- openSUSE Boosters

Help needed: Testing the new openSUSE wiki
by Frank Sundermeyer 30 Oct '09

30 Oct '09

Hi, Matt Ehle has set up a staging server running MediaWiki 1.15 at http://<LANG>stage.opensuse.org/ where <LANG> is one of our wiki languages. The setup needs to be tested before going to production, so I would like to ask you to do some testing in case you have got time. The staging area is not available externally, so testing has to be done "in-House". In order to login in, you need to have a Novell staging account. If you do not already have one, create it at http://wwwstage.provo.novell.com/. You can use the same credentials as for your external Novell account (used for Bugzilla, for example). Known issues: * items in right nav on en Home page end with "</li>" Solution: do not use HTML syntax in MediaWiki:Mainpagerightcolumn * "<iimage>" on some pages: Reason: We haven't installed the extansion iimage anymore, since it is unmaintained Solution: Needs manual fixing Please report any issues you find by replying to this thread - I will monitor it. If you wish to have a certain extension available in the new wiki, please discuss it on the opensuse-wiki mailinglist first. I would like to keep the amount of extension to an absolute minimum, in order to make administrating and updating the wiki as easy as possible. -- Thanks Frank Frank Sundermeyer, Technical Writer, Documentation SUSE Linux Products GmbH, Maxfeldstr. 5, D-90409 Nuernberg Tel: +49-911-74053-0, Fax: +49-911-7417755; http://www.opensuse.org/ SUSE Linux Products GmbH, GF: Markus Rex, HRB 16746 (AG Nuernberg) "Reality is always controlled by the people who are most insane" Dogbert -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-boosters+unsubscribe(a)opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-boosters+help(a)opensuse.org

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Vacation
by Klaas Freitag 28 Oct '09

28 Oct '09

Hi, FYI: I am on vacation from tomorrow, 29th. Oct. and will be back in the office on wednesday, Nov. 4th. reg. Klaas -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-boosters+unsubscribe(a)opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-boosters+help(a)opensuse.org

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Eyetracker
by Klaas Freitag 28 Oct '09

28 Oct '09

Hey guys, I am very happy that I got the promise of Nat that we can borrow the Eyetracker of the SUSE usability team for openSUSE activities and projects. That is really amazing. An eyetracker is a really expensive machine which records the eye movement of test persons when they work with software which is to examine. That technology gives an unique view on how people work with user interface of the test program by measuring where people look and how long. Please come up with ideas how we can make use of that, ie. upstream workshops where we analyse programs or collaboration with other usability groups. We now also need a little team of people who know how to work with the machine, such as an openSUSE Usability Group. Any volunteers? Please come up with ideas, Klaas -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-boosters+unsubscribe(a)opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-boosters+help(a)opensuse.org

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Work report, Oct/15 to Oct/26
by Federico Mena Quintero 27 Oct '09

27 Oct '09

* Autotoolized gnome-activity-journal; fixed up some merges. * Did some GtkFileChooser maintenance - integrate patches, etc. * Read some more HCI and OLPC papers. * Messed up my subscription to opensuse-wiki; fixed it. * Read opensuse-wiki archives. * Read about Wikipedia's governance and organization. * Replied about the wiki reorganization. * Did some Sabayon maintenance - patches, releases. Next up: * Come up with sample templates for the wiki. * Gnome-activity-journal hacking / preparation for the Zeitgeist hackfest * RANDR maintenance. Federico -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-boosters+unsubscribe(a)opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-boosters+help(a)opensuse.org

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Standup Meeting 2009-10-27
by Henne Vogelsang 27 Oct '09

27 Oct '09

Hi, UMBRELLA -------- What we did: * people got familiar with rails * darix discussed goal to fill into retrospektiva What we are planing to do: * discussing the navigation for the umbrella project * investigating solutions to merge multiple rails application into one so you can still run the applications standalone Blocker: FACTORY ------- What we did: * vuntz and peter were not available * coolo (obviously) had a lot of 11.2 stuff to do * adrian by now has implemented 50% of the attribute storage * new goal was to setup obs test instance * Will is about to set up an external OBS instance * Will and Tom will update the docu on how to setup obs from svn * coolo learned a lot of rails and jquery for software.o.o What we are planing to do: * have a factory.o.o setup ready that works against the test OBS Blocker: * Finding a place to test a OBS setup * Setting up a test OBS from svn DOCUMENTATION ------------- What we did: * federico looked into the way wikipedia sorts content in general * henne looked into the way wikipedia uses portals * during the same time rupert kicked off the discussion on the wiki mailinglist for the whole wiki * discussion is ongoing on that list and on the boosters list What we are planing to do: * petr looks into the ichain plugin so we can finaly update the wiki and get all the extensions we need * wiki meeting on friday * continue the discussion on the list What blocked us: * The mediawiki update Henne -- Henne Vogelsang, openSUSE. Everybody has a plan, until they get hit. - Mike Tyson -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-boosters+unsubscribe(a)opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-boosters+help(a)opensuse.org

