Dates: November 12-14
Location: Beverly, MA - 20 miles north of Boston

The 2024 Hack-A-Way will is co-sponsored by NOBLE and CW MARS. The event will be held at Endicott College in the Hempstead Seminar Suite, Hempstead Commons.

Drivers to the event should park in the garage to the right of Hempstead Commons.

• Interactive Campus Map.
• Parking Pass for meeting venue

Travel/Transportation Hack-a-way participants will have the option of flying into either Boston Logan Airport (BOS), Providence T.F. Green Airport (PVD) or Manchester-Boston Regional Airport (MHT). With three airport options available, travelers will have more flexibility in finding affordable flights to the area.

Volunteers will be available to drive participants from the airport to the hotel and provide transportation to dinner locations.

Submit your travel plans

Lodging
A block of 15 single Queen bed rooms has been reserved at the Wylie Inn, just a ten-minute walk from the meeting space at Endicott. The group rate is $129 per night plus 11.7% occupancy tax. Reservations are available via phone.

Phone reservations: 978-867-1800
You must identify yourself as part of the NOBLE room block to get the block room rate.

Dining information
The hack-a-way sponsors will provide a light breakfast and lunch to all participants. Tuesday's food is funded by the Evergreen Project.

NOBLE will coordinate group participation evening meal options, but participants may also choose to dine on their own or with a smaller group.

• Monday: 7 p.m. dinner at The Indo
• Tuesday: 6:30 p.m. dine-arounds. Please sign up in advance.
• Wednesday: 6:30 p.m. dine-arounds. Please sign up in advance
  • Optional: After-dinner excursion to When Doves Cry speakeasy

Area Restaurants and Entertainment

Remote Participation
Participate remotely via Zoom

Please add your name here if you plan to attend to help organizers get an estimate of attendees for logistical reasons. If you plan to attend but do not want to list your name feel free to privately contact Rogan or another organizer.

• Ruth Frasur Davis, Evergreen Community Development Initiative
• Tiffany Little, PINES
• Terran McCanna, PINES
• Chris Sharp, PINES
• Steven Mayo, PINES
• Susan Morrison, PINES
• Scott Angel, MOBIUS
• Mike Rylander, Equinox Open Library Initiative
• Gina Monti, Bibliomation, Inc.
• Jason Stephenson, C/W MARS, Inc.
• Andrea Buntz Neiman, Equinox Open Library Initiative
• Galen Charlton, Equinox Open Library Initiative (attending virtually)
• Stephanie Leary, Equinox Open Library Initiative
• Rogan Hamby, Equinox Open Library Initiative
• Jason Etheridge, Equinox Open Library Initiative
• Jason Boyer, Equinox Open Library Initiative
• Jeremy Murray, Evergreen Indiana
• Michele Morgan, NOBLE
• Bill Erickson, KCLS
• Ken Cox, independent developer
• Martha Driscoll, NOBLE
• Christine Morgan, NOBLE
• Dan Guarracino, OWWL
• Elizabeth Thomsen, NOBLE
• Adam Bowling, Emerald Data Networks
• Josh Lamos, Emerald Data Networks

Drop your scheduled discussions or project work here.

• 7pm ET - Welcome dinner at The Indo

• 8:30-9 a.m. Breakfast at the Hempstead Seminar Suite in the Hempstead Commons
• 9 a.m.
  • Welcome from Brian Courtemanche, Director, Diane M. Halle Library, Endicott College.
  • Introductions, Acknowledgements, Code of Conduct, Photography Policy, Agenda Discussion.
• 12 p.m. Lunch, also at the Hempstead Seminar Suite in the Hempstead Commons
• 1:00 p.m. Mobile App presentation
• 1:30 pm Outreach Meeting
• 2:30 p.m. Afternoon pick-me-ups
• 3 p.m. Dev meeting
• 6:30 p.m. Dine arounds (meet in lobby at 6:10)

• 8:30-9 a.m. Breakfast at the Hempstead Seminar Suite in the Hempstead Commons
• 9:30 a.m. Search filtering philosophy re: library groups and OUs (sleary, miker, abneiman, et al.)
• 11 a.m. Open RingCentral testing (2025 conference software)
• 11:30 a.m. Translations discussion (Zoom - hopefully recorded!)
• 12 p.m. Lunch, also at the Hempstead Seminar Suite in the Hempstead Commons
• 1:00 p.m. Git Discussions (45 minutes)
• 1:45 p.m. Releases (45 minutes)
• 2:30 p.m. Afternoon pick-me-ups

• 8:30-9:00 a.m. Breakfast at the Hempstead Seminar Suite in the Hempstead Commons
• 9:00 a.m. Accessibility update (sleary)
• 11:00 a.m. Aspen/Evergreen Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86341532902?pwd=8CcYCYWrigEhBMGQL2UreWnguepmHf.1
• 12:00 p.m. Hack-a-way end

