[Deploying Sakai] MT deprecation recommendations for 2.7 (fwd)

[Stephen Marquard]

[I didn't see the original of this on the management list - perhaps Aaron isn't subscribed to that or something and it bounced?]

JCR is used by at least one contrib tool (NYU's Memory Palace). It was included in the kernel originally so that tools could use it if they wished to. I think this needs a clearer survey of current use and intentions for future use by contrib tools before it gets removed. I'm referring here to the JCR service itself rather than the CHS JCR adapter.

The case for removing Presentation seems the weakest. Saying "it is not maintained" isn't really an argument because presumably if it isn't maintained, it would fall into the remit of the MT to do so. So an argument that "it is not maintainable" would be stronger but I don't think that's the case here and it doesn't exactly have a lot of open JIRAs (5 major, 2 minor). So then it comes down to whether it's simply not used by enough institutions to see it retained in the release, and I'd prefer to see some actual figures on that (e.g. how many sites are using it in 2.5 / 2.6 who would be affected by a decision to drop it from 2.7).

Also I'm assuming that the MT is only making these recommendations now because of its relative newness, but for future release cycles, these decisions should really be made around the same time as the tool promotion decisions. Every tool or feature removed from the release potentially represents additional work for migrating sites to keep that functionality if they need to.

Regards
Stephen

>>> Seth Theriault <slt at columbia.edu> 3/12/2010 7:10 PM >>> 
Hello,

Here are some current proposals people might wish to be aware 
of...

Seth

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 12 Mar 2010 13:25:04 +0000
From: Aaron Zeckoski <azeckoski at unicon.net>
To: Clay Fenlason <clay.fenlason at et.gatech.edu>
Cc: management at collab.sakaiproject.org, plumbers at sakaifoundation.org
Subject: MT deprecation recommendations for 2.7

Product Council,

The maintenance team (MT) has discussed what should be deprecated for
2.7 over the past 2 weeks. These are recommendations for the Sakai 2.7
release.

When we say "remove from the build" we mean that the tools should
remain in the checkout (exports) but they will not be built and
deployed. Schools which need these tools can uncomment their entries
in the main pom file.
When we say "remove from the release" we mean the tool would not be in
the build or checkout. It would optionally be moved over to the
contrib space after the 2.7 release is complete.

Here are our recommendations:

1) OSP reports and warehouse tools - OSP is outside of the maintenance
team coverage and parts of it are beyond our capacity to maintain. We
recommend these be removed from the build.

2) Mailtool - This has already been deprecated and has a number of
outstanding issues and no maintainers. We recommend it be removed from
the release. Mailsender will be added to the experimental build as a
replacement option but not enabled in a default build.

3) Blog 1 (blogger) - This is not being maintained, has many
outstanding issues, and there are 2 possible replacement options. We
recommend it be removed from the release. We are still reviewing the
replacement options (blog 2 wicket and blogwow) and will have a firm
recommendation next week.

4) Profile 1 tool - Profile 2 is already in place as the replacement
for 2.7 however there are still dependencies on Profile 1 tool in the
codebase. MT will remove these. We recommend the profile 1 tool be
removed from the release.

5) Presentation tool - This has been deprecated and is not being
maintained. We recommend this be removed from the release.

6) JCR - The JCR/jackrabbit module in the kernel is a maintenance
burden and does not appear to be used. It increases the memory profile
and complexity of the kernel even when not in use. We recommend it be
removed from the release. JCR was meant as a possible replacement for
the content hosting service but this was not completed and there is no
one to maintain this code.

7) Static covers - The covers are out of date (missing methods) and
not being maintained. Use of these has been discouraged since 2006. We
recommend these be marked as deprecated. We will also send a note to
the dev list to discourage their use clearly. The MT (and others) will
replace usage of these as they are encountered.

8) Kernel utils - These homegrown utils tend to duplicate other open
source libraries. They also have issues in the way they are
implemented and sometimes even duplicate their own functionality. We
recommend the duplicative ones be marked as deprecated. MT (and
others) will replace these with usage of open source libraries as it
is encountered. Some kernel utils will be updated to use the open
source libraries by the MT. MT will also send a note to the dev list
to discourage the usage of deprecated kernel utils.

Thank you
-AZ
MT lead
http://confluence.sakaiproject.org/display/MNT


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