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[Discoverable centralized documentation] Use Portals?
by Henne Vogelsang 27 Oct '09

27 Oct '09

Hi, I looked into how wikipedia organizes specific content areas. They use Portals http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Portal "The idea of a portal is to help readers and/or editors navigate their way through Wikipedia topic areas through pages similar to the Main Page. In essence, portals are useful entry-points to Wikipedia content." Sounds exactly what we want to achieve i think. For an example portal have a look at this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Linux They even have ready made templates. The only thing our wiki instance is missing is the ParserFunctions extension. I talked to Frank and he is looking into that. I think it's a great way of organizing our developer documentation and once we have the extension and the templates in our wiki everybody can make use of this technique. I also think that the policies around these portals look very good and we should adopt them too. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Portal/Guidelines What do you think? Henne -- Henne Vogelsang, openSUSE. Everybody has a plan, until they get hit. - Mike Tyson -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-boosters+unsubscribe(a)opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-boosters+help(a)opensuse.org

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Talk at KNF e.V. Conference
by Klaas Freitag 26 Oct '09

26 Oct '09

Hi, please somebody speak up to give a little talk on http://www.franken.de/veranstaltungen/knfkongress/2009/ in Nürnberg on Nov. 22. It basically should/could be a Buildservice talk. For details, please contact Marcus Meissner. Thanks for volunteering, Klaas -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-boosters+unsubscribe(a)opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-boosters+help(a)opensuse.org

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Susereport
by Michal Hrusecky 22 Oct '09

