Contribute to the DSpace Development Fund

The newly established DSpace Development Fund supports the development of new features prioritized by DSpace Governance. For a list of planned features see the fund wiki page.

Date

 from 14:00-15:00 UTC

Location: https://duraspace.zoom.us/my/dspace (Meeting ID: 502 527 3040).

Agenda

  • (15 mins) Developer Stand Up - Developers give brief updates on their effort (or their team's effort).

    • Update/see "Current Work" section below based on your status. Please feel free to update prior to meeting.
    • Please highlight any new work (needing reviews/testing), any blockers (for you), and any discussion topics you may have.
  • (30 mins) General Discussion Topics
    1. (5 mins) Marketing WG update: what has been done so far, what is being planned ahead of OR2019
    2. Preview Release Planning (Deadline/Goal is April 18). What's left to do?  What availability do we have for work in May (to try to achieve Beta by OR2019)?
    3. Preview Release Theme: https://github.com/DSpace/dspace-angular/pull/376
      1. Should we apply this to master or a special branch (just for preview release)?
      2. Do we have any ideas on a theming strategy going forward?
  • (15 mins) Planning for next week

Attendees

Current Work

Legend for status icons

(blue star) = Highest Priority tasks (please prioritize these reviews/tasks over others). Currently this lists tasks/features that need to be completed for Preview Release.

(error) = review done (this week), changes were requested.

(tick) = review done, approved.

(warning) = review done, merge conflict or other minor changes requests

Tickets / PRs In Progress

  1. (Angular) Adding Accessibility via Travis CI  https://github.com/DSpace/dspace-angular/pull/356 (work in progress) (Lower priority)
  2. (blue star) (Angular) MyDSpace UI (work in progress) (Art Lowel (Atmire), Paulo Graça ,  Tim Donohue https://github.com/4Science/DSpace/pull/65)
  3. (REST Contract) Edit Homepage news: https://github.com/DSpace/Rest7Contract/pull/45 (Ben Bosman  - has outstanding questions/comments) (Lower priority)
  4. (REST) Updating Owning Collections: https://github.com/DSpace/DSpace/pull/2283 (Kevin Van de Velde (Atmire)  - changes requested. Implementation doesn't align with contract) (Timeline: Should be ready a week after the entities are merged)
  5. (REST) Item Mapper functionality: https://github.com/DSpace/DSpace/pull/2282  (Kevin Van de Velde (Atmire)  - changes requested. Implementation doesn't align with contract) (Timeline: Should be ready a week after the entities are merged)

PRs Needing Review

  1. (warning) (REST Contract) Group and eperson management: https://github.com/DSpace/Rest7Contract/pull/41 (Waiting on updates from Ben Bosman )
  2. (blue star) (REST Contract) Configurable Entities (Part 1 - Architecture & Display): https://github.com/DSpace/Rest7Contract/pull/57 (Mark H. Wood - approved., Paulo Graça  - approved, Andrea Bollini (4Science) )
  3. (warning) (REST) EPerson profile PATCH functionality : https://github.com/DSpace/DSpace/pull/2257 (Andrea Bollini (4Science) , Tim Donohue .  This PR currently has minor merge conflicts.)
  4. (blue star) (REST) Configurable Entities (Part 1 - Architecture & Display):  https://github.com/DSpace/DSpace/pull/2376 (Tom Desair reviewed, Paulo Graça , Andrea Bollini (4Science) )
  5. (blue star) (REST) MyDSpace Endpoint PR: https://github.com/DSpace/DSpace/pull/2391 ( Ben Bosman , Tim Donohue , Kevin Van de Velde (Atmire) ) - previous discussion here: https://github.com/4Science/DSpace/pull/65
  6. (warning) (Angular) Transfer to .po message format - Initial PR: https://github.com/DSpace/dspace-angular/pull/366 (Paulo Graça - changes requested, Tim Donohue , Art Lowel (Atmire)  - requested updates. Currently failing build.)
  7. (blue star) (Angular) Configurable Entities (Part 1 - Architecture & Display): https://github.com/DSpace/dspace-angular/pull/372 ( Paulo Graça - approved. Giuseppe Digilio (4Science) , Tim Donohue )
  8. (Angular) Preview release theme: https://github.com/DSpace/dspace-angular/pull/376 (Tim Donohue  - Should this be merged into "master" or a "preview" branch? May need to discuss next week?)
  9. (Angular) Additional docs and tests: https://github.com/DSpace/dspace-angular/pull/380 (Paulo Graça)
  10. (Angular) Fix facet UI issue: https://github.com/DSpace/dspace-angular/pull/382 (Paulo Graça, Tim Donohue)
  11. (Angular) Fix 2 small edit item metadata issues: https://github.com/DSpace/dspace-angular/pull/383 (Paulo Graça, Tim Donohue)
  12. (warning) (Angular Bug) https://github.com/DSpace/dspace-angular/issues/368 (Andrea Bollini (4Science), Art Lowel (Atmire) )
  13. (Backend) One Webapp Backend - Initial PR: https://github.com/DSpace/DSpace/pull/2265 (Ben Bosman , Mark H. Wood , Terrence W Brady - tested and found issues in getting RDF/SWORDv1 working in Docker)
    1. This PR will have a follow-up PR to rename the "dspace-spring-rest" webapp to "dspace-server" and update all URL configurations
    1. Docker changes to merge after this PR is merged: https://github.com/DSpace-Labs/DSpace-Docker-Images/pull/96
  14. (Backend) Upgrading to Handle Server v9: https://github.com/DSpace/DSpace/pull/2394 (Mark H. Wood)

