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dev:meetings:2010-09:minutes

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IRC developer meeting for September 2010 - Minutes

  • Date: 2010-10-07
  • Time: 14:49 to 15:16:47 EST

Meeting called to order by Galen Charlton (gmcharlt) at 14:49 AM EDT

  1. Status for 1.4 & 1.6
    1. Galen Charlton updated that 1.6.0.8 and 1.6.1.2 were released recently.
    2. Mike Rylander proposed that we forget 1.4 after 2.0 goes gold, that 1.6.0 is frozen, barring data-loss bugs and 1.6.1 gets cleanup bug fixes of all sorts, but no major functionality updates.
    3. Jason Etheridge supported the idea that if someone wants to maintain these older branches, they're welcome to volunteer to do so.
    4. Dan Scott has backported some nice usability enhancements to rel_1_6, in case there ever is a 1.6.2.x, which Mike Rylander suggested could just be applied to 1.6.1 if they're 1.6.1 compatible and would be construed as "minor" functionality. 1.6.2 will be released if there is a strong 1.6.2 desire from users and a need.
    5. The proposals were voted on and accepted by the community.
  2. Evergreen 2.0 alpha - status of release notes, features.
    1. ESI is compiling 2.0 release notes they are scheduled to be available before 2.0 goes gold and will start putting stuff on the wiki as soon as there's stuff to show.
    2. Everything that's committed before 2.0 will be included in gold for/from KCLS.
    3. Amy Terlaga pointed out that there is a basic (not complete) roadmap/feature list available which James Fournie recently updated. Evergreen Roadmap/Feature List
      • ACTION ITEM: Release notes and future expected features need to be separated out from roadmap.
    4. Dan Scott has some reasonably accurate notes for Debian Squeeze Installing 2.0 Alpha
    5. With all the fixes going into rel_2_0 puches for an alpha2 release of 2.0 sometime soon.
      • ACTION ITEM: 2.0 alpha2 release for testing next week - Bill Erickson
    6. Jason Etheridge needs help testing out the Windows client for 2.0, the version of xulrunner used is pretty different than what 1.6 is running and there are some issues with printing to certain printers.
    7. KCLS will be using FGI to rework their web catalog screens so that they're more generic for others to use (Amy Terlaga).
  3. 2.0 alpha1 to 2.0 gold - works in progress, discuss of what will make it in for general release, hash out schedule.
    1. Alpha to gold (Mike Rylander)
      • alpha2 soon (Sept 12-ish)
      • stop schema changes at alpha2
      • bug fixes and UI-only features until beta
      • tentative alpha3 if warranted after 2-ish more weeks
      • beta1 some time around mid October
      • 1.6-2.0 upgrade script in beta1 (substantially complete)
      • betas until no known bugs remain; no more than weekly, no less than monthly (longer than a month means it's RC1)
      • last beta becomes RC1 to encourage testing – Nov or Dec
      • RCs until no more known bugs
      • last RC becomes gold, aka 2.0.0 – Dec or Jan?
    2. What about trunk? (Mike Rylander)
      • catch all schema changes after alpha2
      • new features which change existing functionality
      • some known (or at least anticipated and planned) projects for 2.1 (See next topic)
    3. Thomas Berezansky's self-updating staff client code and other client improvements will be included into alpha3.
    4. KCLS will be going live on alpha2.5 so there will be further development they have funded which will get included into 2.0 gold.
  4. After Evergreen 2.0; roundup of projects that people are working on.
    1. (known to) Mike Rylander:
      • authority control sets
      • MARC batch-edit template wizard
      • tiled MARC editor/merger
      • query set and field set (batch non-bib editing) UIs
      • hard due dates
      • browse UIs on top of browse feeds (no funding but there is wide interest in this feature).
    2. Thomas Berezansky:
      • Circulation Matrix project
      • Staff client development
      • staff client auto-update
      • new tabbing implementation
    3. Bill Erickson: Serials and Acquisitions improvements.
    4. Amy Terlaga: Kids' catalog project (long term project > 4-6 months) requested others who would like to get involved to contact her.
    5. Joe Atzberger: EDI (EDIFACT) support for message types: ORDERS, ORDRSP, INVOICE, OSTENQ, OSTRPT
    6. Dan Scott: University of Windsor is seconding him to work full time on Evergreen on behalf of Project Conifer for the next year, plans are not yet concrete but features will likely include:
      • LDAP integration
      • Drupal integration (long term > 4-6 months) (at this, a number of attendees announced that they too had Drupal/Evergreen integration working or were working on it - clearly we need to follow up on this and flush it out to avoid more duplicated efforts)
      • Recalls
    7. Jason Etheridge: We're going to need to give some serious thought to the staff client in the future; Mozilla is removing a feature we depend on currently (remote xul). Could hold steady for the time being.
