Open Source Software in IT Projects

Software development is a time-consuming process, as complex relationships must be abstracted and translated into programming language. Moreover, the development is an iterative process, since further problems arise during the work.

Especially for smaller IT companies like IOTIQ, open source software can thus simplify and accelerate the development process. Open Source Software is software whose code is open and can be viewed, modified and published by a community of developers. In this article, we will give you an insight into how open source software is also used in our own projects.

 

Why is open source software used?

 

Open source software is particularly useful for adding basic functionality to code without having to write it yourself every time. Open source software is constantly developed by many programmers, which means that bugs are also discovered and fixed by them. You can be quite sure that the code works and can be integrated into your development project without difficulty.

At IOTIQ, open source software is used by our developer Pablo, for example. Among other things, Pablo works on our project AccessCtrl, an electronic door opening system.

AccessCtrl consists of firmware that controls the physical lock using a microchip made by Espressif. The microchip is programmed using both an existing framework and our own customizations. Thanks to the open source software provided by Espressif, basic functions such as connection to a network can be integrated directly into the user's own code. This saves an enormous amount of time and technical effort.

 

Open source software are often collaborative projects, with developments often taking place via GitHub. Github is a platform on which developers can exchange ideas and participate in various development projects - as is the case with AccessCtrl. The software for the microchip used is constantly being developed further, bugs are fixed or other changes are made. The community, which also uses the framework, thus constantly receives improved versions of the framework that can be used for development and the open source framework changes accordingly.

IOTIQ is also constantly proposing changes and contributing to the branches of the framework: Pablo, for example, is also working on improving the reporting tool for the ESP microchip and making these changes available to other developers. Ultimately, many software projects are based on the collaborative work of many experts. AccessCtrl's product-specific functions, on the other hand, are not given to the open framework, but are only written in our own code.

 

 

Conclusion

 

Through the collaboration of many experts, software can be developed much faster and often better. This also influences the development of IoT projects like AccessCtrl in a positive way. Complex problems, even if they only arise during the work on a code, can be solved with the help of the developer community. In this way, everyone ultimately benefits from the collaborative work.

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