Strategic Plan for Proposed Public Stable Release of Sahana 1.0

DRAFT posted by Mark Prutsalis on 2/13/09 updated 3/2/09 updated 6/29/09

Proposed public and stable 1.0 release of Sahana is to be based on and limited to the functionality and features of RC 0.6.2.2 as decided by the lazy concensus of the PMC.

Before this is finalized, an opportunity to nominate additional features and functionality as being mission-critical to any 1.0 release is going out to the Sahana-user, Sahana-maindev, and humanitarian-ict communities as well as those who have deployed and used Sahana in post-disaster environments where enhancements were made to the codebase - such as recent deployments, customization and l10n for:

• China
  • review the bug fixes and other extensions contributed by the IBM China team after the Sichuan deployment
  • itemize list of modules affected
  • determine extent to which modules should be merged or replaced with Sichuan code
• Myanmar
• the City of New York Office of Emergency Management
• others (please add and provide contacts)

In addition, the following additional tasks need to be completed to finalize the functionality and features to be included in Sahana 1.0:

• Review open feature requests for mission criticality
• Review open branches waiting for merger into main trunk for mission criticality

Once the scope is decided, the following development tasks need to be carried out:

• Close all relevant bugs on tracker
• Clean up Sahana License Dependencies - see 3rd Party Licenses
• Follow release process and conduct a final QA according to procedures defined on the Development Wiki
• Single file download and packaged installation program for all OS (esp. Windows XP/Vista and Linux)
• Decide on and migrate from CVS to GIT and/or BZR as part of release process

Other tasks:

• Write a user-friendly read-me to package with the installation
• Revise/rewrite documentation and installation instructions for the less technically inclined
• Legal Stuff - is the LGPL license issue resolved??
  • incorporate license text into package rather than link

Based on some delays, I updated the project plan to have Sahana 1.0 released on August 15, 2009. This should be possible given the limited scope of the release now planned, assuming that enough volunteers commit to final bug fixing, QA and packaging issues.

1. Merging of bug-fixes and enhancements from China / Sichuan deployment (for 1.0)
2. Staff deployment and other enhancements from NYC deployment (for 1.1+)
3. Make an RC branch off of trunk past 0.6.2.2 branch to capture many enhancements made for the 1.0 release – let release team work on it to capture bug fixes for trunk from other branches.
4. Review list of bug fixes required for proposed 1.0 branch and trunk, and update tracker accordingly, such that experimental development can continue towards features planned for 1.1+ releases (currently noted as 0.7 and 0.8 on the wiki – plus GSOC 2009 projects).
5. Windows and other supported OS installers to include as much auto configuration as possible and easy to follow prompts where user input is needed to set-up Sahana
6. Document the installation package creation process on the wiki such that future release teams can follow it.
7. Complete third party library review
8. include the LGPL license text in the base directory of the package
9. Add a Right-To-Left oriented theme to the base package

This list will remain open until the end of March 2009 to allow for discussion of ideas at Sahana 2009 Conference and BarCamp.

Scope: Limited to 0.6.2.2 code and features. No additional features or functionality being added that does not already exist in 0.6.2.2 code. One possible exception: inclusion of a right-to-left oriented theme to the base package. Is this ready?

Bugs: Only one reported open bug for 0.6.2.2 branch n- Home module – php tag fix – reported by Tim McNamara on 4/14/09 – patch provided – needs to be applied, tested and closed.

In addition, there are five open bugs reported for the 0.6 branch. These need to be confirmed as present in 0.6.2.2 branch – then closed.

Overall – there are 42 reported open bugs (some of these are feature requests). Many (18) are not categorized in a group as existing in any specific branch or the trunk. They need to be reviewed to see if present in 0.6.2.2 branch, then closed. [FYI – 18 open bugs are reported for CVS trunk]

Tracker should be cleaned up – all bugs should be categorized into proper group (release 0.6.2.2 and/or CVS trunk).

License Dependencies: A scan of the 0.6 branch revealed several incompatible licenses included within the Sahana code (i.e. phplot and lastRSS) – see 3rd_party. A suggestion had been made to rescan the code prior to release. In any case, a decision needs to be made and clean-up should occur prior to release. PMC to confirm LGPL license version to include/package with Sahana release.

Release Process: See release_process for process. Need to schedule the following activities:

• Branching of release (probably not needed – will use 0.6.2.2 branch)
• QA & final bug fixing
• Update date & version strings (user-friendly readme text)
• Inclusion of license text in base directory
• Packaging for various OS platforms (single-file downloads)
• Final testing of release packages
• Complete update installation and user documentation
• Prepare announcements for release
  

Next steps: IRC Chat with release team and volunteers within about a week. Need to make assignments for bug fixing, license dependency cleanup, QA, and other activities. I have set up doodle to find out everyone’s available time – please try to respond as soon as possible as I’d like to set the meeting by the end of the day tomorrow. Please follow this link to set your preference for meeting time: http://www.doodle.com/kin9nmevk8cuu797