    8. Jason Stephenson: Using lassos in the circ and hold matrices: https://bugs.launchpad.net/evergreen/+bug/620518
      • ACTION ITEM: List projects in progress in a central location.
    9. Galen Charlton suggested the Drupal integration developers (Dan Scott, Thomas Berezansky, Jeff Godin, Steve Wills and Jeff Craner) discuss co-ordinating their efforts.
    10. Jeff Godin needs approval to release Drupal work he has already completed in GPL for the use within Evergreen. If required the Evergreen community has offered to contact and advocate towards approving release of the code with the entities responsible.
      • 2.1 … late winter
  5. DIG report - Karen Collier
    1. The Documentation Interest Group (DIG) is working to find, update, and organize into a single document, the documentation that's been contributed by the community, as well as fill in any gaps. We have an outline of our plans for the overall organization of the documentation and what we hope to include. The outline shows which parts are completed vs in progress: documentation outline
    2. Documentation is being converted to DocBook XML format and committed to a github repository set up by Robert Soulliere at http://github.com/rsoulliere/Evergreen-DocBook. Our work in progress document is available in HTML format and in PDF format.
    3. In an email to the documentation discussion list, Robert Souilliere raised some topics relating to DIG that he wanted to get input on from the larger development community. The archive of his email is here: http://list.georgialibraries.org/pipermail/open-ils-documentation/2010-September/000644.html
    4. Discussion:
      • The documentation is refreshed manually i.e. it is not automated. (q: Mike Rylander, a: Robert Souilliere)
      • Assuming that parts of the docs have been adapted from existing wiki pages, are those wiki pages marked as "migrated to official documentation" / deleted once that's done? Hoping to avoid the tragedy of somebody updating a wiki page after it has been DocBook-ified and that update not triggering a corresponding update in the docs. (Dan Scott)
      • Galen Charlton requested that they're not deleted until there's a little more integration between evergreen-ils.org and the manual.
      • ACTION ITEM: Follow up with DIG on resolving this issue.
      • Web Committee needs a contact on DIG that can discuss documentation and future website questions (Jim Craner).
      • ACTION ITEM: Web committee member needs to email the DIG list requesting a contact.
  6. Reports taskforce report - Amy Terlaga and/or Jenny Turner
    1. Jenny Turner:
      • First a bit of background…The Evergreen Reports Taskforce was established in April 2010 at the annual Evergreen International Conference. The goal of the taskforce is to establish a framework for sharing reports and improving the reporting system in Evergreen.  There are seven people on the taskforce and we meet approximately once per month.  Our activities can be tracked here: Evergreen reports taskforce
      • The primary accomplishment of the taskforce to date is the creation of a site to share SQL Reports, along with some general guidelines for posting. Next steps include: developing a mock-up for a reports interface and figuring out a way to share templates more easily.  PINES kindly shared their reports requirements with the group to use as a starting point.
      • Next meeting is tomorrow afternoon, if interested in listening in, contact Jenny Turner.
    2. Discussion:
      • There is still a question of finding funding/developing functionality to make it easier to share reports. (Anoop Atre, Jason Ethridge)
      • Joff Godin has worked on making it easier to automate and post-process reports. They have standard reports that are scheduled in the consortium server which are automatically downloaded and post-processed – that can mean they are imported into another database server and turned into a web page, or they are summarized or combined with external data, or complex depreciation/value calculations are done, etc.
      • Ben Shum is working on automating the running/sending of SQL reports.
      • ACTION ITEM: Reports taskforce needs to follow-up with Jeff and Ben on their efforts.
  7. Website team report - Lori Ayre and/or Amy Terlaga
    1. Amy Terlaga:
      • The Evergreen Communications Committee was formed at the Evergreen 2010 Conference and has been charged with helping to organize (and possibly develop) the online resources needed by the greater Evergreen community. The Committee has decided that one of our priorities should be to identify all the user groups, undertake a needs assessment process, and perform a content inventory in order to develop a plan for revamping the evergreen-ils.org website.
      • The Communications Committee has created a smaller Website Planning Team to focus on this work. The Website Planning Team is being led by Jim Craner (RSCEL website developer and a long time member of other open source communities and community development projects).
