An homage - my take on ResourceSpace

[15 Timberline 15 Timberline]

The original post somehow disappeared, so I am posting this again...

An homage. I built project:RS2 because ResourceSpace made us believe it was possible.

TL;DR — Been running versions of ResourceSpace since 2009. Love it, know it cold, but my users outgrew it. Built a modern replacement called project:RS2 that feels like ResourceSpace on day one but runs on a current stack. Migration takes two scripts. Sign up for early access at https://prs2.com
---

Hi everyone,

I want to start by saying something I mean: ResourceSpace changed how I work.

I've been in digital asset management since before the category had a name. I'm talking Excel and FileMaker in 1994. Peeling oil-soaked negatives off a drum scanner. ResourceSpace launched in 2006 and I picked it up in 2009. I've been running one version or another of it ever since. Nearly 16 years. I've forked it, written custom plugins, reskinned it, and broken it more times than I can count.

"Sorry, an error has occurred. Please go back and try something else."

If you've run ResourceSpace for any length of time you know that message by heart. No line number. No hint. Just you, staring at logs that have seen the whole thing and decided to keep it to themselves.

And still. I've run it for clients, recommended it to colleagues, and defended it in conversations where people wanted to spend ten times as much on enterprise software that did half as much. I still do.

But I've also been hitting a wall.

My users are demanding things that are genuinely hard to deliver on the current ResourceSpace stack:

• Sub-second search across large libraries
• Asset intelligence on ingest and gets smarter over time
• Slack-native workflows. Not just notifications, but actual DAM work happening inside the conversation
• REST API access so developers can build custom interfaces on top of the asset layer

These aren't exotic requests anymore. They're what people expect from tools they use every day.

I spent a long time looking for something that had what ResourceSpace has. The way it thinks about metadata. The collections. The resource types. The permissions model. All of it, but built on a modern foundation. I couldn't find it. So after a lot of late nights, I built it.

It's called project:RS2. The name is intentional. This is not a competitor to ResourceSpace. It is an homage to it.

The data model is deliberately familiar. If you've run ResourceSpace you will recognize everything immediately. It should feel like slipping into your favorite easy chair. I also built a migration path I'm genuinely proud of. Two scripts. The first reads your existing ResourceSpace data and produces a detailed report covering every custom attribute, every collection, every user, every asset, so you can confirm line by line that everything is coming over exactly as you expect before anything moves. The second script does the actual migration. Your labels stay exactly as you named them. Your collections structure comes with you. Nothing surprises you on the other side.

What I added on top of that foundation:

• Asset intelligence on upload. Every asset is analyzed, described, and enriched automatically. Tags, colors, mood, subject matter, technical attributes. The metadata is there before your first user opens the file. And it gets smarter every day. The system builds on your own library over time, so the more you use it the better it understands what you have and what you need.
• Typesense-powered search. Faceted, typo-tolerant, under 50ms.
• Format transformation built in. ImageMagick and ffmpeg under the hood. CMYK to sRGB, TIFF to JPEG, video proxies, strip metadata, all through the API or a named preset.
• Full Slack integration. Search, upload, approve, and transform without leaving the conversation.
• API first architecture. The interface I ship is just one client on top of a clean REST API. Any developer can build a custom UI for their brand.
• Self-hosted. Your data stays on your infrastructure, always.
• We are still working through the FOSS license issues, you would be amazed how hard it is to just give things away in the United States today, if you are an actual business. 

I'm at https://prs2.com Sign up for early access. ResourceSpace users get first notification. You're the people who will get it immediately and give me the most useful feedback.

I'm not posting this to poach anyone from this community. ResourceSpace is still the right answer for a lot of situations and I'll keep saying so. I'm posting it because I can't be the only one who has loved this product for a long time and quietly wished it could do more. If that's you, come take a look.

And to the Montala team, thank you. Genuinely. You built something that made a lot of us believe open source DAM was possible, and that belief is exactly what made us build this.

Thanks

https://prs2.com 

[Dan Huby]

Hi,

I don't think your earlier post was removed - it just hadn't been approved yet.

It looks like a really nice project - well done! From your site, I love the UX and it's not too far removed from the new UX you'll see in ResourceSpace 11.0 (sneak peak here https://www.resourcespace.com/blog/resourcespace11-preview )

I'll give it a try over the next few days.

You mention that the error messages are cryptic in the existing ResourceSpace. They did used to have a file and line number but those are hidden by default which is standard security practice. I'd advise retaining that behaviour if you want to get through security audits / pen tests, etc.

I'm not aware of any difference in the USA around licensing / liability - maybe you're getting hung up on that if you're getting legal advice (lawyers are always over-protective). Unless you release under a clear OSS license I think uptake will be quite minimal as for most current users, open source was a big part of their decision. Hope you get your head around that one.

What's the £500/year for if you're planning on it being open source?

A quick word on trademarks - Montala owns the ResourceSpace trademark in the USA and other countries. We legally have to defend that trademark otherwise it weakens. "RS2" might be a bit too close. It also makes it sound like a successor even though you say that's not the intention. I think it'd be better to come up with an entirely original name?

Best of luck,

Dan

(ResourceSpace co-creator and Montala founder)

[15 Timberline 15 Timberline]

Dan, thanks for taking the time to engage here, and genuinely, thank you for the kind words about the UX. Coming from you that means something.

On the error messages, we've sanitized them on the front end so users never see anything cryptic or exposing, but under the hood they're structured and searchable. You get security audit behavior and you can actually find the problem. I think that's the best.

An open source release is coming. We're working through the specifics of the license structure and will have a clear answer before early access opens. The £500 tier is a value added service layer on top of that free core.

Sixteen years of using what you built is what made this possible. That's not marketing copy. That's just true.

Looking forward to hearing what you think after you've had a chance to try it.

[Dan Huby]

Hi 15 Timberline (a real name would be nice :) ),

I took a look at the app and it looks very basic - do you have a lot of work to do still? What's the project status right now? It might have been that I'm a very basic user only.

Thanks for the compliment - it's been a journey! I'm really proud of ResourceSpace and the team (now 24 full time staff) that has been built around it.

Could I get a reply on this part please? I really feel the project name has potential to mislead.

A quick word on trademarks - Montala owns the ResourceSpace trademark in the USA and other countries. We legally have to defend that trademark otherwise it weakens. "RS2" might be a bit too close. It also makes it sound like a successor even though you say that's not the intention. I think it'd be better to come up with an entirely original name?

Thank you and good luck!

Dan