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PLC4X is a set of libraries for communicating with industrial programmable
logic controllers (PLCs) using a variety of protocols but with a shared API.
Most important issues to address while moving towards graduation:
Building the community: The PPMC and committer group has a large
percentage of codecentric employees, we have been recruiting people
from other companies, but will have to continue these efforts for
establishing a healthy Apache community.
Onboarding of new committers: With PLC4X several people on the team are
not very familiar with the Apache Way. We have started and will continue
our efforts on this onboarding.
Any Issues the Incubator PMC or ASF Board might wish/need to be aware of:
Not at the moment.
How has the community developed since the last report?
While the community activity had been quite low since the beginning of
the project, things changed in August.
Then we noticed not only new names appearing on the list, but the number
of emails on the list grew by 400%-500%.
Also did we get several pull requests from about 5 new names,
contributing to multiple areas.
Two of them got added to the Committers and PPMC groups.
The others were one-shot contributions without any further communications.
In September Christofer Dutz had two talks on PLC4X at two conferences:
* Solutions Hamburg 2018
* ApacheCon NA 2018
An article on PLC4X by Christofer Dutz was published in the German Tech
Magazine: iX
(Link to the article:
https://www.heise.de/select/ix/2018/8/1533352444905693)
Also, just before ApacheCon we also had our first PLC4X Meetup where
several current contributors as well as very interested new people were
present.
Also did we successfully vote in our first two new committers and PPMC
members.
* Julian Feinauer (pragmatic industries)
* Andrey Skorikov (codecentric)
Finally just before finishing this report we also finished our first
release:
Version 0.1.0
Our mailing list subscriptions went up another 9 to currently 38
subscribers.
Our Twitter followers increased by 18 to 59 followers.
On GitHub we now have 24 “Stars” and 14 “Forks”
Business interest has increased dramatically as more and more companies
are signalling their willingness to try out PLC4X and some are currently
even in the transition phase of porting their products to PLC4X.
How does the podling rate their own maturity?
We have a mix of new participants and experienced Apache people involved.
So far, the new participants have shown great willingness and success in
adopting the Apache Way.
However, we still need to continue: the on-boarding increasing the
diversity of the team.
After our first official release, we will now fine-tune this release
process and try to educate other people on the team to also be able to do
releases.
Have your mentors been helpful and responsive or are things falling
through the cracks? In the latter case, please list any open issues
that need to be addressed.
Yes. All of our mentors have been responsive and have helped.
Signed-off-by:
[ ](plc4x) Greg Trasuk
Comments:
[X](plc4x) Justin Mclean
Comments:
[X](plc4x) Stefan Bodewig
Comments:
IPMC/Shepherd notes:
PLC4X is a set of libraries for communicating with industrial programmable
logic controllers (PLCs) using a variety of protocols but with a shared API.
PLC4X has been incubating since 2017-12-18.
Most important issues to address while moving towards graduation:
Three most important issues to address in the move towards graduation:
1. Building the community: The PPMC and committer group has a large
percentage of codecentric employees, we have been recruiting people from
other companies, but will have to continue these efforts for establishing a
healthy Apache community.
2. Onboarding of new committers: With PLC4X several people on the team are
not very familiar with the Apache Way. We have started and will continue our
efforts on this onboarding.
3. Make our first release
Any issues that the Incubator PMC (IPMC) or ASF Board wish/need to be
aware of?
Not at the moment.
How has the community developed since the last report?
Christofer has invested most of his time in May and June spreading the word
about PLC4X.
There have been several conference talks on PLC4X:
* Building IoT 2018 in Cologne: Christofer Dutz – Industrial IoT und Edge
Computing mit Apache PLC4X und Apache Edgent
* @Vanced Network Meetup in Solingen: Christofer Dutz – Open-Source in der
Industrie mit Apache PLC4X
* Apache Roadshow EU in Berlin: Christofer Dutz - Revolutionizing the
Production Industry with Apache PLC4X
A blog post in a major corporate tech-blog has been published with the
content of the JavaSPEKTRUM article on Apache Edgent and Apache PLC4X:
https://blog.codecentric.de/2018/06/edge-computing-industrial-iot-apache-edge
nt-apache-plc4x/
As a direct result on a talk in Berlin about mentoring new committers,
we have started creating “low-hanging-fruit” tagged issues and have
started promoting them. As a result we have 2 potential contributors
interested in tackling these. Hopefully this will result in continued
activity from their side.
We have reached out to a developer offering Modbus, EthernetIP and
OPC-UA drivers on his Github page to get him to join our efforts.
The dev-list subscriptions has gone up by 7 (now 29) from the last
report.