      • The notes of the web team meetings (weekly) can be found here: Evergreen community web team planning committee page
    2. Lori Ayre:
      • Goal: Using a transparent and formal process of needs analysis and content inventory, develop a web-based framework for the growing Evergreen community.
      • Official web page: For now it is Communications
      • Update:
      • Very much in the planning phase. The team is working on a planning document which we will share with the community. We hope to identify strategic goals for a Evergreen community website. We intend to develop these requirements by identify all the user roles. We'll develop user stories that inform how different types of users will use the site. That's the hard part. Then we'll figure out the content and information architecture that makes sense to support those users and their needs. Hoping to begin planning the content and info architecture before end of year.
      • Important for everyone to understand that during this development we are using RSCEL.org to develop some features and address some immediate needs. Our feeling is we don't want to mess too much with evergreen-ils.org until we have a firm plan that is based on strong community input. We don't know the long-term plan for RSCEL (beyond the IMLS grant for which is was built) and are open to it dissolving if that is what is best for the community.
    3. Jim Craner:
      • Our working group, open to the public, here: http://groups.google.com/group/eg_web_team
      • Primary goal is to develop a thoroughly-researched and comprehensive plan for an online Evergreen community platform with significant input from as many identified stakeholder groups as possible. Overarching theme: one-stop portal for all things EG: people, orgs, teams.
      • Encompass the traditional software website (paths to dev community/framework, Download, Docs) as well as Support/community, Community of Practice/forums, etc. Some community aspects forming around the RSCEL prototype site including a project/library/initiative directory, feature/wishlist apps, etc.
      • Focus on two-way communications/transparency – solicit as much input as possible from greater community and offer frequent and regular updates of our progress to the community. More here: http://groups.google.com/group/eg_web_team/web/community-input-and-feedback
      • We've met with several developers associated with existing site. We want as much input and buy-in and support from dev community as they are willing and able to give through this process while respecting that you all are busy writing and supporting great software :)
      • So far, we have been planning our planning process :) and are going to finalize a planning process schedule this week, culminating sometime in Nov/Dec with a final planning document for presentation to Comms/Gov Committees.
      • Planning process is built on a user story-driven model: we are finalizing a list of strategic goals for a future Evergreen portal and we will then develop a comprehensive roster of user personas (e.g., Debbie Developer, Pete Potential-User) and associated stories/requirements for each user. These user stories will drive parallel tracks of "Content Plannining/Information Architecture" and "Functionality Planning." These will then be assembled into a comprehensive website plan for consideration by the Comms/Gov Committees.
      • New site, if approved, wouldn't commence buildout until 2011.
  8. Governance committee report - Lori Ayre and/or Amy Terlaga
    1. Amy Terlaga:
    2. Why/What is Software Freedom Conservancy? (Dan Scott)
      • The Software Freedom Conservancy is a 501 © (3) that acts as an umbrella for software projects (like Sugar Labs, Boost) so that those projects don't have to set up their own 501 ©(3) and elect directors, etc. So - a quick way to provide a 501 ©(3) structure for an "Evergreen Software Foundation" that can be trusted to hold and enforce (if necessary) legal collateral like trademarks and copyright, as well as assets such as donations to the foundation.
      • A fast-track the creation of the "evergreen foundation" by outsourcing the tedium of setting up the tax/legal entity. (Mike Rylander)
      • The Software Freedom Conservancy considers applications a few times a year. If we missed the Sept 2010 deadline, we would have to wait until March 2011 to be considered.
      • The Committee is also working on developing governance documents, i.e. bylaws (jcorridan-isl), proposals for memberships, voting and who tells the conservancy how to spend donated funds, etc.
  9. Schedule next meeting
    1. Galen Charlton proposed that we meet again in mid-October after alpha2, hopefully after alpha3 or just before beta1.
    2. The community voted on Tuesday, 19 October (14:00 ET) as the next meeting date.

Meeting adjourned by Galen Charlton (gmcharlt) at 15:16:47 EST

dev/meetings/2010-09/minutes.1524603097.txt.gz · Last modified: 2022/02/10 13:34 (external edit)

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