Introduction to FormLegend
I recently started using disqus to power the comments on my jekyll powered static website. This got me thinking "What else could a static website need besides a blog and comments?". So I compared the features I had on my Django powered site and the only difference is that I had a Contact Form. That is when I came up with the idea for FormLegend.
There is a project similar to what I will be working on called simpleform, but I would like FormLegend to be easier to use, more customizable (validation especially), secure, and highly scalable. I am doing this as a way to learn a lot while also providing a useful web service for anyone and everyone for free!
Technology Stack
I plan to use many open source technologies to make FormLegend. I haven't completely decided which ones, but I have some options before me.
FormLegend will work in one of two different ways. The first way is how disqus does things which is using cross-domain JavaScript communication and the other way is to use an api token or handle everything on the server side the way simpleform does things. I really like the way that disqus does things and am leaning in that direction.
Below are the open source libraries I am looking at.
Front End Application Components
- Haml or ERB Templating compiling to HTML5
- Sass compiling to CSS3
- Coffeescript (maybe) compiling to JavaScript or normal JavaScript
If I do go with cross-domain JavaScript communication I will use one of two libraries:
Back End Application Components
- Python along with a web framework and other libraries.
- or
- Ruby along with a web framework and other libraries.
SQL Databases
- PostgreSQL
- or
- MySQL
Key Value Storage for Caching
I have never used any of these components before so I don't really know what to expect. I plan on doing quite a bit of research to allow for FormLegend to be highly scalable.