Feature request: make Marzipano Tool open source

[jimblue]

Hi there,

First thank for this very nice piece of code.

I was wondering why Marzipano Tool isn't part of the open source project?

I think many people here would like to attache this app to a CMS.

If it was open source, plugin could be created for people using Wordpress, Grav or other.

That would be such a nice feature to simplify 360° media integration for non developer.

Cheers

[tjgq]

Long story short: the code for the tool has a lot of technical debt, and it would take considerable time and effort to get it in good shape for an open source release. We have decided not to have that effort, and instead focus on maintaining the core library.

[jordyno]

Maybe some of us being enthusiastic about Marzipano can come together on a crowdfunding platform such as Patreon and build an open source alternative of Marzipano Tool? I myself am building such tool of sorts, and I can totally understand @tjgq - it takes tremendous effort to make such tool open source ready.

[jordyno]

Needless to say, we can all just be thankful that we at least have this great library maintained so well!

[jimblue]

I tough you could just create a new repo with your actual work. The github community would be able to help too with PR and issues feedback.

[Getitdan]

@tjgq Please consider to share the code for generating tiles, even in a gist / pastebin. It would be really great as we want to automate this process. Thanks for maintaining this awesome library.

[xairoo]

Unfortunately I stopped using it because I have no guarantee that this tool will be available in future. Things can change.

[robertpiosik]

@Xairoo What you use instead?

[xairoo]

@robertpiosik krpano.

[prysme01]

Yes please, the js core library is great but without another way to generate the tiles how can we do if marzi tools is going offline or if you decide to remove it.

[samuelgirardin]

I wrote a similar tool for my company. I investigated 2 differents approach. One was using ffmpeg and transform360, I did too a nodejs version running on amazon lambda with panorama-to-cubemap . Both worked well.

[Getitdan]

@samuelgirardin Can you share your code with us please? And your second link is broken. Thanks.

[mjau-mjau]

Just to point out: Since the Marzipano Tool is entirely javascript and browser-based (nothing is processed via server), theoretically you can just copy all the Javascripts and add into your own location. You won't know if/when the code gets updated, it is clearly not supported, and I am not sure this is acceptable by Marzipano.

[r0bbie]

We just came across Marzipano and were really excited to immediately jump on board using it as an open source alternative to Panotour etc - really disappointing to discover the Marzipano Tool (which is excellent) hasn't been open sourced along with the library. Seems like a really odd decision which will just limit its usability for certain users. Hope the developer may reconsider!

[mjau-mjau]

Marzipano is primarily a panorama viewer that supports several source formats, including those exported from other premium tools. Furthermore, unlike other tools, Marzipano is free, open source, and flexible for developers to create their own viewer and/or plugins. The Marzipano "tool" on the other hand, is a complimentary tool, technically unrelated to the viewer. As noted in the developers initial reply, they do not wish to spend time preparing and supporting release of this complimentary tool with the open-source Marzipano library being the main focus. I don't find that an odd decision at all ... All other companies take fees for these tools. Besides, may I ask in what way this is limiting usability for certain users?

Since Marzipano is the first quality open-source panorama-viewer, perhaps better than all the premium viewers, cool stuff can be expected from 3rd party developers in the future. Maybe someone will create an open source tool one day? I am working on another Marzipano plugin that will be released public.

[r0bbie]

@mjau-mjau The Marzipano project is great, and I'm fully aware the "Tool" is not required to use it and is complimentary. Nonetheless, for some non-technical users having the Marzipano Tool also be open source and thus self-hostable would be massively beneficial and make it a stronger open-source alternative to the proprietary options than it is without it.

As you noted, someone else could of course come along and develop an open source and self-hostable Marzipano editor of some sort as an alternative to the Marzipano Tool, perhaps even a more powerful one, but as such a thing doesn't currently exist and the Tool made by the developers of the Marzipano open source project does - I'm just saying its a shame it's not also open source at present.

Of course things take time and I'm aware the developer explained their rationale behind the decision, still - showing there is demand out there may sometimes prompt a change in course and isn't necessarily a waste of time.

[mjau-mjau]

I don't disagree. Perhaps the developers will change their minds at some point, or perhaps a similar tool will be released open-source by a 3rd party. I am still not quite sure what benefit it would have for you or your users ... How would you implement it differently? If you upload the Marzipano-tool to you your own server, you would still end up with the same workflow: A) User must open the tool in browser, B) Select and add images, C) Download the exported project from browser. None of the images you drop into the tool are actually uploaded to server, and nothing is actually processed on server. Just to clarify.

[r0bbie]

@mjau-mjau One of the benefits of moving away from a proprietary solution to something open source that you can fully self-host and have control over (also extend, etc etc) is that if the original developer decides to discontinue development or remove access to a service this doesn't impact you, you or someone else can fork the code, and you can self-host so access isn't lost.

