Module :: Links

2006 - What I have learned as a project lead and other ramblings

awhittington@crystaltech.com — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 05:00:00 GMT

Well 2006 is almost over and I thought I would share what I have learned this year as a project lead as well as give you a sneak peak at the future.

        First off - this project is not dead, not at all. We have not moved as quickly as I had hoped. I feel that this is my fault and one that can and does plague the Open Source community in general. One of the reasons this happens is because we are volunteers. It is very easy to say "I will do it tomorrow" after a long day at work. Why is this you ask? Because there is no accountability or deadlines. Often times the community does not hold us accountable for our actions (or lack thereof). While it is not the job of the community to motivate the Project Lead and Members, they should hold them accountable. This recently happened to me on the links forums and it was a real eye opener. While I knew I had not made the progress I wanted, here I was being called out in front of everybody on it. Let me tell you how this can such a great motivator, but too much of it can have the opposite effect.

        So how do we solve this going forward? Well first off we do not live in the past, what's done is done, let's move on. Second, we come up with not only clear goals (features, roadmaps, etc) that we have for this project, we come up with a true release schedule. It is no secret that I am a huge fan of Ubuntu Linix and there philosophy. One thing that has lead to their fast growth and success is the fact that they publish release dates and stick to them (well they slipped one time so far). This gives the community a clear cut time frame on when they can expect something. Like most OS's other Linux distros are upgraded on the "WHENEVER" time scale. This just does not cut it for the end user, and is that not whom matters most? So with all that said, we are going to shoot for a 4 time a year release schedule. So every 3 months the users of this module will get a new version with bug fixes and new features. This means that we will have about 2 months to program the fixes and new features with one month left for the release cycle.

       The project roadmap for the current release cycle will be posted in the forums as well as the project page for all to see. As the upcoming releases project roadmap takes shape, it will be posted in the same places as well. As bugs are reported and severity weighed, they will be placed in either the current release or the upcoming one. This will allow anyone who is interested in links to see where we are, what we are currently working on, and where we are going. Now please keep in mind that while your feature request may be very important to you, we do have to weigh the value of it to all users and see when it is appropriate to fit it in the release schedule.

       Now lets move on to feature requests and bug reporting. If you have a feature request or a bug to report, please go to http://support.dotnetnuke.com and use Gemini to record it. Once you have recorded it, post in the forums the Gemini issue number and I will make sure to get it moved to the links module. Once it is moved, I will respond to the thread accordingly. If anyone ever has a question about when a feature the requested will be done or when a bug will be fixed, I will try to the best of my ability to give you a time frame (which release it will occur in) if at all possible.

       I am meeting with my Core Team Liason this weekend and we are going to cover goals for next year. Once we get this worked out, the project page and forum will be updated to reflect this. So look for an update on Monday or Tuesday. Also, the current release is still in the release process. We are still working out the kinks, but have high hopes it will make it thru soon.

So in conclusion, I have learned the following:

Best intentions are great, but often don't cut it.
Being a Project Lead is much more demanding that it seems.
Open Source is great, but without accountability and deadlines it is very easy to slip.
and finally - The DNN community is very supportive overall, but they demand results as well.

If you have any comments please feel free to post them.

Welcome a new team member

awhittington@crystaltech.com — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 07:00:00 GMT

I would like to take the time to welcome a new team member, Matt Kellogg. Matt is a .net programmer for CrystalTech Web Hosting and I have had the pleasesure of working daily with him for over a year. He is very bright and brings many new and innovative ideas to the table. Please help me welcome him to the Links family.

Latest version released to Release Tracker

awhittington@crystaltech.com — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 07:00:00 GMT

Well it is almost here, I just delivered the latest version of the links module to the Release Tracker. This is the start of the release process which culminates with the release being given the platinum benefactors, then released the the community. This version has actually been done for several weeks, but due to some mis-communication on my part with my Core Team Liason it was delayed.

