(F)OSServe – Enhance readmes, web presences, and other outside communication of OSS projects

[secondtruth]

I had the idea to create a simple tool for open source developers, maybe named (F)OSServe, to enhance readmes, web presences, and other outside communication of their projects.

Planned Features

Project Overview

A project information page, displaying basic project information, the readme text, and other important data.

• Basic Data: Displays basic project information: name, description, logo, star count, etc.
• Readme: Mirrors and renders the project's README file

Shortlinks

Shortlinks (path or subdomain) redirecting to custom URLs, maybe including dynamic path conversion like
/specs/{id} -> https://domain.tld/very/long/path/{id|upper}.

Benefits

• Handy short URLs for usage in project communication (microblog, etc.).
• Shortlinks allow that the target URL may change, because their short counterparts will always stay the same as the targets can be edited.

Badge Serving

Proxy badges from any URL or services like shields.io, or generate custom badges on the fly (highly customizable).

Benefits

• Potentially shorter badge URLs for usage in project READMEs.
• Simple, self-hosted service for generating dynamic badges from data sources that are not (yet) supported by shields.io.

Aggregated Content Feed

Aggregate and display entries from RSS feeds and other sources related to the project in (a) unified feed(s).

Benefits

• Every news of a specific category in one place.

[secondtruth]

Potential Integration into Weird

I think, this feature set would be a good candidate to be integrated in Weird, especially with the planned Teams and Projects feature and the Network of shared purpose for projects "dating".

To potentially integrate with Weird, it is necessary to closely follow its user-centric and web-principle-preserving nature.

@erlend-sh's opinion for reference:

we'll definitely have an aggregated content feed

I have very mixed feelings about shortlinks, because they kinda break the web. I tend to prefer solving for link shortening in the UI, e.g. longwebsitelink.com would be shortened to a hyperlinked 'longeweb..' which expands to the full URL when hovered over or long-pressed.

Conditions for Weird conceptual compatibility (WIP)

for Shortlinks

• Shortlinks must only be an addition to the full-URL links in the UI, not replace them.
• (Inform users in the UI, that and why) Shortlinks should be used sparingly.
• (Inform users in the UI, that and why) The target pages should, if possible, reference back to the shortlink URLs (e.g. using a <link rel="canonical">), so that there is a possibility to find the target page, even if the Weird (or (F)OSServe) instance is down, using a search engine.

[secondtruth]

Starguard Integration

Consider some kind of integration with Starguard by @fuegovic. It would allow, for example, to:

• display the number of verified stargazers and, in the future, contributors, who are members of the project's Discord, on served badges, etc.

[secondtruth]

Health Dashboard

Include a sub page on the Project Information page named "Health Dashboard" (rendered as a tab), which would be a comprehensive, optimally real-time visualization tool that provides a holistic view of a project's status, progress, and overall health. It goes beyond simple badge serving to offer actionable insights and foster transparency.

Key Features

Metrics Display

• Build Status: Real-time status of CI/CD pipelines
• Code Quality: Integration with tools like SonarQube or CodeClimate
• Test Coverage: Percentage of code covered by automated tests
• Dependency Health: Status of project dependencies, including security vulnerabilities
• Performance Metrics: Load times, response times, etc.

Team Productivity Insights

• Commit frequency
• Code review turnaround time
• Issue resolution rate

Custom KPI Tracking

• Allow teams to define and track custom KPIs specific to their project goals. Examples might include:
  • User engagement metrics
  • Feature completion rate
  • Bug resolution time
  • Documentation coverage

API and Embed Support

• Provide an API for programmatic access to project information and health data
• Allow dashboard components to be embedded in other tools or websites

Optional Features

Custom Visualizations

• Configurable dashboard layouts
• Various chart types (line graphs, bar charts, pie charts, etc.)
• Ability to create custom widgets

Trend Analysis

• Historical data tracking to show how metrics change over time
• Predictive analytics to forecast future trends based on historical data