WhiteHouse.gov Releases Open Source Code

  // the user may have put in an address of the form "Full Name" <email@domain.tld> instead of just the address,
  // so we want to filter to the right address
  function govdelivery_filter_email($address) {
    
    // borrowed from the drupal valid_email_address($mail) function
    $user = '[a-zA-Z0-9_\-\.\+\^!#\$%&*+\/\=\?\`\|\{\}~\']+';
    $domain = '(?:(?:[a-zA-Z0-9]|[a-zA-Z0-9][a-zA-Z0-9\-]*[a-zA-Z0-9])\.?)+';
    $ipv4 = '[0-9]{1,3}(\.[0-9]{1,3}){3}';
    $ipv6 = '[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}(\:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}){7}';
    
    // setup an array for the matching expression
    $matches = array();
    
    // the regex below is adapted from drupal's valid_email_address($mail) function
    preg_match("/$user@($domain|(\[($ipv4|$ipv6)\]))/", $address, $matches);
    return $matches[0];
  }

The module uses MySQL-specific functions (FROM_DAYS, TO_DAYS, FROM_UNIXTIME) so it is not portable. Relying on these instead of the PHP equivalent makes me wonder how many other shortcuts are in there.

Several undefined constants are referenced (NAGIOS_STATUS_*).

I'm not sure what's going on in odmService.php.

The module was authored by Chris D'Antonio of Acquia (which we can assume has a contract with Uncle Sam), aka http://drupal.org/user/250704

endlessvoid94• 16 years ago

Criticizing the quality of open source code is a little weird, isn't it? Contribute a fix and make it better. This is a huge step.

ummyea• 16 years ago

you don't get open source, do you?

jordanb• 16 years ago

If you use Drupal much at all, you'll find that, while the core is cross-database, 90% of contributed modules are MySQL-only. It's what you get when you don't provide an ORM, I guess.

Internal code is always very specific to the platform upon which it's installed. It's hard to justify spending time to make software run in environments you're not using.

Now, there's a school of thought which holds that you shouldn't open-source something without going through and auditing it for local-isms. There's another that holds that it's better to get the software out there.

I'm not sure into which of those schools I fall personally, but if getting this stuff open-sourced was a bottom-up effort, it'd be hard to get the higher-ups to say 'yes' and then immediately ask them to invest a ton of developer time on the process.

cwisecarver• 16 years ago

They should do is with all unclassified govt software. American tax dollars paid for it why shouldn't everyone be able to use it?

Avshalom• 16 years ago

I wonder if source code can be requested under the Freedom of Information Act. The act only applies to the executive branch but that's still probably a lot of software.

ggruschow• 16 years ago

I was told my work could be requested under the FOIA when I programmed for the army.

arst• 16 years ago

I'm not sure of the details, but this may be complicated by the fact that a lot of government source code was produced by outside contractors.

adolph• 16 years ago

Yes, an example is Vista. It is electronic medical record software for the Veterans Affairs department. See:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VistA

ibsulon• 16 years ago

Well, that's how Expect became public domain...

elblanco• 16 years ago

Many times, those pieces of software integrate with commercial third party components. In most of those cases, the government produced software is basically just glue to bind together lots of libraries.

In other words, it would likely be useless.

caccount• 16 years ago

orangecat• 16 years ago

Not generally a fan of the Obama administration, but this is very cool.

natfriedman• 16 years ago

Under section 105 of the US Copyright Act, works produced by the US government are not entitled to domestic copyright protection and are therefore, essentially, public domain.

IANAL but we've been down this road with the license on the White House flickr feed.

Apparently this does not apply to contractors - which I find rather inconsistent.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_status_of_work_by_the...

Of course, whether the government actually publishes those works or not is an entirely separate question. So it's great to see this happening.

protomyth2• 16 years ago

The contractor clause is because of the military.

dirkstoop• 16 years ago

But it sure comes in handy for other stuff.

If the contractor clause is not applicable to this work even releasing it under the GPL is questionable, because that's most decidedly not the same as releasing it to the public domain.

blasdel• 16 years ago

But they're derivative works of Drupal, which is GPLv2: http://drupal.org/licensing/faq

jluxenberg• 16 years ago

So maybe that means they can't write code for Drupal?

rlpb• 16 years ago

> Under section 105 of the US Copyright Act, works produced by the US government are not entitled to domestic copyright protection and are therefore, essentially, public domain.

What if the works are derivative of works licensed under the GPL?

rbanffy• 16 years ago

I would suppose the diff is public domain while the original retains its protection.

Otherwise, every document produced by the US government derived from another document would put the original under public domain.

th• 16 years ago

I'm not surprised. All third-party content on whitehouse.gov has been under a Creative Commons licence since Obama took office: http://www.whitehouse.gov/copyright

mcantelon• 16 years ago

Nice to see them release some software. Would also be nice to see them release some human beings (i.e. Guantanamo).

JairusKhan• 16 years ago

I've helped the Bank of Canada (which is the Fed of the North) to start releasing Wordpress plugins: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/profile/bankofcanada

WhiteHouse.gov Releases Open Source Code

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