Open Sourcing my MT5 EA Framework

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Hi everyone,

I'm developing EAs for many years now and am a contributor of many FOSS.

For a while now I thought about publishing my EA Framework. But since the forex world is a very scammy place, I fear the code will very soon appear somewhere without the copyright notice or some other people claim to be the author.

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I see two possible ways to share my framework:

  1. Uploading my framework as a library to the mql5 store.
  2. Sharing the compiled library somewhere else.

In both cases, I would publish the documentation and only some parts of the source on GitHub.

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Question:

Assumed I upload the framework as a library to the mql5 store and someone downloads it and builds an EA with it.

If that someone shares the EA, will the receiver be able to run the EA without downloading the library from the mql5 store?
Or does everyone who wants to run the EA have to download the framework as well? (And also probably have the same version to make it work?)

Thanks :)

 
Yannick Deubel:

Hi everyone,

I'm developing EAs for many years now and am a contributor of many FOSS.

For a while now I thought about publishing my EA Framework. But since the forex world is a very scammy place, I fear the code will very soon appear somewhere without the copyright notice or some other people claim to be the author.

---

I see two possible ways to share my framework:

  1. Uploading my framework as a library to the mql5 store.
  2. Sharing the compiled library somewhere else.

In both cases, I would publish the documentation and only some parts of the source on GitHub.

---

Question:

Assumed I upload the framework as a library to the mql5 store and someone downloads it and builds an EA with it.

If that someone shares the EA, will the receiver be able to run the EA without downloading the library from the mql5 store?
Or does everyone who wants to run the EA have to download the framework as well? (And also probably have the same version to make it work?)

Thanks :)

You are better to not share any serious source code, it will always being used by unscrupulous people, resale, etc...

There is no possible FOSS in MQL world in my opinion, except if you really don't care about your code. Personally I decide to not share anything publicly.

About your question :

An EA using a library from mql5.com Market, will always need it to be downloaded and activated.

 
Alain Verleyen #:

[...]
An EA using a library from mql5.com Market, will always need it to be downloaded and activated.

Thanks a lot!

I guess I will do it that way. The only thing sad about the market is that the versioning is not semver and the user can't select the version he wants.

To deal with breaking changes, I would have to release a new library (MyFramework v1, v2, and so on) and use "xxx.yyy" as "minor.patch".

---

I think I will just publish simple #inclues like i18n.mqh, helpers.mqh etc.. 😊

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Btw, it's nice to see that you are still as active in the forum as ever! Merci beaucoup Alain!

 
Yannick Deubel #:

Thanks a lot!

I guess I will do it that way. The only thing sad about the market is that the versioning is not semver and the user can't select the version he wants.

To deal with breaking changes, I would have to release a new library (MyFramework v1, v2, and so on) and use "xxx.yyy" as "minor.patch".

---

I think I will just publish simple #inclues like i18n.mqh, helpers.mqh etc.. 😊

---

Btw, it's nice to see that you are still as active in the forum as ever! Merci beaucoup Alain!

You are most welcome. Thank you :-)
 

I have now converted my framework to a mql library. Works great!

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Just, besides the licensing, is there another advantage adding the lib to the store instead of sharing the binary (with cloud protection)?

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The Product must not:
Include links to third-party resources. All necessary information should be provided on the mql5.com website: in the Product description, in comments or in the "Blogs" section.

This makes it really hard to write a great documentation. Is there any workaround?

 
Yannick Deubel #:

I have now converted my framework to a mql library. Works great!

---

Just, besides the licensing, is there another advantage adding the lib to the store instead of sharing the binary (with cloud protection)?

---

The Product must not:
Include links to third-party resources. All necessary information should be provided on the mql5.com website: in the Product description, in comments or in the "Blogs" section.

This makes it really hard to write a great documentation. Is there any workaround?

It is right there.

 
Enrique Dangeroux #:

It is right there.

Thanks! I guess based on the rules I found, I can create a blog post and link to the documentation on my website (site.com/docs). 

https://www.mql5.com/en/blogs/terms:

4.3. The User agrees not to use his or her account for business purposes, including promotion of User's goods and products, placing SEO texts, using bots and spam, posting direct links with the purpose of advertising [...], commercial organizations and third-party websites.

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What about " Just, besides the licensing, is there another advantage adding the lib to the store instead of sharing the binary (with cloud protection)?"

Any good reason I should add it to the store and not just share the binary? The store seems to be just not as flexible as I want it to be.

 
Yannick Deubel #:

Thanks! I guess based on the rules I found, I can create a blog post and link to the documentation on my website (site.com/docs). 

---

What about " Just, besides the licensing, is there another advantage adding the lib to the store instead of sharing the binary (with cloud protection)?"

Any good reason I should add it to the store and not just share the binary? The store seems to be just not as flexible as I want it to be.

Visibility and easy management. You would not have to take care how to deliver the file to the customer and install it.

Like any store actually.

 
Thanks!
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