Violet Rails: Coming Soon To Open Source

Published on: 04 Apr 17:50

Will we ever launch?

Internally, we have been using a proto-version of violet_rails since late 2020.

I have a few issues to iron out in the app and after that it will be a matter of just going back and forth between design to make the UI/UX better.

For the open source self hosted side of the platform UI/UX isnt going to be very important so I will release it on Github as soon as I finish up building/debugging the following:

  1. Ability to add a custom layout to blog posts/index
  2. Email sending capability (the mailbox/router is already setup for receiving emails)
  3. Get test coverage up to 80%
  4. Add some basic documentation

What was the motivation behind this project?

Since the middle of 2020 myself and a handful of my contractors have been building the foundation of what violet_rails has become.

I noticed that working with a rolling batch of contractors was cost prohibitive from an email account perspective (each mailbox on Gsuite is $20/month per user on our plan).

Most our contractors need to just submit files and access emails, so I decided to implement a platform we could use internally.

Going down the rabbit hole of implementing an email server for my business, I realized that we could use a few other features too, things like:

  1. A Web CMS (ability to create pages with HTML/CSS/JS) + blog
  2. A forum
  3. Unlimited subdomains
  4. Global admin system (for the www subdomain / domain apex)

Ultimately, this would be wrapped up in granular user permissions so I could invite my team and have them work on projects in a compartmentalized way.

The earliest version of violet_rails was released when we redesigned restarone.com.

How is this different to Wordpress/Wix etc?

violet_rails is a code-first platform. It is not as full featured as Wordpress with a rich eco system of plugins and the like.

In my opinion, violet_rails can't be compared to Wix/Wordpress etc because it is aimed at individudals and businesses that have the time to spend on customizing minor details with code (in our case Ruby and Javascript code).

If you belong to this minority, then you're in luck! We just released the SaaS version of violet_rails Right here, check it out below:

Sign up

- Shashike

If you want to keep up with the latest developments on this project

Reach out to us from our website or check out the official forum!