Git - scheduled 100pm ET Weds

• Git workflow - rebase vs. merge? (csharp)
• GitHub: new Projects feature would make release organizing, Bug Squash, etc. much easier. (sleary)
• Build process, git tags versus branches (dyrcona)

Releases - scheduled 145pm ET Weds

• Scheduling translation work for point releases (abneiman) - scheduled 11:30am Wednesday - on Zoom & hopefully recorded
• Release team membership (redavis)
• Automated testing & QA processes (sleary & jsandberg–remote)
• Make the install procedure easier for first-timers LP2086803 (Bmagic)
  • Training/tutorial platform (redavis) - defer to email
• Put 950.data.seed-values.sql through a shredder; or, make seed data manageable, maybe? LP#2077915 https://bugs.launchpad.net/evergreen/+bug/2077915 (miker/eeevil)

Sys admin

• DDOS mitigation. An increase of bot traffic in the last couple of years. NGINX leaky bucket helps but we are starting to see an issue with 10's of thousands of IP's hammering the front-end, instead of a single bad IP. LP#1913617 https://bugs.launchpad.net/opensrf/+bug/1913617 LP#1361782 https://bugs.launchpad.net/evergreen/+bug/1361782 (Bmagic - remote)

Mobile app - 100pm ET Tues

• Mobile app: how to build and test them, how they are put together and why, recent and future developments (Ken Cox)
  • Adding filters to the new action triggers
• Aspen Discovery Layer breaks My Lists and Checkout History for mobile app users (Ken Cox)

Features / Future releases

• Where are we with VPAT and will we be ready for April 2026? (dyrcona) - scheduled 900am ET Thursday
  • See the 3.14 OPAC accessibility bug list
• Updating the Great Angular Circ Spreadsheet following 3.14 (abneiman & smorrison)
• Dashboard (scottangel)
• Search filtering philosophy re: library groups and OUs (sleary, miker, abneiman, et al.) - scheduled 930am ET Weds
• Can we merge Redis to OpenSRF yet? (berick)
  • I emailed the dev list.
  • I pushed it Wednesday afternoon. (Dyrcona)
• Any interest in a Rust working group? Goals would include education and eventual native support for Rust in Evergreen. (berick)

• Tuesday morning - dashboard discussion
• Tuesday afternoon - mobile app demo / discussion; API discussion
• Tuesday afternoon - Outreach Meeting Minutes
• "Language isn't my first language"
• Wednesday morning - search / library groups discussion
  • We could teach library groups how to be hierarchical and live within OU tree; OR allow them to be outside of the hierarchy.
  • Shelving location groups currently do not limit by selected OU which a typical user would expect
  • UI solution: if they select a library group / shelving location, can the OU selector go back to the top and grey out?
  • Relevant bugs:
    • OPAC advanced search: selecting a shelving location group doesn't update the shelving locations
    • Angular Staff Catalog: Incorporate Shelving Location Groups in Org Unit Selector - priority for merge
    • Shelving Location Groups do not limit results to search library
    • Wishlist: Separate Search Library and Shelving Location Group in OPAC
• Wednesday afternoon - translations in point releases
  • Consensus: translations can go in the point release AFTER the code change (e.g. bugs in 3.14.5 with string changes will have updated translations in 3.14.6)
  • Point release teams / builders will need to have a member with PO editor access to get the translation files - Galen, Jennifer P, Jason S, Blake are PO editor admins and can grant access
  • New tags for LP:
    • i18n-string-changes to indicate a bug that has string changes
    • i18n-unmarked to indicate a bug about items not marked for translations
  • Current list of i18n bugs to be updated: Bugs tagged i18n
• Wednesday afternoon - git discussion
  • What is our merge strategy? Newer versions of git require you to state this: rebase/cherry-pick vs merge.
  • Merge interfiles via commit date; rebase / cherry-pick just puts it on top. Merge retains original commit hashes but you lose the history of where your branch has everything on top of it.
  • Currently a lot of us use rebase / cherry-pick, and changing this without changing out dependence on gitolite & LP might create bigger problems though
  • Is there a potential workflow solution to the problem of changed hashes?
  • Also: every bug fix that's backported gets its own hash but this would require significant rethought of our internals.
  • Git workflows documentation: https://git-scm.com/docs/gitworkflows/2.35.0
  • Github is the only current realistic alternative
  • Github supports a good PR-review workflow
  • Github move would require:
    • Ensuring core committers have rights to push to github repo
    • Losing the working repo & collabs; all PRs on the main repo
    • Integrating PO Editor with github
    • Probably migrating from Launchpad to github Issues (not required though)
    • Probably more rebasing of topic / bugfix branches; use of merge commits
  • Still would need to settle merge vs cherry-pick; github does merge by default, but there are paths to use cherry-pick
  • General consensus is stick with patch instead of merge
  • Git tags: use these instead of branches?
    • See patch from Jane Sandberg: https://bugs.launchpad.net/evergreen/+bug/2060734
    • Currently doing this in OpenSRF but not Evergreen
    • Only for release branches, not for main
    • Probably best to start with the next top level release branch
  • Github Projects: a way to ditch all of those spreadsheets!
    • Question: can we use this without being fully on github? Answer: yes, but we'd need to manually create LP items if we're not using GH Issues.
    • GH Projects is less-terrible in the accessibility sense than a lot of other tools
• Wednesday afternoon - Release discussion
  • We have been better at monthly releases but it is the same several people
  • RelTeam needs: a core committer, someone who can build, someone who can test, someone who can do notes, someone to update the website / LP tags
  • Github & using tags instead of branches would simplify this process.
  • Redis & 3.15 vs 4.0
    • Would likely mean a heavier churn on OpenSRF than in the last few years
    • OpenSRF 4.0 with Redis should go out ASAP so we can poke at it.
    • Consensus: EG 3.15 in spring 2025 and EG 4.0 in fall 2025
    • Release teams - Buildmaster Spreadsheet
• Thursday morning - Accessibility discussion
  • 70% of accessibility bugs fixed
  • 60 in OPAC for 3.14
  • 12 remaining bugs
  • Need to audit staff catalog and client
  • VPAT page on the Wiki
  • Accessibility Guide for Developers
  • We expect to be ready for the April 2026 accessibility deadline.
• Susan & Andrea updated the Great Angular Circ Spreadsheet to account for additions to the experimental Angular Circ interfaces in 3.14. Susan followed up with 14 separate bugs on Launchpad noting post-3.14 Angular Circ issues.

• Wishlist: staff portal page editor UI
• Wishlist: workstation setting for grid UI density
• Wishlist: search box in the staff navigation bar
• Unreceiving a line item doesn't change color
• Provider field on invoices needs extra arguments
• Parts should sort by sortkey in Parts tab
• Double scrollbar in Angular grid config menu
• Do line items need two actions menus?
• Shelving Locations Blank in Purchase Orders
• Change Example opensrf_core.xml to use Redis Configs
• Catalog Filters No Longer Indicate Selected Filter Values
• Angular Circ: Circulation modifier field in pre-cat form needs full list in dropdown menu
• Patron self-registration form should include autocomplete attribute
• Angular Circ: Some links lead back to AngularJS pages
• OPAC: Blank Description Leaves White Space
• Wishlist: Separate Search Library and Shelving Location Group in OPAC
• Acq: Invoice Issues With Encumbrances and Balance Stop Percentage
• Acq: Welcome to Webby Appears Briefly When Saving an Invoice
• Angular Circ: Left sidebar menu displays when printing from patron account
• Angular Circ: Linked fields don't display in print or download csv from patron search grid
• Angular Circ: Duplicate columns in patron search grid list
• Export for Goodreads
• Evergreen should be eaiser to install from scratch
• Wishlist- Angular Reports- Autopopulate email address
• 3.13 Reports: The Reporter is not correctly restricting the stat cat selection list
• Can't Edit and Delete Stat Cat Entries in Web Client
• Patron Self Registration form needs captcha
• 3.13 Reports: When linking to tables more than one join deep, Evergreen attempts to join directly from the first table to the last
• Improvements for the Circulation Policies modal
• Patron hold grid displays ID's for transit source and destination rather than the shortname

• Add Support for PostgreSQL 17
• Angular 18 Upgrade
• Staff Portal Page - Open in New Tab
• Wishlist: workstation setting for grid UI density
• Docs: Update linked_libraries.adoc with upcoming closures info
• Docs: Update copy_locations.adoc - deleted shelving locations filtered by default
• Have github actions run pgtap tests for us
• Report output not displaying if too many entries in the schedule
• Upgrade nodejs to 22
• Angular Pull List Needs Label for Shelving Locations Selector
• Parts should sort by sortkey in Parts tab
• Angular PO: PO status does not automatically refresh on activation
• Button text incorrect when creating a new permission
• Acq: Multi-Branch Libraries Can't See All Their Branch Funds in Invoices
• Report output not displaying if too many entries in the schedule
• Inconsistent Literary Form Query Parameter in Search Filters
• "Set Top of Queue" should have separate permission

• Aged transactions can be de-anonymized using post code and birth year
• Have github actions run pgtap tests for us
• Inconsistent Literary Form Query Parameter in Search Filters

• Docs: Update copy_locations.adoc - deleted shelving locations filtered by default
• Docs: Update linked_libraries.adoc with upcoming closures info
• Have github actions run pgtap tests for us
• Migrate from Ejabberd to Redis for OpenSRF Messaging
• Redirect from AngularJS Login to Angular Staff Portal Page Causes Delays
• Inconsistent Literary Form Query Parameter in Search Filters