22 Oct '09

Hi, one of the topics we spoke about at our kickoff was adding package section into our Bugzilla so screening team wouldn't have so much work. One of our colleagues was working on the other way how to solve the same problem during last hackweek. His project was called 'susereport' and it can be found on gitorious.org [1]. It is basically application which allows you to generate report to the Bugzilla with right assignee. He wrote article about accessing Novell Bugzilla [2], but he didn't wrote about this program on his blog. It is written in Python, unit tests doesn't work now but program itself works. I packaged it and after build it will be available for 11.1 and Factory in home:-miska-:Release:susereport [3] repository. It can be run using following syntax: > susereport <login> <password> It requires packages osc, python-bugzilla and rpm-python. Currently the part which actually does posting to the bugzilla is commented out so it is safe to try. However bugs [4] and [5] were created using this tool. Program caches some data from Bugzilla (list of products, and such), so first call might take some additional time but program displays warning about this. Few implementation remarks. Program is implemented as a state machine. Every method do_something returns next state: > ,--> (STATE1) > (START) `--> (END) > `--> (STATE2) --> .... > > Code: > do_START(self): > if something: > return "STATE1" > return "STATE2" > > do_STATE1(self): > print "STATE1" > return "END" > > do_STATE2(self): > .... And how does it work with pre-filled answers in debug mode: > Loggining to the novell bugzilla > DEBUG:susereport:STATE: START > Please enter the name of the package in which you have found a problem. > > ant > DEBUG:susereport:STATE: TEST_PACKAGE_EMPTY > DEBUG:susereport:STATE: ASK_PRODUCT_PLATFORM > Found: openSUSE 11.2 RC 1 (x86_64) > > Enter a version of openSUSE/product. Type `s' if you want to select a product > from a list [openSUSE 11.2]: s > DEBUG:susereport:STATE: SELECT_PRODUCT_PLATFORM > Select a product: > 1. openSUSE 10.2 openSUSE 10.2 (Basilisk Lizard) > 2. openSUSE 10.3 openSUSE 10.3 > 3. openSUSE 11.0 openSUSE 11.0 > 4. openSUSE 11.1 openSUSE 11.1 > 5. openSUSE 11.2 openSUSE 11.2 > 6. openSUSE.org The openSUSE project (not the distribution) > 7. SUSE Show all SUSE products > 8. All Show all Novell products > What product do you want to use? 5 > DEBUG:susereport:STATE: SELECT_PLATFORM > DEBUG:susereport:TO_BE_IMPLEMENTED > Enter a platform All > DEBUG:susereport:STATE: TEST_PRODUCT_PLATFORM > DEBUG:susereport:STATE: GET_COMPONENT > Select a component: > 1. Apache > 2. AppArmor > 3. AutoYaST > 4. Banshee > 5. Basesystem > 6. Bootloader > 7. Commercial > 8. Compiz > 9. Development > 10. Documentation > 11. Evolution > 12. Firefox > 13. GNOME > 14. Hotplug > 15. Installation > 16. ISDN > 17. Java > 18. KDE3 > 19. KDE4 Applications > 20. KDE4 Workspace > 21. Kernel > 22. libzypp > 23. Live Medium > 24. Maintenance > 25. Mobile Devices > 26. Mono > 27. Network > 28. OpenOffice.org > 29. Other > 30. Patterns > 31. Printing > 32. Release Notes > 33. Samba > 34. SaX2 > 35. Security > 36. Sound > 37. Translations > 38. Update Problems > 39. Usability > 40. WBEM > 41. WebYaST > 42. X.Org > 43. X11 3rd Party Driver > 44. X11 Applications > 45. Xen > 46. Xfce > 47. YaST2 > What component would you like to select? 17 > Using component `Java' > DEBUG:susereport:STATE: PRE_ASK_ORIGIN > DEBUG:susereport:STATE: ASK_ORIGIN > > Would you like to determine an origin of package automatically [y/N]? y > DEBUG:susereport:STATE: LOAD_ASSIGNEE > Package `ant' is from repository `Java:packages' > DEBUG:susereport:<class > 'susereport.base.BSClient'>.get_related_persons(https://api.opensuse.org, > Java:packages, ant) > DEBUG:susereport:STATE: GET_ASSIGNEE > Enter a bug assignee [mvyskocil(a)novell.com] > DEBUG:susereport:STATE: GET_SUMMARY > > > Please briefly describe your problem (you can elaborate in a moment; an empty > response will stop susereport). This should be a concise summary of > what is > wrong with the package, for example, "fails to send email" or "does > not start > with -q option specified." > > Cannot find a Java virtual machine > DEBUG:susereport:STATE: GET_SEVERITY > Please describe the impact of a bug > 1. Blocker Blocks development and/or testing work > 2. Critical Crash, loss of data, corruption of data, severe memory leak > 3. Major Major loss of function > 4. Normal regular issue, some loss of functionality under specific > circumstances > 5. Minor Issue that can be viewed as trivial (e.g. cosmetic, UI, easily > documented > 6. Enhancement Request for enhancement (don't use it, use > features.opensuse.org instead) > How would you rate the severity of this problem or report? 4 > Using severity `Normal' > DEBUG:susereport:STATE: GET_DESCRIPTION > > Please review your bugreport: > > #----------------------------------------------------------------------- > #Summary: Cannot find a Java virtual machine > #Product: openSUSE 11.2 > #Platform: All > #Component: Java > #Severity: Normal > #Assigned_to: > #CC: [] > #----------------------------------------------------------------------- > > #Description of the bug: > > Package: ant > Source: ant > Version: 1.7.1-9.2 > Devel project/package: Java:packages/ant > This is a testing bug report > > DEBUG:susereport:STATE: ASK_ATTACHEMENT > Would you like to add an attachement [y\N]? n > DEBUG:susereport:STATE: ASK_SUBMIT > > Would you like to submitt it [y\N\q]? y > DEBUG:susereport:STATE: SUBMIT > Calling createbug with {'product': 'openSUSE 11.2', 'severity': 'Normal', > 'cc': [], 'rep_platform': 'All', 'component': 'Java', 'summary': 'Cannot find > a Java virtual machine', 'version': 'unspecified', 'assigned_to': '', > 'attachements': None, 'op_sys': 'Linux', 'description': '\nPackage: > ant\nSource: ant\nVersion: 1.7.1-9.2\nDevel project/package: > Java:packages/ant\nThis is a testing bug report\n'} > DEBUG:susereport:STATE: EXIT [1] http://gitorious.org/opensuse/susereport [3] http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/-miska-:/Release:/susereport [4] https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=525549 [5] https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=523787 -- Michal HRUSECKY SUSE LINUX, s.r.o openSUSE Boosters Team Lihovarska 1060/12 PGP 0xFED656F6 19000 Praha 9 mhrusecky[at]suse.cz Czech Republic http://michal.hrusecky.net http://www.suse.cz

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Concept Proposal for the openSUSE wiki
by Rupert Horstkötter 21 Oct '09

