Developers Meeting on Thurs, December 19, 2024

Time/Location

19 Dec 2024 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. "Infinite Load Times when editing/browsing Items" https://github.com/DSpace/dspace-angular/pull/3677 (Merged to "main". PRs for 8.x/7.x still open)
     3. 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)
  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
     1. Commit structure guidelines for PRs? - small question / idea by Kim S
        1. I wondered if we should have some soft rules for e.g. rebasing/squashing PRs when the commit list gets too long (especially if half of them are just "fix imports", "fix lint", etc - which I am very guilty of!), and asking that PRs not contain merge commits so they are easier to port around and cherry-pick.
           I feel like this would make our git tree easier to read and use. I'm also aware that requiring squashing or interactive rebases might make it hard for reviewers to follow though since it might not be clear if the reviewed changes are the same..
• 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: 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 
• Regrets: 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

Dev Meeting Schedule

• Today will be the last dev meeting for this year
• First meeting of 2025 is scheduled for Jan 9

9.0 Release Schedule

• The schedule has now been finalized (see top of this page)

DSpace at OR25

• The proposal deadline has been extended to Jan 13
• The main proposals we are submitting are on the wiki page

8.1 / 7.6.3 Release

• Waiting for PRs to get reviewed and merged
• Infinite load time issues: has been fully merged 
• Public / Private Rest API URLs (frontend and backend PRs): still waiting on testing 
  • Ideally looking for someone to test this on a demo site
  • If you have a place you can test this, feedback would be greatly appreciated, please add comments
• Other performance fixes that could make it into 7.6.3 and 8.1 depending on how complex they turn out to be:
  • Front-end on the dspace-angular board
  • Back-end on the dspace board
  • If anyone wants to help test, code review or claim any of these, please feel free to do so 

Other topics - Commit structure guidelines for PRs?

• Should we have soft rules for rebasing/squashing PRs when the commit list gets too long?
• For committers, there is the functionality to "squash and merge" under "Merge PR"
• Alternatively, we could offer training how developers can squash their own commits
• This discussion needs to be continued (also within the Committers group); Kim Shepherd will start a discussion on the mailing list

Board Review

• A lot of PRs in the "Reviewer Approved" section were tested - thank you; Tim will work through this list and merge as quickly as possible; if anything seems missing (such as tests), Tim will message you
• Went through and reviewed PRs in the "Needs Reviewer Assigned" column
  • #3256: need feedback on this first before getting into a formal review; please try this out and test it and provide feedback if possible
  • #9753: assigned toKim Shepherd to test this one
  • #2869
    • Fron-end PR #3286: needs update to the specs, automated tests
    • Back-end PR #9793: needs automated tests, REST contract needs updated, then tested manually; looks good overall

Action items

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