Microsoft has bridged its open-source project hosting website with the Black Duck repository for open-source projects. In this regard, the Redmond company informed that CodePlex content would automatically make its way into the Black Duck KnowledgeBase. On top of this, CodePlex projects would also be offered as results for queries entered into the Black Duck’s Koders, a search engine designed to bring users closer to downloadable open-source code.

“We are teaming with Black Duck to ensure availability of CodePlex projects in the Black Duck KnowledgeBase,” revealed Sam Ramji, Microsoft’s senior director of Platform Strategy. “Black Duck’s KnowledgeBase is a useful resource for development managers tasked with managing open source code in mixed-source development environments. The addition of CodePlex projects makes this a more powerful development resource.”

Peter Galli, Microsoft senior communications manager on the Platform Strategy team, revealed that all of the over 9,000 CodePlex projects would eventually be integrated with both Koders and the Black Duck KnowledgeBase. However, although integration is already underway, users will need to exercise their patience as the process will be finalized at the end of June 2009. CodePlex projects are generally focused on Windows and .NET, but the Redmond company imposes no restrictions on the platforms and technologies that developers can leverage.

The Black Duck KnowledgeBase accounts for in excess of 200,000 open-source projects harvested from over 4,100 websites. According to the company, no less than 40,000 new items have been integrated only since the start of this year.

“CodePlex is one of the fastest-growing open source hosting sites,” added Peter Vescuso, Black Duck EVP of marketing and business development. “This agreement will make it easier and faster for Black Duck to manage the steady stream of new projects hosted on the site.” CodePlex currently hosts 9,000 projects and adds about 100 new projects each week. “By teaming with Microsoft, we are assured of comprehensive, ongoing coverage of CodePlex projects in the KnowledgeBase.”