Engine Yard Releases Source Code to its Rails Development Directory

by Lisa Hoover - Oct. 14, 2009Comments (0)

Hot on the heels of Engine Yard's recent news of $19 million in third-round venture capital funding comes another announcement. The company, which hosts Ruby on Rails apps in a cloud-based environment, has released the source code that runs its Rails Development Directory.

The Directory was originally developed as a way for businesses and Rails developers to connect with each other. Freelance developers can browse the directory in search of hiring companies, and IT departments can use it to hire contractors for short-term projects. Though there are other Web sites that match freelancers with businesses, the Rails Development Directory is one of the only Web-based resources aimed specifically at the Rails community.

Michael Mullany, marketing vice president at Engine Yard, tells OStatic the decision to release the directory's source was an easy one. "Since it's a community resource, we wanted the code behind the rankings to be completely transparent. And we're looking forward to getting contributions to improving the directory. Code speaks louder than feedback comments!"

Mullany says the code is released under the MIT license and "we see as being generally useful for people looking to build quick directories." The site was (naturally) built on Ruby on Rails and currently lists about 250 development firms in its database.