We now have a Twitter account: https://twitter.com/ApachePlc4x as
another channel of communicating interesting PLC4X facts. After
tweeting a lot about our project, the number of followers to that has
drastically increased to 41
How has the project developed since the last report?
We have setup a VPN for the CI server and other committers to be able
to communicate with real PLCs, however this feature has not proven to
improve the involvement of other committers so far.
We have recently found a set of git repos with Apache licensed code
for accessing Modbus, Ethernet/IP and UPC-UA devices. We have reached
out to the original developer to maybe get him on board with our team.
How would you assess the podling's maturity?
We have a mix of new participants and experienced Apache people
involved. So far, the new participants have shown great willingness
and success in adopting the Apache Way. However, we still need to
continue: the on-boarding increasing the diversity of the team Also,
will we need to decide and establish all the processes involved in
releasing software at Apache
Please feel free to add your own commentary.
[ ] Initial setup
[X] Working towards first release
[ ] Community building
[ ] Nearing graduation
[ ] Other:
Date of last release:
N/A
When were the last committers or PPMC members elected?
N/A
Signed-off-by:
[ ](plc4x) Greg Trasuk
Comments:
[X](plc4x) Justin Mclean
Comments:
[X](plc4x) Stefan Bodewig
Comments:
IPMC/Shepherd notes:
PLC4X is a set of libraries for communicating with industrial programmable logic controllers (PLCs) using a variety of protocols but with a shared API. Most important issues to address while moving towards graduation: Building the community: The PPMC and committer group has a large percentage of codecentric employees, we have been recruiting people from other companies, but will have to continue these efforts for establishing a healthy Apache community. Onboarding of new committers: With PLC4X several people on the team are not very familiar with the Apache Way. We have started and will continue our efforts on this onboarding. Make our first release Any Issues the Incubator PMC or ASF Board might wish/need to be aware of: In contrast to previous reports some of the concerns regarding availability and usability of specifications have been resolved. Especially for using the Modbus and the OPC-UA specifications Christofer was able to get official permissions from the corresponding foundations to use the specifications. These permission Emails have been filed in the private list for documentation. One of the external foundations (Profinet) doesn’t have a free membership. In general, the CEO of the European branch of the Profinet Foundation has signaled that it should be possible for the ASF to become a member and have an outside company pay the membership fees, but we have to discuss the details (With them as well as the ASF). How has the community developed since the last report? Christofer has invested most of his time in March spreading the word about PLC4X. A first POC has been created for a company which is currently going into production An article about Apache Edgent and Apache PLC4X has been published as a cover-story in the German JavaSPEKTRUM magazines Industrial IoT special edition (https://www.sigs-datacom.de/digital/javaspektrum/). One PLC4X talk has been accepted to the Apache EU Roadshow 2018 in Berlin and one will be at the Silpion Techcamp in Hamburg (https://techcamp.hamburg/) in the first April week. The dev-list subscriptions has gone up by one from February, we are hoping to increase the number in the next few weeks (However quite some emails come in from un-registered users that have to pass moderation). We now have a Twitter account: https://twitter.com/ApachePlc4x as another channel of communicating interesting PLC4X facts. How has the project developed since the last report? We have been working hard on making better use of the ASF build infrastructure. Especially regarding setting up our project VM at plc4x-vm.apache.org this effort will be continued. After receiving the permission to use and implement the Modbus protocol, the Driver skeletons have been setup, but no real implementation of the protocol itself has been done yet. We are still hoping for volunteers to step up as interest in implementing the Modbus protocol has been explicitly mentioned by community memebers. The work on the RawSocket Netty transport which is a requirement to implement protocols that are IP based, but are not TCP or UDP has continued and we are currently working on some of the quirks on Linux based operating-systems. We added Netty support for IO over serial ports and will be using this in the Beckhoff module as a first protocol. We are still working on the S7 Protocol fragmentation and hope to be able to finish this in April. Also we discussed on the list about how the others would think of initiating a first release of PLC4X. How does the podling rate their own maturity? We have a mix of new participants and experienced Apache people involved. So far, the new participants have shown great willingness and success in adopting the Apache Way. However, we still need to continue: the on-boarding increasing the diversity of the team Also, will we need to decide and establish all the processes involved in releasing software at Apache Signed-off-by: [X](plc4x) Greg Trasuk Comments: [X](plc4x) Justin Mclean Comments: [x](plc4x) Luciano Resende Comments: [X](plc4x) Stefan Bodewig Comments: IPMC/Shepherd notes: Drew Farris (shepherd): Three mentors active on the mailing list. Active project.
