has since then undergone continuous development and improvement through new features and plugins by both official developers and third parties. With over 60 releases, it has become a mature forum software platform with a wide range of useful features. The MyBB Group is composed of volunteers committed to managing and supporting the project, recruiting community members to join them in an official capacity.
Open Web Analytics (OWA) is a free, open-source web analytics software framework, licensed under GPLv2, enabling easy tracking and analysis of website usage through simple JavaScript and PHP APIs. Suitable for various websites, including those built on WordPress and MediaWiki, OWA offers comprehensive features and documentation available on its official wiki and demo site.
Pattern Lab is a frontend workshop environment that utilises Node-powered static site generation to create and test UI components for design systems. It offers features such as nested patterns, dynamic data design, tool and language agnosticism, pattern documentation, viewport resizer tools, and flexibility through Handlebars and Twig templating engines. The open source project includes a GitHub repository, resources, updates, demos, and is powered by Netlify. Users can get started by running 'npm create pattern-lab' in their terminal and referring to the installation guide. Pattern Lab supports nested patterns for easy updates, dynamic data design, and team collaboration through defining UI patterns. It's a flexible and extensible tool that includes viewport resizing tools and pattern lineage features. The open source community welcomes conversation and support through GitHub and Gitter.
PostCSS is a tool for transforming CSS with JavaScript, which can increase code readability by adding vendor prefixes based on current browser popularity and property support using the Autoprefixer plugin. It also allows developers to convert modern CSS into something most browsers can understand through the PostCSS Preset Env. The tool has various plugins like stylelint that help enforce consistent conventions and avoid errors in stylesheets. The tool is distributed under the MIT Licence and has an active community on Open Collective and Twitter for reporting issues or seeking assistance.
This self-hosted, scalable platform offers full control over your data storage and security while providing an easy-to-use experience for end users. Features include advanced automation, seamless collaboration, access on the go, and advanced search capabilities. Cells can also be used as a file transfer solution, document management system, virtual data room, document portal, or digital asset management tool.
Revive Adserver is a free, open-source ad serving system that enables users to serve ads on websites, apps, and video players while collecting statistics such as impressions, clicks, conversions, CTR, conversion rates, revenue, eCPM, and more. It offers features like managing inventory for advertisers, campaigns, banners, websites, zones, and users; reviewing statistics on requests, impressions, clicks, conversions; open-source code with privacy compliance.
Roundcube is a free, open-source webmail software that offers various features such as MIME support, address book management, threaded message listing, and responsive design for multiple devices. It supports multiple languages and provides full functionality expected from an email client, including drag-and-drop message management, HTML and MIME message handling, multiple sender identities, and more. Regular updates ensure security and new features; recent releases include version 1.6.9. Roundcube is available for download on its website, with support provided through GitHub. It offers a user-friendly interface, flexibility through plugins, and protection against XSS attacks. Additionally, it supports PGP encryption and can be run using Docker.
Sass is a powerful, professional-grade CSS extension language that has been actively supported for nearly 18 years and is compatible with all versions of CSS. It boasts an extensive range of features and abilities, making it the preferred choice for many developers over other CSS extension languages. With a large community of supporters and numerous tech companies backing its development, Sass has become an industry-approved solution. There are countless frameworks built using Sass, including popular ones like Bootstrap, Bourbon, and Susy. The MIT Licence allows for its use and modification. Deployed by Netlify and powered by MacStadium, the source code is available on GitHub.
SimplePie is an open-source PHP code library that simplifies managing RSS and Atom feeds. It provides an easy-to-use API for fetching, caching, parsing, normalising data structures between formats, handling character encoding translation, and sanitising the resulting data. SimplePie is free, well documented with a comprehensive API reference, tutorials, screencasts, and documentation. It has been developed over years by passionate developers who aim to make it fast, easy-to-use, compatible, and standards compliant. SimplePie can be integrated into various blogging systems, wikis, forums, and code frameworks without requiring extensive programming knowledge.
Tiny Tiny RSS is a self-hosted, open source news feed reader and aggregator licensed under GNU GPLv3. It offers features such as feed aggregation/syndication, keyboard shortcuts, OPML import/export, multiple sharing options, plugins and themes, flexible article filtering, JSON API, and deduplication. Compatible with modern web browsers, it requires a server running Docker for installation. Developed using the continuous development model from GitLab, Tiny Tiny RSS offers an Android client and supports podcasts. Users can translate the software into their own languages using Weblate. Note that there's no warranty provided with this software.
Webmin is a popular web-based system administration tool for Unix-like servers, with approximately one million annual installations worldwide. It enables configuration of operating system settings, such as users, disk quotas, and services, as well as management of open-source applications like BIND DNS Server, Apache HTTP Server, PHP, MySQL, and more. Regular updates are released to add new features, fix bugs, and improve compatibility with various systems and applications. For instance, recent updates have included adding support for importing LDAP schemas, displaying network I/O's in FreeBSD, optimizing getting table index stats for large tables in MySQL/MariaDB, and fixing issues related to systemd actions and init scripts. Updates are available through various package managers or direct downloads.