For those non-technical users who would rely on the "Tool" to generate 360 tours, for instance if you take an organisation who has migrated away from a proprietary solution to Marzipano in the expectation it was a more open solution, the fact the Tool can't be self-hosted means it could be taken down at any time and access lost. Also if you wanted to fork and extend the Marzipano Tool's functionality at present, that obviously also wouldn't be possible. It's a severe limitation for an organisation who would be reliant on use of the Tool, when considering it as a more open solution to proprietary alternatives.

[jimblue]

Hi @tjgq,

I've notice you tag this as wontfix... This is a sad news 😞 ! How can the community make you reconsider your point, did you read all the above?

Cheers

[ldanicel]

+1

[Preen]

+1 This is a deal-breaker for us :(

[djDAOjones]

I think the devs kinda explained this one. Certainly said no way.

I would really love this capability, oh well.

Joe

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+1

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[carloscartola]

First of all thank you for the valuable job at the marzipano project.

I think the developers are not thinking as "open source", just as "free software".

Obviously everyone is free to do what they want with their code. I just totally disagree that a tool needs to be "ready" to be opened. There is no such thing like that. Many open source projects are born just with an idea and then people join it and help it to grow. A basic open source principle is "Release early. Release often. And listen to your customers." as said in the essay The Cathedral and the Bazaar: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cathedral_and_the_Bazaar

The need of a product to be "ready" to be shared is a need of the proprietary/commercial logic, where customers expect to have something ready for what they pay. You just need to let your son grow up and leave home, as people might want to help coding and may change the way you would want your child to be. But it also doesn't have to be that open. As an example, to commit to the freebsd project you need to be an approved committer. The advantage is that, it the project gets popular, your developer team might grow without needing a budget.

[TheWaterbug]

"I just totally disagree that a tool needs to be "ready" to be opened."

I have zero knowledge about what's actually going on behind the scenes with the Marzipano Tool, but it could be a situation similar to the following: Perhaps the Tool currently uses a library that is not open source, and/or the ownership of that library is currently in question or being challenged by someone.

If the source were opened, that source could then be used as proof-positive that the library-in-question was being used, that could be enough to permit an injunction against any further distribution of the entire Tool until ownership and rights had been determined in a court of law.

I'm NOT saying that that's what's happening, because I have no knowledge about the source of this piece of software; I'm just saying that there are lots of reasons why source code isn't released, even when the developer doesn't intend to make any money from it.

[robertpiosik]

Marzipano tool operates on uploaded images client-side (locally in the browser). If afraid of its existence one could download its static files and run with a simple HTTP server.

marzipano-local.zip

[jessehhydee]

Hi all,

Please remove this comment if this is not the right place to share alternatives.

I have written a node.js script that replicates Marzipano's Tool. It uses 'panorama-to-cubemap' to split any equirectangular image up. Feel free to make use of the script if it's of benefit.

I am considering creating an API that will request an equirectangular image, run this script, and send back tiles as the response. If anyone is interested, let me know and I'll go ahead with this.

[lucas23456]

Marzipano tool operates on uploaded images client-side (locally in the browser). If afraid of its existence one could download its static files and run with a simple HTTP server.

marzipano-local.zip

Hello, it seems that the functionality isn't working properly. Every time I try to upload a new image, I encounter an error displaying 'Cannot GET /tool/'

[TheWaterbug]

Marzipano tool operates on uploaded images client-side (locally in the browser). If afraid of its existence one could download its static files and run with a simple HTTP server. marzipano-local.zip

Hello, it seems that the functionality isn't working properly. Every time I try to upload a new image, I encounter an error displaying 'Cannot GET /tool/'

Hi! You need to upload the marzipano-tool/tool/ folder to a web server, not just to some random folder on your local hard drive. Some desktop OSes have a web server built in that you may have to turn on or configure. If this URL responds with anything other than a timeout, then your local web server is running:

http://localhost

Then, find what local directory is mapped to http://localhost/, and drop the marzipano-tool/tool/ folder in there. For example on my Mac, my web root is at /Library/WebServer/Documents/, so I put marzipano-tool/tool/ in there, so that /Library/WebServer/Documents/tool/index.html exists, and now I can get to my local instance of marzipano-tool at:

http://localhost/tool

I created a very simple 2 image tour with this local instance, and it appears to work:

https://www.kan.org/test-project/app-files/

There were some minor glitches the very first time I ran the tool (could upload images, but they weren't visible in the project), but this fixed itself when I reloaded the tool and started over 🤷‍♂️

[TheWaterbug]

^^ I'm having trouble reproducing these results. When I load a panorama into either FF or Chrome, connecting to my local instance of the tool, I no longer see the images in the project's panorama list. I'm 99% certain that I was able to get this working by reloading the page and starting over, but now I can't get it to work.

Can someone else with a local web server try "installing" the tool and creating a tour from it?

Thanks!

[quilicicf]

@TheWaterbug I managed to create a simple tour by:

• downloading the zip from this comment
• unzipping it on my machine
• running http-server in the parent folder of the tool folder
• opening the URL in Firefox (v125)

@rpiosi I'm curious about how you found the link to this archive, it's great that it comes from the repository but I can't make sure it's the last version if I don't understand how you got it :thinking: