Last release

The last release is always available on the wiki. Much more documentation is also available.

SIDE stands for Sustainable IDE

SIDE is a graphical tool for developers who want to build sustainable software based on Alfresco. This software will evolve smoothly with your business and infrastructure requirements thanks to the use of models, which allow a high level of abstraction, close to thinking, far from technologies...

SIDE implements KerBlue specifications. SIDE provides:

  • a set of meta models
  • a set of graphical designers
  • a set of generators
  • a set of deployerson Alfresco, Liferay, Chiba

What is Sustainable Software?

Sustainable software is software you can extend easily, from a functional or technological point of view. On one hand, this means that when a user has a new requirement, it's easy for any developper to add it, even if the original author is not there anymore. On another hand, if you want to change the underlying technologies, you don't need to rewrite your existing application from scratch.

Sustainable Software gives you the freedom to change, of technology, of requirements, of achitecture.

Open Source gives you 4 main freedoms: freedom to use, to study, to modify and to copy. While being very interesting, one freedom is lacking. This is the freedom to change. You think you can change, but you can't. Have you ever suggested to your CTO to rewrite all the applications in php, or in Java, or in .Net, ...? Of course not, it should merely be too expensive to rewrite applications from scratch. But the most surprising is people don't change their way of developing applications. They use open source and think they are free, but how really are they ?

What typical use cases does SIDE cover ?

SIDE focuses on applications which meet the following requirements:

  • Input data, which requires data meta model (to store data) and form meta model (to build forms)
  • Browse data, which requires view meta model (to describe the data you want to browse), portal meta model (to describe applications sitemap)
  • Process data, which requires workflow met model (to describe data interactions)
  • Analyze data, which requires data storage in understandable relational database for BI and reporting activites

SIDE focuses on applications:

  • with forms
  • with workflows
  • with forms and workflows integrated together (paperless)
  • with a lot of views
  • which combine contents and highly structured data, as Internet/Intranet, ECM, EIM, Paperless.