This release is considered a maintenance release as it provides only bug fixes. The one enhancement is actually the custom hydrator which replaces the use of the built in object hydrator to make gains in performance. I am currently working on the Road Map for the next version, as well as compiling a list of known issues and their statuses. Once the Road Map is complete and approved by my Liason, it will be posted on the project page and forums.

Last few issues are almost complete

awhittington@crystaltech.com — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 07:00:00 GMT

Sorry for the delay but my work schedule has been somewhat hectic. There are two outstanding issues with the links module at this time. They are:

Checking to see if the username exists when selecting a user as a link
Re-working of the Export / Import function. This function currently does not export enough info to properly import a link. The information it is missing is related to updating a link via the URLController. So if you have "new window" checked, it will import that setting properly, but will not work because the URL is not in the URLTracking and URL table.

In addition to these issues, I would also like to add the following:

A custom hydrator so we can remove the use of the CBO.FillCollection and help improve performance.
Only display links that user has permission to access. This is important as they may be able to see the link now, but do not have access rights to the resource.

So far, all listed above is pretty straight forward except for the Import / Export functionality. This requires interaction with the core team on a few issues and might need to be placed on the list for the next release as opposed to this one. At this time, no more bugs are being excepted for this build. The next release will take care of any left over bug fixes as well as add some new functionality.

Upcoming release

awhittington@crystaltech.com — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 07:00:00 GMT

Well it would appear that our first release is right around the corner. This is a maintenance release that addresses issues that were logged in Gemini. There are a few still left to complete, but they will be wrapped up this weekend. If you have an issue and it has not been logged into gemini, then this is your last chance to get it in before the code base is locked.

After this release we will start programming new features into the module. Please see the forum for the road map and vision for the project. These outline what is going to be added over the next few releases.

FIX: [LNK-3916] - Cannot edit links when database owner is not 'dbo'

awhittington@crystaltech.com — Sat, 19 Aug 2006 04:00:00 GMT

Quick fix for issue [LNK-3916] - Cannot edit links when database owner is not 'dbo'

Current Status of the project

awhittington@crystaltech.com — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 07:00:00 GMT

As of right now, I am wrapping up a side project for a client. Unfortunately while I was waiting for approval as the project lead, I took on a couple of side projects so this has lead to the slow start. This project will go completely crazy with activity starting Aug 19th. All is set for the last client to be wrapped up on the 18th so we will be rocking and rolling. I do plan on listing the daily progress of the module in the project forums for it. As bugs are fixed, they will be linked in the forum post so that all can see them. Some of the bugs date as far back as 2004, while others date only a few weeks.

Also, there has been a lot of interest in joining this team. As of right now, the team consists of me, myself, and I. Until I get the first release out (which is just a maintenance release), I would not feel comfortable having another person on the project. After the release, Michael Washington and myself will evaluate how everything went and will decide at that time if another person is needed. Those that have inquired I do have your names so do not worry, if it becomes available you will be contacted.

Game Plan: Again

awhittington@crystaltech.com — Sun, 09 Jul 2006 07:00:00 GMT

Well it would seem my blog got a little messed up there and I had to clean it up. In the process I deleted the post about the game plan. So here we go again.

Game Plan

The way I see it, this module is in need of a serious kick in the pants. Bugs have been reported and not officially addressed or have been corrected, but not taken out of Gemini. Due to this, the first order of business once I am familiar with the development process here, is to address all of the reported bugs. We currently have 7 bugs reported in Gemini with a few more reported in the forums that are not listed in Gemini yet. Once we can eliminate these, we will move on to phase 2 or better known as New Features.

I have already compiled a list of new features that will be implemented over the next few releases of the module. I will not go into more detail on these until all of these features have been approved along with the roadmap for development of them. Just please rest assured that they are a combination of feature requests from the forums as well as some new functionality that was not requested there.

So sit back, buckle, and enjoy the ride. It should be something to see.

Alec