---
# System prepended metadata

title: Touring the OFN Catacombs

---

# Touring the OFN Catacombs
I'm mostly hoping to gain a general sense of the workflows, methodologies and culture around OFN development and maintenance, with a particular eye towards interoperability, but no need to stick to these questions alone if we veer off in fun directions. :slightly_smiling_face: 

## Questions
- In what ways are admins able to customize an instance?
- How can 3rd party services connect w/ the API?
- What permissions, capabilities can 3rd party services have via the API?
- Are there any plugins, modules or other ways to extend the code base on the server itself?
- How are core features and updates brought into the development cycle?
- How do instances integrate updates and patches into their production systems?
- Data Food Consortium???

## Links
- Slack Thread re: Solid Project
    - https://openfoodnetwork.slack.com/archives/C02G54U7H/p1645518855309119
- Swagger API
    - https://app.swaggerhub.com/apis-docs/Open-Food-Network/Open-Food-Network-API/0.1
- Developer Wiki
    - https://github.com/openfoodfoundation/openfoodnetwork/wiki
- ...

## Notes
- Slack hub, API channel
- Right now, don't have the capacity for inter-instance interop
    - transactions exist within an instance
- 2 ways people are looking to change
    - there's the API convo's
    - federation architecture
- Enterprises
    - enterprise == profile that can sell on a shop, or sell for others
    - enterprises can grant permissions per other enterprises
    - maximize access for farmers to sell, for customers to shop
- Weekly update process (every tue)
    - latest updates are deployed to all instances by the core dev team
- No separate download for anyone who wants to use OFN w/o the OFN branding etc
    - talk of a Red Hat type of split
- N8N: lots of people are using that now
    - creating a lib of functions and tools that instance mgrs can take and run with
- How to maintain the commons while also getting stuff done for each instance
    - eg, SNAP/EBT, only really relevant to US
    - how to keep OFN devs alive???
    - is this OFN's problem or open source's problem?
- DFC
    - mostly EU, bunch of different groups, but main partners
        - OFN France
        - OFN Canada
        - Lite Farm
        - UK: FDC
    - _The Revolution Will Not Be Funded_ (book about non-profit industrial complex)
- Customizing instances
    - lot of control as an instance mgr over what it looks like
    - CLI tools, too, for enabling dev features and toggling flags
- transifex
    - translation tool
    - kinda like drupal translation
- Zenhub (kanban)
    - papercuts, tech debt
    - voting on papercuts
- Discourse
    - lots of stuff managed here
    - dev team meets weekly (delivery cycle, etc)
    - 
- ...
