Drupal integration (was: GPL compatible licensing?)

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Drupal integration (was: GPL compatible licensing?)

Postby JohnAlbin » Sun May 22, 2011 9:32 pm

Hi all,

I've been investigating the WURFL for enhancing the mobile capability of the Drupal project. Being a virtuous lazy programmer, I want to re-use as much existing code as possible. Drupal has an existing WURFL integration project that uses the WURFL project's PHP API, but (presumably due to performance problems) had started to write their own WURFL parsers “using only your database”. Unfortunately, it appears that effort has stalled/been abandoned before being completed. Even if it was completed, it looks like a duplication of effort with the work the Tera-WURFL project has done.

I'm very much impressed with the performance improvements and the “Fast Detection of Desktop vs. Mobile Devices” of Tera-WURFL. And most of the articles about PHP and WURFL seem to prefer Tera-WURFL over the standard PHP API.

I very much want to create a Drupal project that integrates Tera-WURFL, unfortunately there's a compatibility problem with Tera-WURFL's MPL license. Drupal, as well as the standard WURFL APIs, uses the GPL. The FSF states that “a module covered by the GPL and a module covered by the MPL cannot legally be linked together.”

Because of this MPL incompatibility with the GPL, the Mozilla Foundation re-licensed all of their software (including Firefox) to use a tri-license strategy; concurrently licensing software under the MPL, GPL and LGPL. Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefox#Licensing and http://www-archive.mozilla.org/MPL/relicensing-faq.html

Would you consider adding the GPL to the license options like the Mozilla Foundation did?

I would be willing to help out by providing a patch to the Git repo to update the licensing info in all the files. The Mozilla foundation has some boilerplate licensing text we could use.
Last edited by JohnAlbin on Thu Jun 09, 2011 2:55 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: GPL compatible licensing?

Postby kamermans » Tue May 24, 2011 11:18 pm

I am planning to change to a GPL compatible license within the next two weeks, after which point it can be legally integrated. Also, I am now maintaining both Tera-WURFL and the official WURFL API and we are going to put a stronger focus on supporting WURFL integration with the major CMS platforms like Drupal.
Thanks,

Steve Kamerman
Tera-WURFL Author
COO of ScientiaMobile

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT! Tera-WURFL and WURFL have joined forces! We have launched ScientiaMobile to provide commercial support for our device detection solutions.

Tera-WURFL.com | Device Explorer
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Re: GPL compatible licensing?

Postby JohnAlbin » Wed May 25, 2011 8:21 am

kamermans wrote:I am planning to change to a GPL compatible license within the next two weeks, after which point it can be legally integrated.


That’s fantastic news! Thanks, Steve!

kamermans wrote:Also, I am now maintaining both Tera-WURFL and the official WURFL API and we are going to put a stronger focus on supporting WURFL integration with the major CMS platforms like Drupal.


If you are maintaining both PHP APIs, do you see them merging at some point? or do you see the WURFL APIs as being narrower in scope than the goals of Tera-WURFL? And, thus, they’ll likely remain separate projects?

I ask because I'm already working on a Drupal module that integrates the Tera-WURFL code. But there is an existing WURFL module that integrates the WURFL PHP Tools. And I'm wondering if you think they should remain separate or if there should be one WURFL/Tera-WURFL Drupal module.
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Re: GPL compatible licensing?

Postby kamermans » Sat May 28, 2011 6:49 pm

For the foreseeable future we do not plan to merge the codebases between Tera-WURFL and the Official PHP WURFL API ("PHP Tools" is a deprecated PHP API from the WURFL team). We believe that the two libraries target somewhat different audiences. That having been said, we are working to align all of the WURFL APIs (Tera-WURFL, PHP, Java, .NET) so that they produce the same results given the same input. This will allow us to more easily maintain the APIs, increase accuracy on all fronts, and test for regression/API divergence.

For the time being, I would recommend using the Tera-WURFL API since you already have a dependency on MySQL for Drupal. Also, there may be some significant changes coming to the Official PHP API in the near future.
Thanks,

Steve Kamerman
Tera-WURFL Author
COO of ScientiaMobile

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT! Tera-WURFL and WURFL have joined forces! We have launched ScientiaMobile to provide commercial support for our device detection solutions.

Tera-WURFL.com | Device Explorer
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Re: GPL compatible licensing?

Postby JohnAlbin » Mon Jun 06, 2011 4:04 pm

For the time being, I would recommend using the Tera-WURFL API since you already have a dependency on MySQL for Drupal.


Agreed. Just wanted to know what the plans were for the PHP WURFL API and Tera-WURFL. I've started coding a Tera-WURFL module in preparation of Tera-WURFL's GPL license compatibility. :-)
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Re: GPL compatible licensing?

Postby kamermans » Mon Jun 06, 2011 5:07 pm

I have joined forces with Luca Passani (WURFL Creator), and we have created a company called ScientiaMobile to provide commercial WURFL support. Although Tera-WURFL is now a part of the official WURFL project, its codebase will not be merged with that of the existing PHP API, but will be offered as a complimentary product called the WURFL Database API. This project, as well as the other official WURFL APIs have been released under the AGPLv3 license and are available for immediate download from the WURFL software repository. This is not just a re-licensing, but a new release, version 2.1.5, and includes many bugfixes and matching improvements over the existing 2.1.4 release.
Thanks,

Steve Kamerman
Tera-WURFL Author
COO of ScientiaMobile

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT! Tera-WURFL and WURFL have joined forces! We have launched ScientiaMobile to provide commercial support for our device detection solutions.

Tera-WURFL.com | Device Explorer
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Location: Fort Worth, TX

Drupal integration (was: GPL compatible licensing?)

Postby JohnAlbin » Thu Jun 09, 2011 2:54 am

Awesome! I saw the update earlier today and have already downloaded 2.1.5. Thanks for the re-licensing!

Now that "ScientiaMobile WURFL API: Database Edition" is a part of the WURFL project (Side note: Wow! That name is a mouthful. :(), I'm going to see if the Drupal community wants to swap out their existing usage of the standard WURFL API for the new database-driven API, which I think would work best for most Drupal uses. http://drupal.org/node/1183246

Also, here's a link to my temporary work on Tera-WURFL integration in Drupal: http://drupal.org/sandbox/johnalbin/1168218
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Re: Drupal integration (was: GPL compatible licensing?)

Postby kamermans » Thu Jun 09, 2011 11:52 am

You're welcome. You can refer to the API as the "WURFL Database API" for short, it's a little more convenient :)
Thanks,

Steve Kamerman
Tera-WURFL Author
COO of ScientiaMobile

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT! Tera-WURFL and WURFL have joined forces! We have launched ScientiaMobile to provide commercial support for our device detection solutions.

Tera-WURFL.com | Device Explorer
kamermans
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Posts: 323
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