Unfortunately we have some bad news this time. We withdrew LimeSurvey 2.0a a couple days ago because of license issues, we also advise you not to use or distribute version 2.0a. Here is what happened:

When we chose a PHP framework as a base for future development we decided for CodeIgniter (CI) because it was lightweight, fast and easy to learn. Their website said that 'CodeIgniter is licensed under an Apache/BSD-style open source license' so everyone assumed that the license would be GPL-compatible because LimeSurvey is under GPL. (even one of the past CodeIgniter developers, Derek Allard, thought so because he developed an application based on CI being under GPL). A new team member, Tom Klingenberg, joined us a couple month ago and pointed out there might be something wrong with the CodeIgniter license. We started to investigate and contacted the CodeIgniter project lead, a company named EllisLab. It went downhill from there. As we insisted on getting some conclusive response if the license is GPL-compatible we seemed to have woken some sleeping dogs. About 10 days ago EllisLab suddenly changed the license in their source code repository on the future CodeIgniter version 3.0 to OSL (Open Software license) which is incompatible to the GPL for numerous reasons. A huge discussion about this started in their forums, especially why this license and why this was decided without including the community or past contributors. EllisLab reacted by publishing a number of articles on their blog 'educating' their community about license issues. That's when the real bomb went off: The current CI license is also not GPL-compatible. Many many people assumed otherwise before that and so people are angry and disappointed. In the days after that announcement EllisLab did not revise their decision. There will be no GPL-compatible license on CodeIgniter and they will be using OSL (which we think is kinda stupid for a PHP framework). For us that meant that LimeSurvey 2.0a is/was in violation of the CI/GPL license and so we had to withdraw it.

What now?

In the upcoming days we will decide on a new PHP framework to use. For the previous port done to CodeIgniter by two of our team members we needed full two month of fulltime work, which means that 4 man-month of work went partially down the drain. Luckily most frameworks are similar and we won't have to re-invent the wheel completely. But the port to a new framework will take time so expect a delay on a new version for another 3 months at a minimum.

Who's to blame?

Sure, not checking the current CodeIgniter license closely enough is to blame on our own stupidity - but in the available information at the time and threads in their forums EllisLab never disclaimed that their license is GPL-compatible. There were even GPL components listed in their Wiki. EllisLab had it in their hands to choose a better license for the next generation of CI. We did alot of arguing in the forums, there was a uservoice with hundred supporters, we even contacted them personally but nothing helped. Obviously EllisLab only cares only about their own IP (how legal that is could be discussed because no past contributor was asked about the license change) not about their community or other open Source projects (they weren't even aware of Derek Allards project) based on CI.

Contrary to this we respect our past contributors. LimeSurvey was and will be always under GPL license. Please bear with us and be patient waiting for the next version of LimeSurvey. If you are a PHP coder, have great experience with PHP frameworks and like to give a helping hand porting to a new framework, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

During this year’s Google Summer of Code Aniessh Sethh worked for Limesurvey on the Central Participants Database project. The project is ready to be tested:
For those who don't want to use the cool new installer we just developed: you can use the online demo at
URL: devdemo.limesurvey.org/index.php/admin/authentication/login
User: admin
Password: test

If you want to have a look at the next Limesurvey version including this project you can check out the CI branch using this URL.

We encourage you to check out this new feature and test it by creating users, importing/exporting participants, adding attributes and the like. Please let us know if any issues arise.

All bugs and suggestions for improvements referring to the Central Participants Database project (direct URL) can be assigned to Aniessh Sethh (aniesshsethh) at the bugtracker.

If you have questions about a certain feature, please check out the Central Participants Database documentation.

We are pleased to introduce you to Shubham Sachdeva in our fourth and final article on LimeSurvey's Google Summer of Code projects for 2011.

Shubham studies at the University School of Information Technology, GGSIPU, Delhi and proposed porting the LimeSurvey back-end to CodeIgniter. He's been active in the LimeSurvey community for some time and has participated in the development team with a number of different issues.

We have selected two projects to port LimeSurvey to the CodeIgniter framework this year and Shubham will be working as part of a team with Diogo Goncalves to port the major functionality of LimeSurvey to this rapid development framework. The port is a major and significant step forward for LimeSurvey since it will allow for greater flexibility and expansion of LimeSurvey in the future. Once completed expect rapid and dramatic improvements and changes to LimeSurvey as developers take advantage of a simplified and more consistent coding backend.

If you're interested in this project visit the proposal page, and the make any comments or suggestions in the proposal forum.