Sakai 2x Project Planning Goals

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Last updated: Sept 01, 2010 by Former user (Deleted)Version comment
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Below is the list of issues discussed and initiatives proposed during the 2x planning meetings at Denver. No new capabilities (e.g., OpenSyllabus, Assignments2, Mailsender) were recommended for 2.8.0 since a working plan exists to freeze code in September 2010. It is expected that a number of core tools will feature enhancements but the majority of 2.8 work will focus on the provision of additional RESTful interfaces for 2x core tools, code cleanup (e.g., fix Java 1.6 compatibility issues), indie release repackaging (e.g., assignments, osp et al) and upgrading Sakai 2x to run in Tomcat 6 (this should further improve performance).

1.0 Leadership

A number of attendees expressed a desire to create an Apache-style 2.x technical PMC (project management committee) to both nuture and enhance the 2x ecosystem. This is actually an old idea, dating back to at least the Newport Beach conference. Key members of the community met in Denver to discuss and organize a 2.x PMC, a technical committee envisioned as complimenting rather than competing with the Product Council initiative.

Seven Sakai fellows are spearheading the formation of this group: Seth Theriault, David Horwitz, Jean-Francois Leveque, Steve Swinsburg, Beth Kirschner, Alan Berg and Aaron Zeckoski. Two Product Councillors, John Lewis and Noah Botimer, also support the initiative as does Chuck Severance (Sakai Board), Megan May (former Sakai Foundation QA Director) and Anthony Whyte.

2.0 Schedule (time-based)

2.9+: TBD
2.8.0: 15 Sept 2010 new feature freeze, 1 March 2011 release
2.7.1: TBD (Aug/Sept 2010)
2.6.3: release ASAP following Jira triage plus merging of all relevant security fixes to 2.6.x (mid-July)
2.5: no further releases planned but we do plan to merge relevant security fixes to 2.5.x

3.0 Communications/Documentation

  1. Create change control mailing list for announcing new releases (indie, maintenance, general releases) and maintaining a change control archive. Further leverage and improve Jira.
  2. Expand community commitment to producing 2x-related documentation, including screen casts.
  3. Further leverage Maven release site generation capabilities (mvn site:site) for comprehensive tool info, reporting, javadocs, etc.. Current sites require Sakai skin. Example: http://source.sakaiproject.org/release/kernel/1.1.8/

4.0 Infrastructure

  1. Add 2.7.x and 2.8.x QA servers (2.7.x offer from Hull)
  2. Recruit 2.6.x, 2.7.x branch managers (offers from Hull and Whitman).
  3. Upgrade Jira/Confluence to latest releases (July/August timeframe)

5.0 sakai-2.8.0

5.1 Enhancements

  1. Provide "hybrid" enhancements (basiclti plus entitybroker REST feeds covering core capabilities).
  2. Provide auto-registration of events by all core capabilities (via entity broker).
  3. Upgrade to CKeditor (requires commitment from Michigan at a minimum).
  4. Relocate entitybroker services to the kernel to simplify dependency tree.
  5. Tool updates (currently not fully defined). Info regarding the scope of tool changes will be reviewed BEFORE the 2.8.0 feature freeze.
    1. admin tools
    2. assignments
    3. basiclti 1.2
    4. entitybroker 1.4
    5. msgcntr 2.8
    6. profile2 1.4
    7. samigo 2.8 (Lydia Li has provided a list of new features; work is already in trunk)
    8. sitestats 2.2
    9. other tool teams need to be surveyed (see List of Planned 2.8.0 Changes).
  6. Add capability to edit system properties at run-time.
  7. Upgrade Sakai 2x to run in Tomcat 6 (performance gains expected)
  8. UI improvements (easy wins--to be refined).
  9. Review Gradebook/Gradebook2/OnCourse gradebook variations. Enhance the underlying services to support varying gradebook flavors. Steak dinner bonus on offer if this work gets done (csev).

No new capabilities (e.g., assignments2, opensyllabus) are contemplated at this time given tight release schedule.

5.2 Deprecations

  1. Blogger, reports, warehouse (deprecated 2.7.0, to be removed in 2.8.0).
  2. Profile2/Profile/Roster dependencies; fix dependency tree and deprecate Profile (expected removal 2.9).

No other deprecations planned.

5.3 General code refactoring

  1. Ensure all tools are Java 1.6 compatible (eliminate need to specify the workaround system property -Dsun.lang.ClassLoader.allowArraySyntax=true)
  2. Enforce strict quote escaping in *.jsp files (eliminate need to specify the workaround system property -Dorg.apache.jasper.compiler.Parser.STRICT_QUOTE_ESCAPING=false required since Tomcat 5.5.27).
  3. Continue 2.7 work focused on Sakai 2x accessibility improvements (Accessibility WG)
  4. Reduce/eliminate roadblocks preventing full internationalization of sakai-2.8 (i18n WG)
  5. Audit tools that are not group aware and add capability after cost/benefit analaysis
  6. Improve database conversion script process.
  7. Eliminate Profile2 dependencies on Profile.

5.4 New "core" Indie releases (proposed)

  1. assignments
  2. portfolios, metaobj
  3. webservices (DONE)
  4. others ?

Note: this work may require releasing other Sakai core projects "independently" in order to provide stable assignments and portfolio binary artifacts (e.g. metaobj). An audit will be required to determine the feasibility/desirability of this work.

6.0 Other initiatives

  1. Create a charter for the Security Work Group, elect a security lead and ensure that both pro-active security audits and the quick resolution of security issues are treated as top priorities (Marquard, lead).
  2. Create an "app store" providing a dynamic install mechanism (proof-of-concept, will not impact 2.8 release timeline).
  3. Repackage popular contrib projects as indie releases as time permits in order to simplify integration with Sakai 2.
    1. Assignments2
    2. BBB
    3. BlogWow
    4. Clog (formerly Blog3)
    5. Gradebook2
    6. iTunesU
    7. Mailsender
    8. OpenSyllabus
    9. SCORM
    10. Yaft
    11. others ?