Date & Time
- November 8th 16:00 UTC/GMT - 11:00 EST
Dial-in
We will use the international conference call dial-in. Please follow directions below.
- U.S.A/Canada toll free: 866-740-1260, participant code: 2257295
- International toll free: http://www.readytalk.com/intl
- Use the above link and input 2257295 and the country you are calling from to get your country's toll-free dial in #
- Once on the call, enter participant code 2257295
Agenda: Forming a DSpace 7 UI Outreach Group
Current progress on DSpace 7 UI
At the Open Repositories conference, the community formalized the decision to move ahead with Angular 2 as the new technology for the DSpace UI, replacing both JSPUI and XMLUI in DSpace 7.
The organization of the development work is currently underway, in recent meetings that took place in the last weeks.
Priority 1: existing featureset in the new UI by Open Repositories 2017
The primary goal is to have a product that is convincing enough to both the JSPUI and XMLUI communities to abandon the old UIs and to seriously consider migrating to the new user interface.
The challenge to overcome here is that feature-wise, the vast majority of the features that are in active use by the JSPUI and XMLUI communities should be present in the new product. Adopting the new UI should ideally mean no loss of functionality.
This is why the replication of current functionality has been selected as the top priority towards Open Repositories 2017.
Priority 2: Consistency
The existing features of DSpace today often have differences in XMLUI and JSPUI. The aforementioned “replication” should not inherit weaknesses or bad design choices from the older platforms. Instead, each of the features will be reimagined in order to bring the overall set of features to the user in a consistent way.
One concrete example is the representation of search and browse results. Even without looking outside of XMLUI, you already see that there is a mix of “item listings” if you compare browse pages, discovery results pages, or the recent submissions pages.
Therefore, consistency in the functionality, both in terms of back end design and representation towards the users is the second priority.
As an outcome of this work, formal guidelines will be created for future developments. These guidelines will facilitate extension and customization of both the UI and the REST API. During these DSpace 7 developments, the developers will agree on a set of design and development principles to ensure there is a solid definition of what it means to develop in a “consistent” way.
Priority 3: Sticking to priority 1 and 2
Because of the limited time and resources, it will already be an amazing achievement if priorities 1 and 2 can be realized by Open Repositories 2017. It’s therefore key that we keep the scope limited and resist the urge to overload the developers in this project with additional priorities.
Responsibilities
Two subgroups are currently being formed to take on the development work.
REST API
Because the UI will interact with DSpace through the REST API, the REST API will be redeveloped and extended in order to offer all of the functionality that the UI needs.
The REST API developments are led by committer Andrea Bollini, who is one of the key stakeholders in the JSPUI community.
Angular 2
The actual angular 2 front end implementation is led by Art Lowel. Art Lowel is Atmire’s head of research and development. He was responsible for Atmire’s efforts in the UI prototyping challenge. In the past, Art was also the driving force behind the Mirage 1 and Mirage 2 XMLUI themes.
Developers
Both Art and Andrea are actively looking for developer contributions in their respective subgroups. In the period leading up to Open Repositories, they will work in a sprint model with concrete development goals scheduled out in periods of a few weeks.
Interested developers or institutions that want to contribute developer resources are requested to reach out to Art (art@atmire.com) or Andrea (Andrea.Bollini@4science.it) directly.
Role of DCAT and the repository manager community
At certain points in the development process, when specific sets of features of DSpace are being replicated in the new Angular 2, there will be an opportunity to provide feedback.
During the Nov 8th meeting, we will talk about the organization of this outreach group, including:
Responsibilities
Organizing feedback phases and prioritizing the feedback points that are submitted to developers
Assisting the developer team in communicating progress to the community
Commitment sought of interested members
First estimate 1~2 hours per week on average, in the period leading up to open repositories
Communication between the outreach group and the developers
…
Communication between the outreach group and the DSpace repository community
DCAT mailing list in combination with the general mailing list for specific feedback phases?
Communication within the outreach group
- Weekly/bi-weekly contact?
Preparing for the call
Please read the agenda and consider to which extent you or your institution would like to be involved in the DSpace 7 UI work.
If you can join the call, or are willing to comment on the topics submitted via the meeting page, please add your name, institution, and repository URL to the Call Attendees section below.
Meeting notes
...
Call Attendees
- Bram Luyten (Atmire)
- Luiz Claudio Franca dos Santos
- Felicity Dykas (University of Missouri)
- Ignace Deroost - Atmire
- Monica Rivero (Rice University)
- Mariya Maistrovskaya (University of Toronto)
- Allen Clayton (UT Dallas)
- Pauline Ward (University of Edinburgh)
- Elias Tzoc (Miami University)
- Terrence W Brady (Georgetown University)
- Suzanne Chase (Georgetown University)
