Denver project planning meeting

(minus) the notes below have been cleaned up and moved to the MGT space. See http://confluence.sakaiproject.org/display/MGT/Sakai+2x+Project+Planning+Goals. Consider this page obsolete. It will be deleted in a few days.

2.x tentative goals for sakai-2.8.0

Enhancements

1. Implement "Hybrid" solution (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
4. Tool updates (currently not fully defined). Recommend that info regarding the scope of new changes is understood BEFORE the initiation of the feature freeze (Clay lead).

basiclti-1.2
entitybroker-1.4
msgcntr-2.8
polls-1.4
profile2-1.4
samigo-2.8
sitestats-2.2
others ?

5. Add capability to edit system properties at run-time.
6. Tomcat 6 compatibility
7. UI improvements (easy wins)
8. What to do about Gradebook/Gradebook2/OnCourse gradebook? Enhance the underlying services to support the gradebook api.

Deprecations

1. Blogger, reports, warehouse (deprecated 2.7, to be removed in 2.8).
2. Profile2/Profile/Roster dependencies; fix dependency tree and deprecate Profile (expected removal 2.9).

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 work focused on making Sakai more accessible.
4. Reduce/eliminate roadblocks preventing full internationalization of sakai-2.8
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.
8. Separate Gradebook tool from underlying service. Steak dinner bonus on offer if this work gets done (csev). Also analyze Oncourse gradebook changes for inclusion in core.

Repackage core capabilities to permit off-cycle "indie" releases

1. add entitybroker core into the kernel.
2. assignments
3. portfolios, metaobj
4. mailsender
5. 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.

Communications

1. Create changecontrol mailing list for reporting on new releases. This would include READMEs in the released code that provide release notes info.
2. Leverage Maven site generation capabilities (mvn site:site).

Schedule

Commitments

Leadership

Recommend the creation of an Apache-style 2.x PMC to work with the Product Council and other groups.

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.
2. Create an "app store", dynamic install mechanism (proof-of-concept, will not impact 2.8 release timeline)
3. 2x endorsed contrib projects: repackage following projects as indie releases (as time permits)

Assignments2
BBB
BlogWow or Clog (formerly Blog3)
Gradebook2
iTunesU
Mailsender
OpenSyllabus
SCORM
Yaft
others ?

Next steps

1. Survey potential new features in the pipe (Clay, lead).
2. Refine release communications plan (Anthony, David, leads).
3. Define 2.8 schedule; lay out plans for 2.9+. Recommend time-based release (Freeze: Sept; release March).
4. 2x roadmap (owner ?)
5. Pursue indie release proposal with OSP team (Anth, Nate).
6. Clean up proposal doc (Clay, Anth).
7. Draft a 2x PMC statement of intent.
8. Get approval for creation of 2x PMC mailing list.