Having spent quite a while now managing a number of XForms-related open source projects, and devoting a fair amount of time along the way to finding the best tools to make management as easy as possible, I thought it might be worth sharing some of the things I've learned.

Most XForms processors are now open source, and rely on a variety of platforms and tools to keep their projects ticking over. In backplanejs, the JavaScript XForms processor project, the range of tools used includes:

• version control (Google Code and Mercurial);
• issue-tracking (Google Code);
• code analysis (JSLint);
• documentation (YUI Doc and Google App Engine);
• deploying samples (Google App Engine);
• test-driven development (YUI Test);
• end-to-end testing (Selenium);
• continuous integration (Buildbot);
• deployment (Sprocketize, YUI Compressor and Google App Engine);
• managing all of these tools, and the build process (Ant);
• and how everyone can be kept up-to-date about a project (Google Groups).

The next XForms User Group Meetup (From Ant to YUI Doc: Using open source tools to build open source projects), will look at how these tools are used, and give some background both on why they were chosen, and others that are available.