PLC4X is a set of libraries for communicating with industrial programmable
logic controllers (PLCs) using a variety of protocols but with a shared API.
PLC4X has been incubating since 2017-12-18.
Three most important issues to address in the move towards graduation:
1. Building the community: The PPMC and committer group has a large
percentage of codecentric employees, we have been recruiting people
from other companies, but will have to continue these efforts for
establishing a healthy Apache community.
2. Onboarding of new committers: With PLC4X several people on the team
are not very familiar with the Apache Way. We have started and will
continue our efforts on this onboarding.
3. Make our first release
Any issues that the Incubator PMC (IPMC) or ASF Board wish/need to be
aware of?
In order to get access to some of the specifications the ASF will eventually
have to become Members of some external foundations: OPC, EtherCat, Modbus …
these memberships usually have a free level, that allows us to use the
specifications but doesn’t result in any regular costs. We will have to discuss
these details with the ASF and the other foundations.
One of the external foundations (Profinet) doesn’t have a free membership. In
general, the CEO of the European branch of the Profinet Foundation has signaled
that it should be possible for the ASF to become a member and have an outside
company pay the membership fees, but we have to discuss the details (With them
as well as the ASF).
How has the community developed since the last report?
Christofer has invested most of his time in February spreading the word about
PLC4X.
A first POC has been created for the company “Kampf Schneid- und Wickeltechnik
GmbH & Co. KG”
Two articles for IoT Special editions of German tech magazines have been
submitted. The “JavaSPEKTURM – IoT Sonderheft” is scheduled for sale end or
March, the “iX – IoT Sonderheft” is scheduled later.
The university of Stuttgart has shown great interest in joining our effort, as
they had just started a project with a similar goal. Chris will continue
on-boarding efforts in March.
At this year’s AALE Conference in Cologne, Chris has talked to a lot of people
from different German universities. We’re hoping to get at least a hand full of
them on board too.
We have continuing our onboarding of new Apache committers (extended emails
with a lot of explanations on why we are doing things the way we are)
In the next few months we are expecting to spread the word and hopefully grow
the community due to the tech magazine articles as well as several talks on
different conferences.
How has the project developed since the last report?
The work on the RawSocket Netty transport which is a requirement to implement
protocols that are IP based, but are not TCP or UDP has continued and we are
currently waiting for infra to setup a dedicated Jenkins VM for our project so
we can enable the RawSocket releated tests.
We have finished a first version of the Beckhoff ADS driver, and are looking
forward to first tests with this.
The functionality of the S7 driver has improved due to experience collected
with the Kampf POC.
Next we are aiming to implement Modbus and OPC-UA protocols.
How would you assess the podling's maturity?
Please feel free to add your own commentary.
We have a mix of new participants and experienced Apache people involved.
So far, the new participants have shown great willingness and success in
adopting the Apache Way.
However, we still need to continue:
the on-boarding
increasing the diversity of the team
Also, will we need to decide and establish all the processes involved in
releasing software at Apache
[X] Initial setup
[X] Working towards first release
[ ] Community building
[ ] Nearing graduation
[ ] Other:
Date of last release:
XXXX-XX-XX
When were the last committers or PPMC members elected?
Signed-off-by:
[ ](plc4x) Greg Trasuk
Comments:
[X](plc4x) Justin Mclean
Comments:
[ ](plc4x) Luciano Resende
Comments:
[X](plc4x) Stefan Bodewig
PLC4X is a set of libraries for communicating with industrial programmable
logic controllers (PLCs) using a variety of protocols but with a shared API.
PLC4X has been incubating since 2017-12-18.
Three most important issues to address in the move towards graduation:
1. Building the community: The PPMC and committer group has a large percentage of
codecentric employees, we have been recruiting people from other companies, but
will have to continue these efforts for establishing a healthy Apache community.
Onboarding of new committers: With PLC4X several people on the team are not
very familiar with the Apache Way. We have started and will continue our
efforts on this onboarding.
2. Making our first release.
Any issues that the Incubator PMC (IPMC) or ASF Board wish/need to be
aware of?
In order to get access to some of the specifications the ASF will eventually
have to become Members of some external foundations: OPC, EtherCat, Modbus …
these memberships usually have a free level, that allows us to use the
specifications but doesn’t result in any regular costs. We will have to discuss
these details with the ASF and the other foundations.
One of the external foundations (Profinet) doesn’t have a free membership. In
general, the CEO of the European branch of the Profinet Foundation has signaled
that it should be possible for the ASF to become a member and have an outside
company pay the membership fees, but we have to discuss the details (With them
as well as the ASF).