PRs Merged this week!

  1. (tick) (Angular) Bootstrap security update: https://github.com/DSpace/dspace-angular/pull/375
  2. (tick) (Angular) Fix pagination on the home page: https://github.com/DSpace/dspace-angular/pull/377
  3. (tick) (Angular) Search performance optimizations: https://github.com/DSpace/dspace-angular/pull/374
  4. (tick) (blue star) (Angular) Submission implementation: https://github.com/DSpace/dspace-angular/pull/279
  5. (tick) (Backend) Performance Testing bug: https://github.com/DSpace/DSpace/pull/2379
  6. (tick) (blue star) (REST Contract) Minor changes to sync with the mydspace REST implementation https://github.com/DSpace/Rest7Contract/pull/55
  7. (tick) (REST) Sub-PR to add more Integration Tests into PR#2376's branch: https://github.com/DSpace/DSpace/pull/2388

BLOCKED

  1. (Angular) Move Item Component: https://github.com/DSpace/dspace-angular/pull/335
    1. Blocked by DSpace PR#2283
  2. (Angular) Item-Collection Mapper:  https://github.com/DSpace/dspace-angular/pull/348
    1. Blocked by DSpace PR#2282

Delayed

  1. (REST Contract) Edit Homepage News: https://github.com/DSpace/Rest7Contract/pull/45
    1. Delayed until after Preview release. General agreement (in meeting on March 21, 2019) that storing HTML in metadata fields is not really ideal behavior.  Metadata (from a librarian standpoint) tends to be free of format-related markup (as that allows for easier sharing, understanding of metadata.  Currently Community & Collection homepage information is HTML-based and is stored in metadata that is appropriate for a minor subset of information (like the title) but it is better to move large/rich text to bitstreams.  
    2. Proposal here is to consider storing HTML-based markup (for Site, Community & Collection homepages) in Bitstream(s) associated with the object in question.  May allow for more CMS-lite behavior in the future
    3. Timeline for this is uncertain.  Possibly in 7 or 8. May depend on how/whether it can be scoped.
  2. (REST) Scripts & Processes endpoint: https://github.com/DSpace/Rest7Contract/pull/17
  3. Concurrency in DSpace 7 (or 8).  What do we want to do when multiple editors are editing the same object?  Needs further analysis regarding implementation details
    1. We've decided (in meeting on March 7, 2019) to use ETags to implement concurrency. REST Contract notes on ETags: https://github.com/DSpace/Rest7Contract#etags--conditional-headers
    2. ETags only update of the two fields match. If someone edits first, your edit would fail and you would get a fail response (422?)
    3. ETags seems to have broader support in other REST APIs.  Recommended also by both Art and Andrea.

Priorities for Preview Release

As discussed in previous DSpace 7 meetings, our DSpace 7 Preview release is aimed for first few weeks of April, followed by a Beta in May (before OR2019).  The top priorities for the Preview Release are (in this order):

  1. Submission & Workflow UI / backend
  2. Configurable Entities (from DSpace 7 Entities Working Group (2018-19))
  3. Upgrading Solr Server for DSpace (not required for Preview, as there's no user facing features. However, the earlier we feel comfortable merging this effort the better)

Notes

  • Several folks traveling to DuraSpace Summit next week.

    • Tim will be out on Tues & Weds.  Will be back for next DSpace 7 meeting on Thurs, April 11.

