Joomla development & release strategy (EN) door Andrea Tarr

1. Joomla Development &
Release Strategy
Andrea Tarr
S

2. Outline
History
Development Strategy
Open Development Process
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3. History
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4. Earlier Release Cycles
S Joomla 1.0 was released in September 2005
S Joomla 1.5.0 was released in January 2008
S Joomla 1.6.0 was released in January 2011
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5. Too Long Between Releases
S Contributors don’t see code used
S We can’t keep up with current releases for third-party
programs like PHP, MySQL, editors, MooTools, etc.
S The Project is perceived as stagnant
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6. Development
Strategy
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7. Objectives
S To continue to offer a stable and reliable platform for our
current and future user base.
S To make innovation available to users and developers on a
more timely basis.
S To make it easy for developers to contribute code to the
project at any time.
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8. Major Principles
S Maintain a stable trunk
S Predictable, incremental software releases;
S Strong backward compatibility support;
S A sound security policy;
S An open development process.
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9. Stable Trunk
S Satisfy the Joomla Coding Standards
S Pass all automated tests
S Provide automated tests for all new API classes & methods
S Provide basic documentation for all new additions to the
code base
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10. Predictable, Incremental
Software Releases
S Move to Timed Releases: Release on specific dates rather
than when certain features are all ready
S Contributors can see code released quickly
S Easier to keep up with other software (PHP, libraries,
editors, etc.)
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11. Timed Releases
S January 2011: Joomla 1.6.0 (should have been 2.0.0)
S July 2011: Joomla 1.7.0 (should have been 2.1.0)
S January 2012: Joomla 2.5
S Minor releases are released about every 6-8 weeks
depending on security issues or major bugs.
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12. Version Strategy
S Major.Minor[.Maintenance]
S This numbering scheme starts completely with series 3
S If we had started with this instead of 1.6, for example:
S 1.6.0 = 2.0.0
S 1.7.0 = 2.1.0
S 2.5.0 = 2.5.0
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13. Major Release
S 2.x.x -> 3.0.0
S High degree of change
S Massive Architectural and/or user interface changes
S Substantial changes to underlying data model
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14. Minor Release
S 3.0.x -> 3.1.0
S High degree of continuity, both architecturally and in the
data model
S Includes new or improved functionality
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15. Maintenance Release
S 3.0.0 -> 3.0.1
S Fixes to bugs, security vulnerabilities and usability issues
only
S New functionality is not introduced unless specifically
addressing a problem with the previous release that must be
handled before the next minor release*
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16. Release Life Cycle
S Alpha: Not feature complete, not suitable for production
environments, intended for testing
S Beta: Feature complete, not suitable for production environments,
intended for testing and bug fixing. New features generally not
introduced once we get to beta
S Release Candidate: A beta that will go GA unless critical
problems emerge
S General Availability: Stable, ready for mass distribution
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17. Release Phases
S Maintenance (6 weeks)
S After a release reaches General Availability, it is still the main focus
S Feature Merge (3 months)
S Focus moves to merging new features for the next Minor or Major release.
S Release Testing (2 months)
S Beta period
S Online help documentation and translation strings are finalized
S Third party extension developers should start testing for backward
compatibility issues
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18. Support Lifetime
S Standard Term Support (STS)
S Supported approximately 6 months
S End of life (EOL) 1 month after General Availability of next
major or minor release
S Long Term Support (LTS)
S Supported until 3 months after the release of a new Long Term
Support release which is usually about 21 months
S 1.5 security releases extended to at least September 2012
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19. Open
Development
Process
Open and accessible to anyone
who wishes to participate
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20. Aligning with a Vision
S Difficulty bringing together people who want certain things done
with volunteers who want to do it
S Difficulty if volunteers want to do things that not many people
want or need
S Plan a theme or vision for each minor or major release
S Comes from, individual contributors, Joomla Idea Pool, Joomla
Leadership Team, etc.
S Can still make code contributions outside of the vision
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21. Collaboration &
Communications
S CMS Issue Tracker/CMS Feature Tracker to discuss specific issues
S Google group lists for formal discussions
S CMS Core
S Platform
S General (Extension developers)
S See developer.joomla.org for links
S Github
S Production Working Groups
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22. Production Working Groups –
Permanent Groups
S Permanent PWG’s
S Joomla Bug Squad (JBS)
S Translation Team (TT)
S User Experience (UX)
S Documentation
S Joomla Security Strike Team (JSST)
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23. Production Working Groups –
For Specific Projects
S Update & Migration S UCM
S Multi site S Unit Tests for the CMS
S Search S Search
S Web Services S Database Performance
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24. Questions &
Suggestions
Slides:
http://tarrconsulting.com/
presentations/jd12nl/devstrat-
jdnl.pdf
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