[sakai-pmc] [Building Sakai] Proposal: retire linktool (decouple from trunk .externals)

[Jean-Francois Leveque]

informal +1

On 15/10/2013 22:21, Anthony Whyte wrote:
> *Proposal*
> Drop linktool from the next major (i.e., trunk-based) release. Do so
> under the terms of lazy consensus and without a formal vote of the PMC.
> Fast track removal without the traditional deprecation period being
> imposed (e.g. 1 release). Decouple from trunk .externals and tweek the
> base pom <modules> section on Friday, 25 October 2013. The proposal is
> limited to trunk only. Linktool will remain a core tool for 2.9 but will
> revert to contrib status thereafter. It's code will remain in the core
> svn repo and will not be moved.
> *Rationale*
> First introduced in Sakai 2.3.0, linktool provides a means for
> integrating external tools with Sakai.[1] It's lightweight, relatively
> easy to use and has required little community support since it's
> inclusion in the core distribution in 2006 (all good) [2]. At the same
> time, linktool is a custom solution that in my view has been rendered
> redundant by the evolution of Sakai's BasicLTI module, an implementation
> of the popular IMS Global Tools Interoperability Specification.[3]
>
> Arguably, linktool could have been deprecated as early as the summer of
> 2010 when Chuck Severance upgraded BasicLTI to include the basic outcome
> service specified in LTI 1.1 for Sakai 2.8.0 (April 2011).[4] This was
> not done but as we prepare for the next trunk-based release (2014
> tentative) I believe the time is ripe for removing this venerable tool
> from the build. If we can retire custom code in favor of code written to
> a widely-adopted specification, we should not hesitate to do so.
>
> Given the existence of a ready substitute in the guise of BasicLTI, the
> plan is to simply decouple linktool from trunk .externals and tweek the
> base pom <modules> section without us imposing either the traditional
> deprecation period or requiring a formal vote of the PMC.
>
> *Implications*
> Removing linktool from the core distribution could prove inconvenient to
> deployers if linktool is widely used. Usage, however, is largely
> unknown. Currently, I know of at least one school that utilizes the
> tool: Rutgers, the originator of the tool. Others may utilize the tool
> as well. Unfortunately, the recent tool survey provides no information
> on linktool usage, an apparent oversight that nevertheless did not
> garner any comment from survey participants.[5]
>
> A material objection will block this proposal. Otherwise, I will
> implement the change in trunk on 25 October 2013.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Anth
>
> _____________________________________
>
> [1] https://source.sakaiproject.org/svn/sakai/tags/sakai_2-3-0/
> [2] https://source.sakaiproject.org/svn/linktool/trunk/linktool.txt;
> https://source.sakaiproject.org/viewsvn/linktool/trunk/
> [3] http://www.imsglobal.org/lti/
> [4] https://jira.sakaiproject.org/browse/SAK-24183
> [5]
> https://confluence.sakaiproject.org/display/TCC/Sakai+CLE+Tool+Survey+Results+Q2+2013
>
> anthony whyte | its and mlibrary | university of michigan |
> arwhyte at umich.edu <mailto:arwhyte at umich.edu> | 517-980-0228