Erik Beuschau
December 9, 2024
We have started our work to go open-source, and the first five packages and two repositories are already available on npm and GitHub.
So far, we have released five packages:
-
Core: This package includes shared logic for our runtime and server and all code for formulas.
-
Lib: These are all the built-in formulas and actions in toddle.
-
SSR: This package includes all the functionality for rendering a toddle project on the server. If you self-host, you don’t want to limit yourself to a subpar runtime, so we’re putting much effort into getting this right.
-
Search: This library is built to help find issues in a toddle project—similar to ES Lint. It’s the “engine” behind toddle’s built-in issues panel. Later, we want to add functionality to help search for dependencies across a project.
-
Runtime: This powers our front-end, ensures things render correctly, and applications stay interactive.
… and two repositories:
-
toddle: Holds all the packages above will eventually enable self-hosting.
-
Documentation: Will host all toddle’s documentation.
Our primary focus, for now, is to reach a point where it’s possible to self-host a toddle project. Once we have completed this work, we will open-source the rest of toddle—including our editor project.
Everything will come in waves, and we will follow our initial schedule, posted here.
A few more updates
We want to keep you in the loop as we ship, so we have updated the README and will continue to do so. A big update is that you can now contribute to the toddle project. If you think something is missing or not sufficient, you can now submit pull requests to the repository.
What’s next?
Our immediate next steps will be to release guidelines on how we release and how you can best submit pull requests to increase your chances of contributing successfully to the project.
We have a lot of new changes coming, and in January, we plan to introduce a guide on how to run toddle in a self-hosted environment, whether with a different provider or on-prem. Please do not expect the first version to be smooth; it will be the case under no circumstances. We very much expect the first iteration to be tedious and cumbersome, but we’ll eventually ensure it will be a smooth affair.
We are going open-source to keep the web open and accessible
We want to change how the web is built, and we can’t do this in a vacuum or only for a subset of developers who are happy to rely on a hosted service with vendor lock-in. To change how the web is built, it needs to be built like the web: open and accessible to everyone. That’s also why the team decided to license toddle under the Apache 2.0 License, which they believe is the most open version.
Open-source also means that we hold ourselves and future selves accountable for mechanisms like vendor lock-in and all the things that come with it, such as unreasonable price hikes and questionable ownership structures. If you build intellectual property, you should own it and decide what ownership looks like. Lastly and most importantly, we can build toddle with you instead of for you. You get to have a say in what the future of web development should look like, which is how it should be.
We are now open to pull requests! Learn how to contribute!
The two repositories are now open to pull requests. You can also download the project and create a fork, although I’d probably recommend you hold off until we finish the work. If you aren’t comfortable building, you are welcome to help move our documentation or simply give us a star on GitHub.
How to follow our progress
The easiest way to follow progress is to look at our GitHub repositories. We’ll update them as we build. You can also " Star" the project to keep tabs on new updates.
