What is StratoSource?
StratoSource is a backup and change tracking tool for Force.com Projects. It is designed to help fill the void in Cloud based development environments where multiple people are working in close proximity in the cloud. It:
- Backs up the environment configuration
- Tracks what changed
- Intelligent tracking "understands" Force.com XML files and correctly identifies fields, classes, triggers etc. as created, updated and deleted
- Presents it in an easily readable human-friendly list
- Imports development stories from Rally (optional)
- Allows a development team to tag and track which changes go with which stories
- Stories can be combined to form releases
- Releases has an area to add notes or instructions
- A single link is sent around with the full Manifest of what any given release includes
StratoSource is made up of 3 major subsystems:
- CRON jobs that snapshot your Force.com instances
- Each job runs on some regular interval
- Snapshots are checked into a GIT Repository
- A change detection subsystem
- Runs after each backup
- Calculates what has changed since the last snapshot
- A Web UI
StratoSource is designed to be a "bolt on" type system. It does not interfere with your current processes or systems. It simply adds tracking and release management into your existing workflow.
It is geared towards:
- SalesForce administrators
- Force.com developers
- Environment managers
Use the Issue Tracker on this site to log problems with the product. If you are lucky you can catch us on our IRC FreeNode channel #StratoSource. Either we or the community will try to help with issues or questions.
StratoSource is released under the GPLv3 license.
StratoSource started as a bridge building initiative by a couple of Force.com developers inside of Red Hat. Due to the continued increase in complexity of their SalesForce instance, it was getting harder and harder to track changes and figure out what should and should not be in a release.
A rapid prototype was thrown together to help manage this problem. The tool quickly took on a life of it's own as other groups inside the company, facing the same problem, adopted to the tool as well.
The developers got asked to present the tool at DreamForce 2011 as part of a introduction to GIT session. A decision was made by management that in the typical "Red Hat Way", it was appropriate to open source the tool.
Legal requested a couple of names be chosen to vet for availability. Due to the goal of backing up the "Cloud", one of the names the developers came up with was "Stratus Source" (named after Stratus clouds). Unfortunately the developer that sent that name to legal, mistyped it as "Strato"Source. Well that is what Legal approved, and ultimately what stuck.
That is how the name ended up sounding more like "StratoSaurus" than Stratus Clouds.