I am writing to seek clarification on the compliance requirements under AGPLv3.0 license for NocoDB, which we are considering using for our company’s project. We are impressed with the capabilities of NocoDB and are planning to make some modifications and further developments to the source code to better suit our needs.
We understand that the AGPLv3.0 license requires us to provide access to the source code of any modifications we make to the software. We intend to deploy our modified version independently and are considering making the modified source code publicly available on our website.
Our question is that if this approach aligns with the license requirement of NocoDB. If not, we would like to know if the only allowed approach is to publish our modifications on GitHub. We are looking forward to your reply with great interest. Any guidance you can provide on how to properly attribute and share our modifications will be greatly appreciated.
Zhicheng Zhou
Shanghai United Imaging Digital Healthcare Co., Ltd.,
Thank you for reaching out to us. We are glad to hear that you are impressed with the capabilities of NocoDB and that you are considering using it for your company’s project.
The AGPLv3.0 license indeed requires that any modifications made to the software, when deployed, must be made available under the same license. This ensures that the users of the software can access the source code of any modifications made to it.
While publishing the modifications on GitHub is a common approach, it is not a strict requirement under the AGPLv3.0 license. The license does not mandate a specific platform for sharing the source code. The key requirement is that the source code must be made available to all users of the modified software.
However, managing a fairly complex product like NocoDB as a parallel stream poses it’s own significant challenges, not limited to the one’s listed below
Regularly merging updates from the original NocoDB repository can be challenging, more so as the base product is evolving rapidly. Frequent updates can lead to merge conflicts, requiring careful resolution to avoid introducing newer bugs.
Ensuring that all modifications are thoroughly tested can be resource-intensive. This includes performance & regression testing to ensure that new changes do not break existing functionality.
Conducting regular security audits & managing vulnerabilities to ensure the integrity and security of the modified software will be required
Independent documentations & user manuals are required to be setup
We would like to understand additional requirements from your end & discuss if a mutually beneficial collaboration can be setup to take this forward. Please feel free to reach out to us to discuss more Calendly - Naveen