Sponsoring add-on features

Vaadin 6 / 7 / 8 Framework UI
1

There is a large number of very useful add-ons in the
Directory
, and almost all of them are published under the very liberal Apache 2.0 license. This means you can use them for free, no strings attached in almost any way you can think of, including commercially.

However, most of these add-ons are written by Vaadin Ltd employees as “10% projects”. Because our employees are working in customer projects this means that the authors have a limited amount of time for support and further development for these add-ons. Most authors help you out anyway by fixing bugs etc., but sometimes this just does not cut it: perhaps you are under a deadline and you or the author just don’t have the time to implement the feature in the required timeframe.

Not to worry though, there is a solution: you (ie. your company) can sponsor a feature. This is by far the most fastest and surest way to get changes to an add-on.

In practice this means that your company buys a mini-project from Vaadin Ltd. to implement the feature. Generally these are done as short fixed priced projects with guarantee. Small features can be started almost immediately and completed in only a few hours which means that you get the feature fast and the pricing should not be a problem.

Also, you get a discount if you allow the changeset to be published within the original license of the add-on. For example, the
Google Map add-on
 includes a few new sponsored features that are now available for everyone.

Contact
our sales guys
 for quotes and more info. We also offer other Vaadin related services, which include on-site training, consulting or we can even implement whole projects for you from start to finish.

2

Yes, it is a good idea to put a bounty on feature requests. For features that can be fed back into the open source community with the original license, it will be great if the bounty can be offered publicly on the Directory / Trac pages and letting any developer to pick up the bounty. Public knowledge also helps multiple parties interested in the same feature to offer individual smaller amounts that add up to the full bounty.

I think this would bring more developers to Vaadin Directory and help grow the code base.

I don’t think this would eat into Vaadin’s ability to make a living. It should only help in the long run.

Just a thought!

3

Indeed, there is no obligation for you to purchase the extensions from Vaadin Ltd. If the original add-on is published under Apache 2.0 anyone is free to modify it, or to pay a third party to extend it. I don’t think we’ll do a bounty “marketplace” in vaadin.com however, since there already are a number of available services you can use.

However, note that Directory will only allow the original author to publish new versions for an add-on. To publish extensions written by someone else there are three possibilities:

  2. Submit the changeset to the original author and ask him to package and publish a new version. If the changes are high quality the author will probably be more than happy to do this.
  3. Add the modified version as a new add-on in the directory.
  4. Publish the modified add-on somewhere else (eg. Google Code).