How has the community developed since the last report?
We have finished the process of getting setup at Apache.
The Podling Name Search has been resolved successfully
(https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/PODLINGNAMESEARCH-136)
In of January a list of about 40 different companies, which have indicated
interest in PLC4X in personal discussions have been directly contacted
regarding our project, some have subscribed to our mailing lists.
A small number of new people have been popping up on our mailing lists.
On 23rd of January Christofer Dutz had a talk PLC4X at the Nortec 2018
conference in Hamburg (Production industry conference)
(https://www.nortec-hamburg.de/).
We have continuing our onboarding of new Apache committers (extended emails
with a lot of explanations on why we are doing things the way we are)
Testing coverage has been improved over the initial code base.
With Beckhoff, we managed to get a first major PLC vendor to support us with
software as well as technical support. We hope on this having a signal-effect
on other vendors.
How has the project developed since the last report?
Test coverage and SonarQube reported issues have been addressed hereby greatly
increasing the quality of the initial POC code.
A lot of code and architecture reviews have been done which lead to great
improvements in the API itself.
We have started work on a RawSocket Netty transport which is a requirement to
implement protocols that are IP based, but are not TCP or UDP.
We have started work on implementing a driver for the Beckhoff ADS protocol.
(Beckhoff has been very helpful with providing Specs and Support for setting
up a test environment.)
How would you assess the podling's maturity?
Please feel free to add your own commentary.
[X] Initial setup
[X] Working towards first release
[X] Community building
[ ] Nearing graduation
[ ] Other:
Date of last release:
None yet
When were the last committers or PPMC members elected?
None elected beyond initial committers.
Signed-off-by:
[ ](plc4x) Greg Trasuk
Comments:
[X](plc4x) Justin Mclean
Comments:
[X](plc4x) Luciano Resende
Comments:
[ ](plc4x) Stefan Bodewig
Comments:
PLC4X is a set of libraries for communicating with industrial programmable
logic controllers (PLCs) using a variety of protocols but with a shared API.
PLC4X has been incubating since 2017-12-18.
Most important issues to address while moving towards graduation:
* Building the community: The PPMC and committer group has a large
percentage of codecentric employees, we have been recruiting people from
other companies, but will have to continue these efforts for
establishing a healthy Apache community.
* Onboarding of new committers: With PLC4X several people on the team are
not very familiar with the Apache Way. We have started and will continue
our efforts on this onboarding.
* Podling name search: We have invested a lot of time on the name search
prior to starting to work on the project, but we still need the official
OK that we’re allowed to keep the Name of Apache PLC4X.
* Make our first release
Any Issues the Incubator PMC or ASF Board might wish/need to be aware of:
* In order to get access to some of the specifications the ASF will
eventually have to become Members of some external foundations: OPC,
EtherCat, Modbus … these memberships usually have a free level, that
allows us to use the specifications but doesn’t result in any regular
costs. We will have to discuss these details with the ASF and the other
foundations.
* One of the external foundations (Profinet) doesn’t have a free
membership. In general, the CEO of the European branch of the Profinet
Foundation has signaled that it should be possible for the ASF to become
a member and have an outside company pay the membership fees, but we
have to discuss the details (With them as well as the ASF).
How has the community developed since the last report?
* We have been accepted into the Apache Incubator just a week before
Christmas, we are still in the process of setting up
* Prior to joining the Apache Incubator however, we have managed to
recruit people from other Apache projects and are working on getting
other people familiar with the protocols and the industry involved.
After the Christmas break we are planning on contacting a big group of
people that have claimed to be wanting to be involved (A list of about
20 Companies, but we can’t tell how many will be using and how many
would also be willing to contribute)
* We have started the onboarding of new committers and will be continuing
to do this (extended emails with a lot of explanations on why we are
doing things the way we are)
* Project has bootstrapped quickly and we have mailing lists, website,
JIRA etc. all set up and running.
* Testing coverage has been improved over the initial code base
How has the project developed since the last report?
* There was no last report.
How does the podling rate their own maturity?
* We have a mix of new participants and experienced Apache people
involved.
* So far, the new participants have shown great willingness and success in
adopting the Apache Way.
* However, we still need to continue:
* the on-boarding
* increasing the diversity of the team
* Also, will we need to decide and establish all the processes involved in
releasing software at Apache
Date of last release:
N/A
When were the last committers or PPMC members elected?
N/A
Signed-off-by:
[X](plc4x) Greg Trasuk Comments:
[X](plc4x) Justin Mclean Comments:
[x](plc4x) Luciano Resende Comments:
[X](plc4x) Stefan Bodewig Comments: