[Building Sakai] Syllabus 10 README_permissionChange.txt clarification

[Niebel, William D. (Bill) (wdn5e)]

The revised Syllabus tool includes a README_permissionChange.txt file, added at 10.0 and included thereafter.
We at the University of Virginia have a few questions about this file from an upgrade point-of-view,
in the process of upgrading Sakai from 2.9.1 to 10.2.

Thanks for clarifications and corrections.  The following represents our current understanding.


Step 1
doesn't include project site types and can't show local custom site types.
To allow the revised Syllabus tool to work in project sites or custom site types,
we would need to include our own similar SQL INSERT statements for those in step 1, right?


Step 2
mentions only !site.template and !site.template.course
But step 1 includes additionally !group.template, !group.template.course, !site.user, and /site/mercury.
Does this imply that the revised Syllabus tool allows a syllabus in these added contexts where previously the Syllabus tool didn't?
Or is there some other reason for this difference between steps 1 and 2 with regard to what they include?

If our existing project or custom-type sites already have a syllabus included,
would we need to include !site.template.project (or similar for custom site type) also in step 2?

Is there a script available to do this data conversion?
If not, is there any explanation or description what to do and how to do it?


Step 3
is saying to do a manual-edit code patch after the data conversion step 2, right?

I take it that you must keep watch on any subsequent upgrade
to see if this manual-edit code patch has by then been committed to the distribution or not.
If it has, you're already good-to-go on that subsequent upgrade and don't need to reapply the patch.
But if not, you need to redo that manual-edit code patch on that subsequent upgrade, since the code as distributed regresses then.
Regardless, do not redo the other earlier README steps 1 and 2 on any subsequent upgrade.

For example, if you upgrade to 10.2 and do step 3, on subsequent upgrade to 10.3 you need to do step 3 again
because the code step 3 replaces is the same in both of these distributions.


File line 1
reads "for initial permission changes. (with SyllabusService and SyllabusServiceImpl changes)”.
"SyllabusService and SyllabusServiceImpl changes" probably just refers to code already included in 10.x as distributed.

Is this what's intended?  Or are there other unspecified changes which could be applied?
"with" here seems to hint at an alternative "without".


Taken as a whole README_permissionChange.txt seems to imply:
On upgrade, your existing syllabus data may work with the revised Syllabus tool out-of-the-box if you do none of these README steps.
But syllabus update permissions would then be simply and still the coarse-grain per-site update permissions,
as this was previously (this from looking at the code step 3 replaces).
In that sense, doing README_permissionChange.txt is optional as a whole.
But README_permissionChange.txt is all-or-nothing, so do all steps if you do any on your first upgrade to Sakai 10.

On fresh installation, don't do README_permissionChange.txt at all if you want to continue using coarse-grain per-site update permissions as syllabus update permissions.  If you instead want to switch to syllabus specific update permissions, do only steps 1 and 3.  Step 2 is unnecessary since there's no previous data.

For either upgrade or fresh installation, you probably do want to use the new specific permissions and so do want to follow this README -- instead of riding with the previous, coarse permissions -- since the file only implies that it's optional and doesn't specifically state it.

Thanks again for advice on this.
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