Developers Meeting on Thurs, February 6, 2025

Time/Location

06 Feb 2025 from 15:00-16:00 UTC

Location: https://lyrasis.zoom.us/my/dspace?pwd=RTk4QUhISnhPRi9YenVrTFJKbDllQT09 (Meeting ID: 502 527 3040).  Passcode: dspace

• More connection options available at DSpace Meeting Room

Agenda

• Discussion Topics - If you have a topic you'd like to have added to the agenda, please just add it. 
  
  1. DSpace 9.0 release (see release schedule above)
     1. 9.0 Board is created: https://github.com/orgs/DSpace/projects/31/
     2. Early ideas/brainstorms captured at DSpace Release 9.0 Status
  2. DSpace 8.1 / 7.6.3 releases (Tentative Release Date: Feb 4 or Feb 6?)
     1. Draft Release Notes.  Please review for accuracy
        1. 7.6.3 Release Notes (DRAFT): https://wiki.lyrasis.org/display/DSDOC7x/Release+Notes#ReleaseNotes-7.6.3ReleaseNotes
        2. 8.1 Release Notes (DRAFT): https://wiki.lyrasis.org/display/DSDOC8x/Release+Notes#ReleaseNotes-8.1ReleaseNotes
     2. 8.1 / 7.6.3 "To Do" List:
        
        1. Using both public/private REST API URLs for better performance (Frontend PR: https://github.com/DSpace/dspace-angular/pull/3358, Backend PR: https://github.com/DSpace/DSpace/pull/9856) (APPROVED)
     3. 8.1 / 7.6.3 COMPLETED
        1. Restrict Angular SSR to paths in sitemap (https://github.com/DSpace/dspace-angular/pull/3682)
        2. Exclude search & browse components from Angular SSR (https://github.com/DSpace/dspace-angular/pull/3709) 
        3. Prevent request with page size of 9999 (https://github.com/DSpace/dspace-angular/pull/3694) 
        4. Fix issue where scoped browse throws errors (https://github.com/DSpace/dspace-angular/pull/3845)
        5. Add ORCID icon with tooltip (https://github.com/DSpace/dspace-angular/pull/3345) 
        6. Handles versioning for ORCID publications (https://github.com/DSpace/DSpace/pull/9718) 
        7. Fix redirect of bitstream URLs with spaces in filename (7.x only) https://github.com/DSpace/dspace-angular/pull/3876
        8. Processes should only be failed after a Tomcat restart (https://github.com/DSpace/DSpace/pull/10158)
        9.  On error in DOI organizer bulk operations, continue instead of stopping (https://github.com/DSpace/DSpace/pull/9835)
        10.  Browse Performance Fixes (https://github.com/DSpace/dspace-angular/pull/3846)
        11. Accessibility: Support for disabled elements for screen readers: https://github.com/DSpace/dspace-angular/pull/3268
        12. Accessibility: Make reorder buttons keyboard accessible: https://github.com/DSpace/dspace-angular/pull/3372
        13.  Error logged when authenticating: https://github.com/DSpace/dspace-angular/issues/3759 (Fixed by PR: https://github.com/DSpace/dspace-angular/pull/3948)
     4. Delayed for a later bug-fix release
        1. Indexing speed improvements - periodically uncache entities while indexing (https://github.com/DSpace/DSpace/pull/10351) (Testers did not see any speed improvements)
        2. Support configurable limit for exporting items (https://github.com/DSpace/DSpace/pull/10030) (Seems to need more work. See discussion in PR comments)
  3. Other topics
     1. (Add other topics here)
• Board Review:
  • 9.0 Project Board - Review PRs collaboratively or Assign new PRs to volunteers to code review and/or test.
  • Backlog Board - Are there any tickets here stuck in the "Triage" column?  We'd like to keep this column as small as possible.
  • 8.x and 7.6.x Maintenance Board - Known bugs can be found here, along with any backported bug fixes.
• Upcoming Topics: (Let us know if there are topics you want to discuss in future weeks)
  
  • Ongoing Discussions (temporarily put on hold until there are updates):
    1. High CPU with DSpace 7 SSR: https://github.com/DSpace/dspace-angular/issues/3110  (This should be alleviated through several SSR related performance improvements coming in 7.6.3 and 8.1)
    2. Simplifying the Installation Process: https://github.com/DSpace/dspace-angular/issues/3184
  • Discussion: how to keep message catalogues in sync? https://github.com/DSpace/dspace-angular/issues/3334
  • Discussion/proposal around refactoring and simplifying Live Import and External Data frameworks: https://github.com/DSpace/DSpace/issues/9758
    (nothing concrete yet but would be great to get thoughts added to this issue and maybe find some collaborators)

Attendees

• Tim Donohue 
• Holger Lenz 

• Art Lowel (Atmire) 

• Andrea Bollini (4Science)

• Giuseppe Digilio (4Science) 
• Paulo Graça
• Mark H. Wood 
• Grazia Quercia (4Science)
• Corrado Lombardi (4Science) 
• Julian Timal (eScire) 
• Martin Walk 
• Melissa Anez 
• Oliver Goldschmidt 
• Hrafn Malmquist 
• Pascal-Nicolas Becker 
• Pierre Lasou 
• Kim Shepherd 
• Nicholas Woodward 
• Sascha Szott 
• Marsa Haoua 
• Regrets: Scholaris Team (We've got staff training, see you in 2 weeks! )

Current Work

Project Boards

• DSpace 9.0 board: https://github.com/orgs/DSpace/projects/31
• DSpace 8.x and 7.6.x board: https://github.com/orgs/DSpace/projects/29

To quickly find PRs assigned to you for review, visit https://github.com/pulls/review-requested  (This is also available in the GitHub header under "Pull Requests → Review Requests")

Goals for 9.0

To be decided by DSpace Steering Group with feedback from Leadership Group. 

