Developers Meeting on Thurs, January 9, 2025

Time/Location

09 Jan 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 at OR2025 - Open Repositories 2025 Call for Proposals. Proposals Due on January 13.
  2. 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
  3. DSpace 8.1 / 7.6.3 releases (date not yet finalized)
     1. As discussed the last few weeks, we'd like to push out bug-fixes & performance improvements to 8.x and 7.6.x.  A few mentioned priorities...
     2. 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)
     3. Other performance-related PRs:
        1. Frontend performance-related PRs: https://github.com/DSpace/dspace-angular/pulls?q=is%3Aopen+label%3A%22performance+%2F+caching%22+is%3Apr
        2. Backend performance-related PRs: https://github.com/DSpace/dspace/pulls?q=is%3Aopen+label%3A%22performance+%2F+caching%22+is%3Apr
  4. Ongoing Discussions:
     1. High CPU with DSpace 7 SSR: https://github.com/DSpace/dspace-angular/issues/3110
     2. Simplifying the Installation Process: https://github.com/DSpace/dspace-angular/issues/3184
  5. Other topics
• 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)
  
  • Discussion of CMS-activities in DSpace:  Several new PRs are adding some basic CMS-light options into DSpace's user interface (namely around Collection/Community homepages).  We should review the approaches and ensure that we agree with the direction:
    • Custom header/footer for Collections: https://github.com/DSpace/dspace-angular/pull/3256
    • Custom styles for Collections: https://github.com/DSpace/dspace-angular/pull/3250
  • 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 
• Scholaris Team

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

Release Schedule

• First deadline coming up is Feb 21 for feature PR creation
• Other deadlines are outline in the release schedule (top of this page) and will follow the Feb 21 deadline
• Any question regarding the release schedule, please reach out to Tim

OR2025

• CfP closes on Monday, January 13
• Proposal ideas are described on DSpace at OR2025, please feel free to add your proposals to this page
• Please feel free to reach out to Tim or the OR planning committee directly if you have questions

9.0 Planning

• Steering's priorities are listed on DSpace Release 9.0 Status
• No further updates at this point

7.6.3 and 8.1 Release

• Want to get performance related fixes reviewed and tested before release
• Tentative deadline for release is end of January, depending on how the work on performance related PRs progresses
• Reviewed PRs that need code review / testing:
  • Separate REST APIs for public and private
    • Giuseppe has been working on the backend, got updated today; he is also working on the front end
    • Need help in testing this; feedback from at least 1 individual in a realistic (similar to production) test environment would be very welcome
    • Tim will try it out on his end, but is missing the realistic test environment
    • Goal is to get this tested within the next week

• • Discussed other performance-related PRs:
    • Front-end:
      • #3709: feedback on this is welcome; consider making this configurable
      • #3694: is moving forward, if anyone wants to take a look, please feel free to do so
      • #3682: had a lot of testing and feedback recently; want to add it to the config.example file; if anyone else wants to take a look, please do so
    • Back-end:
      • #10076: no updates on this PR; would be great to get further testing and reviewing on this
      • #10030: reviewers and testers needed; not a large PR; updates the CSV export process; Nick will review
      • #9869: Currently a merge conflict, needs to get updated; anyone who wants to help testing this is welcome

Ongoing Discussions

• High CPU with DSpace 7 SSR: no updates
• Simplifying the Installation Process: if you have ideas, reach out to Tim; good to have done sooner than later 

9.0 Board Review Discussion

• Discussed #9804
• Discussed #3307: large PR, updating translation files; contains merge conflicts; probably good for 9.0, but hard to backport

Action items

• Start a discussion around squashing PRs on the mailing list Kim Shepherd