Apache Bloodhound sniffs out top level project status

Apache Bloodhound has become the latest project at the Apache Software Foundation to graduate from the incubator and become a Top Level Project at the Foundation. Bloodhound was a project that, unlike others, effectively began in the incubator at Apache when WanDisco proposed a project which would take Trac, the project management and bug tracking software, and enhance it. Work done by the developers included moving to a responsive frontend based around Bootstrap, adding the ability to brand the system and its error messages and adding "in-place" edit and workflow controls.

The project has used a fork of the BSD-licensed Trac code, relicensed it under Apache 2.0 but kept an eye on maintaining Trac compatibility. That said, functional enhancements included support for hosting multiple projects on one system and full text search. Bloodhound also tightly integrates source code viewing for Apache Subversion and Git and the wiki features of the platform.

Gary Martin, Vice President of Apache Bloodhound, said getting top level project status was "fantastic recognition of the progress Bloodhound has made so far in adopting the 'Apache Way' but we do not plan to rest on our laurels", noting the developers were looking for potential contributors and "reducing barriers to contribution". The most recent release version is 0.5.2 on 31 March, which makes it technically the first release post incubator graduation, as that was granted internally on 20 March.

For a better feel for Bloodhound, the developers have set up a demonstration site, which allows users to create and edit tickets and wiki pages. Users who want to set up their own Bloodhound service should download the software from the project's download/changelog page and follow the installation instructions. Users will need Python 2.6 or 2.7 (not 3.x or later) and can install with SQLite or PostgreSQL; MySQL is supported but not recommended. The system can be brought online with its own integrated web server, but is best deployed with a web server such as Apache.

(djwm)