  • Updates from Marketing Working Group

    • Configurable Entities name will stay the same. WG had a great discussion about changing the name of configurable entities and considered many alternatives, but ultimately decided to keep the name at configurable entities as the most accurate descriptor of the feature

    • DSpace 7 release announcement being prepared for the preview release
      • Translated & released by user groups (at least 5 languages)
      • Page on dspace.org for all DSpace 7 information, news, links.
    • OR2019 advertisement
      • T-Shirts at OR2019 featuring the new DSpace logo
      • pin on buttons for specific "ambassadors" at OR.  "Ask me about DSpace 7" and similar
      • Slides with short testimonials - can be included in various DSpace 7 presentations
    • Promotion of DSpace 7 (after OR2019). Marketing timeline in late summer / fall. Developed five goals for promotion of DSpace 7 and promoting DSpace generally.
  • Preview Release Planning
    • Blue starred items are mostly in review stages
    • Biggest outstanding work includes
      • Reviews of MyDSpace UI (not yet started) & REST API (ongoing)
      • Reviews of Configurable Entities
        • Andrea wants to review Entities REST API & Contract.  Tim recommends he start doing so this week / early next (as we need to get his initial feedback as early as possible)
        • Giuseppe will try to review Entities Angular UI, but may not be as thorough. He won't get to it until after MyDSpace PR complete
    • Preview Release still possible by April 18, assuming the following...
      • MyDSpace UI PR needs to be created ASAP, and reviews started prior to next meeting (April 11)
      • Configurable Entities reviews need to be in / started prior to next meeting (April 11)
      • Everything would need to be ready to merge by around Friday, April 12 or Monday, April 15
    • Check in next week to see where we are at.
  • Planning for Beta / OR2019. What is availability in late April / May.
    • Andrea notes that he's concerned about a Beta before OR2019.  We may be more likely to have an "Enhanced Preview"
    • 4Science has very little availability in May / June.  It's mostly "volunteer time", which means they can mostly be relied on for bug fixes and code reviews.
    • Atmire has same availability (as they currently have), This amounts to about 1 - 1.5 FTE on DSpace 7 for April/May.
    • Tim notes this is good feedback.  It sounds like we do not have enough resources (between Atmire & 4Science alone) to achieve a Beta in May.  Will bring this feedback back to DuraSpace and Steering / Leadership (at Summit).  We will need to realign expectations / schedules for OR2019
  • What is achievable for OR2019 (very briefly touched on by a few during previous discussion)
    • Definitely can add more features to the Preview Release
    • Come up with a better "strategy" around theming/branding, in time for OR2019 workshops.  This may not be themes that are swappable "on the fly" (yet), but would allow for Angular UI to be rebulit with a selected theme (in configuration). 
  • Theming / Branding Strategy
    • Preview Release Theme: https://github.com/DSpace/dspace-angular/pull/376
      • Nice theme, but it isn't easily configurable yet.  Won't be configurable for Preview Release.
      • Theme configurability is not by any fault of our current code, it's just not "automatic" in Angular.  So, we need to build it ourselves
    • Art has dug into this a bit, but wants to look around more and come back with options
      • Currently, in Angular 6 (which we use), most people seem to just be using CSS / SASS based theming.  This is fine, but in DSpace 6, themes (at least in XMLUI) could also override "page templates", not just CSS.  So, we may want more than CSS/SASS. 
      • As of Angular 7 there's a new compiler called Ivy that will allow for swappable templates.  This seems like it could be used to create themes that are swappable "on the fly" that include custom templates (as part of the theme)
        • In Angular 7, Ivy is a secondary compiler (disabled by default).  However, in upcoming Angular 8, Ivy is the new default compiler
      • For OR2019 we should be able to build out a better theming strategy (via custom webpack builds) that allow users to specify their theme in configuration and then rebuild the Angular UI to apply that theme.
        • This will allow for training on theming.  The strategy will be enhanced once we upgrade to Angular 7 or 8, at which point, we should be able to make these themes swappable "on the fly" (no longer requiring a rebuild). 
  • Brief discussion of MyDSpace PR
    • https://github.com/DSpace/DSpace/pull/2391
    • Ben has questions about the new FindableObjectService interface
      • Seems like it is mostly for IndexableObject, but it allows for any Type object to implement it.
    • Andrea notes this was necessary when moving IndexableObject extension from DSpaceObject to individual object types (Community, Collection, Item)
    • We were not able to dig deeply here. Discussion should follow on the PR itself.

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