[sakai2-tcc] Roster tool changes

[Daniel Robinson]

When Lancaster University took over maintenance of the Roster tool, it  
was our intention to maintain the rewritten version we have developed.  
The only maintenance we envisaged for the old Roster codebase would be  
to address any critical security issues.

However, as the rewritten Roster tool we've developed is not going  
into 2.8 as originally planned, it makes more sense to us to continue  
our development as a separate project in Contrib and resign our role  
as maintainers for the official Roster tool. Our new tool will be  
positioned as a drop-in replacement for the old Roster tool for  
institutions that want the additional features we've developed.

Best wishes,

Daniel

On 19 Aug 2010, at 13:44, Daniel Robinson wrote:

> Dear Sakai 2 Technical Coordination Committee,
>
> Earlier in the year, Adrian Fish and myself at Lancaster University,  
> UK, volunteered to take over the development and maintenance of the  
> Roster tool. We have rewritten the tool in a separate branch using  
> JavaScript and Trimpath, and the plan is to move Roster to an indie  
> project. Details of the work are attached to the following JIRA  
> ticket:
>
> http://jira.sakaiproject.org/browse/SAK-18778
>
> We have tried to resolve outstanding JIRA tickets along the way. All  
> of the issues incorporated on the above ticket, plus sub-tasks, are  
> resolved. Once the new code is committed to trunk, we can close  
> those issues.
>
> Details of new tool:
>
> We have maintained the feature set of the old Roster tool.
>
> We have maintained the same Roster UI with two exceptions: 1. some  
> small changes have been made to fix outstanding JIRA tickets (see  
> above); 2. some small layout changes to the Pictures view have been  
> made, and we plan on further developing the Pictures view to  
> integrate with Profile2. We plan on seeking input from the wider  
> Sakai community for new feature requests.
>
> We have removed all executable code from the old Roster tool in the  
> new version. There is no API for the new Roster tool. The new tool  
> consists of JavaScript, HTML/CSS, and a SakaiProxy and  
> EntityProviders written in Java. The new Roster tool is a webapp  
> that can be deployed without restarting Sakai.
>
> We have moved the rendering to the browser client, so content is  
> rendered more quickly and server load is decreased.
>
> We have converted the localization bundles from the old Roster tool  
> to maintain the internationalization support.
>
> We have reduced the number of tool/API dependencies e.g. the  
> dependency on the old Profile API has been removed.
>
> If anyone would like to test the work for themselves, the code is  
> available:
>
> https://source.sakaiproject.org/svn/roster/branches/trimpath_work
>
> Please bear in mind the branch is under active development.
>
> If anyone has any questions or requires further clarification,  
> please don't hesitate to ask.
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Daniel and Adrian