Developers Meeting on Thurs, December 5, 2024

Time/Location

05 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 December 18.
  2. DSpace 9.0 release (due May 2025)
     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" NEW PR: https://github.com/DSpace/dspace-angular/pull/3677
     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. (Add 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)
  
  • 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

• Reminder of the draft 9.0 release schedule
  • This schedule has been approved by DCAT
  • It should be considered "mostly final".  We will finalize in next week's Dev Mtg (simply because some key developers are missing today)
• Reminder of OR2025 call for proposals.  Send in your proposals by Dec 18 for any talks/workshops/webinars you may want to present
• DSpace 8.1 / 7.6.3 releases
  • Date of release not finalized.  It's essentially "as soon as possible". 
  • There's been a LOT of recent PRs related to performance fixes.  Tim would like to see those reviewed (tested / code reviewed) before we release 8.1, as they may be beneficial to add to 8.1
    • Angular performance fix PRs: https://github.com/DSpace/dspace-angular/pulls?q=is%3Apr+is%3Aopen+label%3A%22performance+%2F+caching%22
    • Backend performance fix PRs: https://github.com/DSpace/DSpace/pulls?q=is%3Apr+is%3Aopen+label%3A%22performance+%2F+caching%22
  • This may mean that 8.1 / 7.6.3 are more likely to occur in early January
• Infinite Load Times when editing/browsing Items": https://github.com/DSpace/dspace-angular/pull/3677
  • This is almost ready to merge.  Tim plans to review today/tomorrow
• 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)
  • These are waiting on code updates from 4Science
  • Also need more testing!  We'd love to find someone with a test environment where they can deploy these PRs to try them out in a real environment
• High CPU with DSpace 7 SSR: https://github.com/DSpace/dspace-angular/issues/3110
  • Several recent PRs relate to the discussions here.  These are high priority for 8.1 as well!
  • Exclude search/browse component from Angular SSR: https://github.com/DSpace/dspace-angular/pull/3709  (NEEDS TESTERS)
  • Restrict Angular SSR to paths in the sitemap: https://github.com/DSpace/dspace-angular/pull/3682 (NEEDS TESTERS)
• Team code review on 9.0 board.  Reviewed two PRs:
  • https://github.com/DSpace/DSpace/pull/9760  - Code looks good overall.  Needs testing
    • Questions about whether this should also include basic Flyway migrations to ensure the new constraint is properly enforced & doesn't cause errors for existing users
  • https://github.com/DSpace/DSpace/pull/9728 - Code looks good.  Just needs a quick test

Action items