21 Oct '09

Community, in context of my employment as openSUSE Community Assistant at open-slx.com, I'm responsible to come up with a reasonable concept for the openSUSE wiki. Our goal is to clean up the current wiki and enhance its maintainabilty and consistency, while supporting the openSUSE community with the concept implementation. In order to provide a better wiki experience to the openSUSE community and to enhance the content quality from a long term perspective, I'd like to propose the following changes to the openSUSE wiki organisation and discuss these with the openSUSE community. That said, I'm certainly committed to this concept from a long term perspective. --- Overview/Portal Page We need a proper Entry page to the openSUSE wiki. The current http://en.opensuse.org/Welcome_to_openSUSE.org does not reflect the character of a documentation ressource. I'm aware of the issue that it may not be possible to change this particular page due to political reasons, but what we can certainly do, is introducing an overview/portal page that is accessible by clicking the link "Wiki" in the upper left corner of the current startpage (so to speak as a buffer when accessing the openSUSE wiki). This is, from my perspective, particularly important as we need a central place where to get started – a place where we categorize/index the existing content and provide easy access to the Usage Guideline, FAQ, the Wiki Forum (see below) and related support information. A general approach that already starts implementing this idea is available at http://en.opensuse.org/Portal - credit goes to Wiki Team Member Rajko_m. Usage Guidelines In order to ensure the quality of wiki articles, we need to create a Usage Guideline for editors. I mean, the wiki documentation should be easy to read, to understand and to maintain, but this cannot be achieved without a proper hand-holding documentation about wiki editing. While this information is already available (in parts), it is currently not easily accessible and we need to change this. The Usage Guideline should contain information about proper design, formulation, conception and syntax of wiki articles. That way we can guarantee a consistent overall openSUSE wiki experience for the user. Sandbox Editing Currently we have no QA and publishing processes for wiki articles. This makes it very hard to assure a consistent quality across all articles. In the past several approaches were made to clean up and scan the wiki in order to sort and merge articles, to assure a consistent quality, to merge duplicates, introduce meaningful categories etc. However, we are still not where we want to be. Therefore I would suggest to implement a publishing/QA process. This process would look like the following: we introduce Sandbox editing for new articles. We create a namespace "Sandbox" where every new article will be created initially. As soon as the author of the new article feels the result sufficient and conform with the Usage Guideline, he presents the new article to the openSUSE community for reviewing/commenting purposes. This can be done by presenting the Sandbox article at @opensuse-wiki ML and/or a dedicated Wiki forum at forums.opensuse.org – I myself propose the creation of a Wiki forum to be able to reach out to a much broader audience than the @opensuse-wiki ML could ever provide. Once the review process is done and the new article meets the QA standards and Usage Guideline, a wiki moderator moves the article out of the "Sandbox" namespace. That way non-reviewed content won't end up in the wiki at all. While the sandbox model will help us with new articles, it does not solve the problems we have with the existing wiki content. therefore I would propose to introduce... Namespace "new-wiki" In order to cleanup and re-organize the current wiki content, we introduce a namespace "new-wiki" where we can build the new openSUSE wiki. Migrating of existing content will then be done from the current wiki to the "new-wiki" namespace. Wiki Team Member Fsundermeyer already got started with a QA process for existing articles at http://en.opensuse.org/Wiki_Team/Checked_Pages. Every new article not yet available in the current wiki needs to be introduced via the namespace "Sandbox" into the namespace "new-wiki". This approach ensures the continous operation of the current wiki while building the new one in parallel. Every article transferred to "new-wiki" needs to pass the standards defined in the Usage Guideline, newly created articles need to pass the reviewing process. and to introduce... Minor/Major Editing Existing articles can be edited by everyone, although we'll encourage the openSUSE community (within the Usage Guidelines) to make only minor edits, such as spelling corrections, fixing links, etc to existing pages. Whenever a major edit to an existing wiki-page needs to be done, the author needs to request a working copy of the page in "Sandbox" while the existing page remains untouched. Once the working copy in "Sandbox" is done, the new article (major edit) needs to pass the defined Sandbox reviewing process and afterwards the existing page may (or may not) be replaced with the working copy from Sandbox – this decision is the sole responsibility of the wiki moderators. Semantic MediaWiki We'll utilize the Semantic MediaWiki extension in order to enhance the openSUSE wiki search results. Within the Usage Guideline (as part of the QA standards), we encourage the openSUSE community to use the tags of this particular extension while creating new articles in "Sandbox". More information about Semantic MediaWiki can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_MediaWiki Wiki Team We need to strengthen the existing Wiki Team with openSUSE community members. Furthermore we need to define the role and responsibility of a Wiki Team Member. