background top

Compost

Introducing Compost

Compost is an easy web-based way to grow consensus with your designs. Upload designs and allow your clients to annotate, rate and discuss. Easily revise comps based on feedback and get approval.

Compost is currently in version 0.8beta. Coming-soon features include email notifications, project searching, and an iPhone application.

Compost is free software, released under GPLv3. You have the freedom to:

  • - use the software for any purpose
  • - change the software to suit your needs
  • - share the software with your friends and neighbours
  • - share the changes you make

Getting Started

Download

You can download the latest version of Compost here. Follow the README instructions to get Compost up and running in seconds.

If you have any suggestions or problems, be sure to drop us a line.

Compost Versus Alternatives

Compost differs from most feedback systems in that it is completely free and open source. Here is a chart that compares some popular feedback systems to Compost.

  Compost Getsignoff backboard redmark Concept feedback Notable ConceptShare
Web-based Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Any type of design Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes
Ability to annotate designs Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes
Comment on annotations Yes Yes No Yes No No Yes
Create Revisions Yes Yes No Yes No No No
Change the look and feel of the site Yes Yes No No No No No
Unlimited clients, projects and designs Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
Free Yes No No Yes Yes No No
Open Source Yes No No No No No No
Each project can have multiple reviewers Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Clients can rate designs Yes No No No Yes No No
Permissions-based projects Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes
iPhone App Coming Soon! No No No No Yes No

Participate

Participate

If you’re handy with PHP, jQuery and Code Igniter we encourage you to become a committer! Help us move Compost forward and give back to the open source community.

To get started, visit the project at Google Code – there you can familiarize yourself with the issues, checkout the source code and browse changes. You will need to be a member of the project to commit any changes – to become a member, send an email to gavin.blair at rtraction.com and I’ll add you as a committer.

If you’re not a coder you can still help out by testing Compost and providing feedback.

Coming Soon

Very soon Compost will have an iPhone app, drag-and-drop design ordering, and email notification options. What features would you like to see in Compost? Leave a comment below or at our feedback site.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google Bookmarks
  • DZone
  • Reddit
  • TwitThis

2 Responses to “Compost”

  1. Aaron McGowan Says:

    Hey! Looks good. Just about to download and install it.

    However, I am curious as to what features will be available on the iPhone?

  2. Gavin Blair Says:

    The iPhone version is still in the planning stages. My goal is to be able to manage every aspect of your Compost on the iPhone as well as in a full browser. Additional features that make use of the phone’s camera and microphone may be introduced as well.

    You can keep an eye on the iPhone version at http://code.google.com/p/compost-rtraction/issues/detail?id=20

Leave a Reply