For this week’s GitHub project spotlight, we’re highlighting Shipit, a universal automation engine and deployment tool written in JavaScript.
Capitalizing on the popularity of Node.js and previous GitHub Project of the Week io.js, Shipit adds another layer of streamlined simplicity to the JavaScript automation process. Built as an alternative to the Capistrano open-source script deployment tool for those unfamiliar with Ruby, Shipit is a way to write tasks in JavaScript while participating in the Node ecosystem.
With close to 1,300 stars, 27 forks and 44 commits in less than a week, the automation tool also has a lively Gitter chat room of GitHub users
Created primarily by French developer Greg Bergé, Shipit offers features including the full JavaScript language with all npm packages, a task-flow-based on the Orchestrator sequencing module, and interactive SSH commands. The project’s most integral tools, though, are accompanying projects Shipit deploy, a set of deployment tasks based on Git and rsync commands, and the Shipit Grunt plug-in.
Shipit is currently deployed in production on the website of the French news outlet Le Monde, as well as the Ghost blogging platform.
This week’s Top 5 trending GitHub projects
#1: Paperwork, an open-source, self-hosted alternative to services such as Evernote, Microsoft OneNote and Google Keep, written in PHP.
#2: Today I Learned, a repository of short markdown documents sharing new concepts, syntaxes, commands or tips discovered by consulting and app development firm Thoughtbot.
#3: LibreBoard, an open-source Kanban board to organize content and information in cards and lists with real-time synchronization.
#4: Riot.js, a JavaScript user interface library similar to React.js but only 2.5KB, offering custom tags, minimal syntax, reduced DOM reflows and IE8 support.
#5: Comcast is a project that simulates the subpar network connections of cable companies such as its namesake in order to test distributed systems under hard failures.