Early brainstorms at DSpace Release 9.0 Status.  Please feel free to add your own brainstorms or link in tickets that you wish to be considered. 

Goals for 8.1 / 7.6.3

Deadline is TBD for both 8.1 and 7.6.3.  Bug fix releases do not have fixed/scheduled deadlines. Instead, the developer team will determine when to create a release based on the significance of the issues to solve. (e.g. If major issues are fixed, then a bug fix release will occur more rapidly.  If minor issues are found, then a bug fix release may be delayed until sufficient fixes have been made to warrant a release)

• Bug/security fixes only.  These minor releases will not include any new features.
  • New "themeable components" (for dspace-angular) are allowed in bug fix releases, provided that they don't significantly modify component behavior or similar.
  • Accessibility fixes are also allowed in bug fix releases, provided they don't significantly modify component behavior or similar.
• Bug fix PRs should be created against "main" branch where possible. The "main" branch has the most strict code style rules. (i.e. PRs created against dspace-7_x  are becoming more difficult to port forward.)
• Per our support policy, bug fixes are only guaranteed to be ported back to 8.x.  That said, where possible, we'll try to backport bug fixes (especially significant ones) to 7.6.x.
  • Keep in mind, if a specific bug fix is important to you in 7.6.x, then it is best to create two PRs (one for main and one for "dspace-7_x").  If you are able to provide a backport version of the PR, then we will merge it alongside the "main" branch version.
  • NOTE: In many scenarios, a backport to "dspace-8_x" should be possible to automate using the "port to [branch]" labels & the "Port merged Pull Request" GitHub Action

Try "Pull Request Trading" for a quicker review

Do you have a PR stuck in "under review" that you really want to see move forward?  Or maybe it's someone else's PR but you want to get it more attention?

See Trading reviews on Pull Requests for how to get immediate attention to that PR!

Notes

• Reminders about upcoming 9.0 deadlines.  See 9.0 schedule at the top of agenda.
• Final steps for 8.1 / 7.6.3.
  • Final reminder to review the release notes for both releases (see links above) if you haven't already 
  • The last "must have" PRs have been approved & will be merged after the meeting: 
    • Using both public/private REST API URLs for better performance (Frontend PR: https://github.com/DSpace/dspace-angular/pull/3358, Backend PR: https://github.com/DSpace/DSpace/pull/9856) 
  • Final step is to get these PRs backported to 8.x (done) and 7.x (done)
  • Once all of these PRs are merged, Tim will start the release process for 8.1 & 7.6.3
  • Likely that will begin either later today (Feb 6) or early tomorrow (Feb 7).
  • Release Announcement will go out at least a few hours after the release is completed.  This ensures that everything released has propagated to Maven, and DockerHub, etc.
    • Expect to see the announcement on mailing lists on either Friday or Monday. 
• Question: What is the status of the DSpace & DSpace-CRIS potential merger discussions? Have the groups been created to discuss this?
  • Tim answered:  In the past week these groups were finalized.  There's a Technology group and a Strategy group, and both have a final list of members.
  • Both groups are "invite only" as we need to have a small enough team to discuss these issues.  Both groups have a mix of members who use either DSpace or DSpace-CRIS (or both).
  • Group meeting notes will be public , so that everyone can understand what is being discussed in these groups.
  • Tim & Holger will try to bring general summaries of these discussions (and link in past group meeting notes) to these Developer Meetings.
  • The first meeting of the Technology group is next Thurs (Feb 13) after this Developer Meeting & will be meeting every other week.  Initial meetings will be trying to get everyone on the team up-to-speed on DSpace-CRIS (especially) and the reasons why we might want to merge. So, it may be a few weeks until we have any significant updates to share.
• 9.0 Board team reviews. Reviewed four PRs today:
  • https://github.com/DSpace/DSpace/pull/9610 - Questions arose around using "replace" instead of "add" operation.  This should likely be an "add" operation.  Tim will summarize in comments on PR (DONE)
  • https://github.com/DSpace/DSpace/pull/9820 - Looks good now that we understand what it's purpose is.  Just needs testing.  Assigned to Guiseppe & Tim
  • https://github.com/DSpace/DSpace/pull/9823 - Code looks reasonable. Could use some unit/integration tests (if possible to add).  Needs manual testing though
  • https://github.com/DSpace/DSpace/pull/9821 - Code looks good.  Some questions about trying to use the HttpClientBuilder.setProxy() method inline.  Tim will add comments to PR (DONE)

Action items