Appwrite and Open-Source
Tags: appwrite, opensource, hacktoberfest
Published: 2021-10-11 14:01:43

Software development is a field which is evolving faster than any other now-a-days. It is not only important to keep up with the changes taking place but also adapt to them. These changes can have heavy influence over the entire industry and bring internal revolutions of how things are done across different organizations.

Open-source is one such software model which heavily changed the industry and how softwares are created. Open-source software is a software which can be modified and inspected by anyone. This not only improves the transparency of the processes but also gives the ability to users all over the world to modify the software or request enhancements from the community.

Open-source has gained a new pace over the past years and many companies have decided to make their software open source in order to improve user trust, community engagement and enhance the development cycle and speed. One such organization is AppWrite which is not only open-source but also promotes such practices and community building for an ever expanding growth.
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## Why is Open source so important?

Open source has been shaping the tech industry for more than 20 years and there are some clear advantages of opting for open-source development model.

As stated previously, transparency is one of the major aspects of opting for an open-source software. Every user of the software is free to analyse and review any part of the code in order to make sure that his tasks are being performed properly and no unintended activity is taking place which might risk his personal details as well as his work on the application software. He is even free to improve the existing code base and address bugs which leads to strengthen the user trust.

The open-source development model cherish the speed of development while also being cost-effective. With millions of community members willing to contribute to a company's code base and address existing issues, the development becomes much more efficient on both these fronts. Organizations often celebrate contributions from the community through several aspects just to acknowledge how well their product have been evolving under the supervision of all these members and their support to the technology. The code base also becomes more advance with all the combination of knowledge of all the people who are willing to contributet to these products.

Scalability and flexibility also come as a result of opening the project for contributions. This is due to fact the project is open to be built and customized from the groud up. Organizations have the freedom to add or remove components as they please. As the project grows and reaches out to a broader population of users, it must be scaled according to the business needs. Marking these benefits, the application becomes highly reliable for any user who is using the software and is hence this accounts for the recent expansing of organizations deciding to go open-source.
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## What is appwrite anyways?

Appwrite is an end-to-end backend server which provides developers a set of REST APIs and tools. It enables developers to easily integrate their applications to utilize backend capabilities and it even provides a UI based management console which helps in understanding the processes and behaviour of our application. The APIs accepts form encoded and JSON encoded request bodies and returns JSON-encoded responses while using appropriate HTTP response codes, authentication and verbs. 

It is a cross-platform service which can be integrated with numerous technologies like Web, Android, Flutter, etc. The developer can decide if he wants to service to completely replace the backend or integrate it to work along side the application's backend. It uses docker for its integration and hence can be easily integrated with servers, cloud servers and command line.

To get started with appwrite, check out their website [appwrite.io](https://appwrite.io) for documentation and guide of their service based upon the technology and platform of your choice.
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## How has appwrite been contributing to open-source?

Appwrite has a community of over 250 contributors. They have been encouraging new contributors to contribute to their product including blogs, tutorials, workshops, demo applications besides contributing directly with their product and issues.

Appwrite is also an official sponsor of Hacktoberfest and is distributing additional swags to the developers who contribute to their repositories during this fest. They have not only filtered out a set of beginner-friendly issue for participants of this fest but also are allowing contributions in several different fields. They are encouraging more and more participants to contribute and start their journey with open-source.

Along with various Hacktoberfest events, they have even prepared an entire webpage to motivate more and more people to participate in the fest [hacktoberfest.appwrite.io](https://hacktoberfest.appwrite.io/).
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## What is hacktoberfest and why is it important?

Hactoberfest is a month long fest celebrated throughout the month of October, aimed to introduce open source to developers at all different skill levels and knowledge. In its 8th year, they invite participants to grow as a community and contribute to project in a variety of ways including sharing projects for collaboration, contributing to projects via pull requests, organizing events, mentor others and donate directly to open-source projects.

As a participant, whether a beginner or experienced, you have an opportunity to learn about open source and contribute to projects. Open-source projects keep the internet humming—but they can’t do it without resources.

In order to participate, you need to sign in on the Hacktoberfest Website using your GitHub account. All the pull requests that you initiate will be tracked through this portal. You can sign up anytime between October 1 and October 31. A pull request is considered approved once it has an overall approving review from maintainers, or has been merged by maintainers or has been given the 'hacktoberfest-accepted' label. Participants with at least 4 accepted pull requests will receive rewards from digital ocean.
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With a clear importance of selecting the open-source development model and constant efforts of several organizations, appwrite is one such organization which not only working towards easing work of developers with their cross-platform and technology agnostic, end-to-end backend server service but encouraging developers world-wide to grow as a community.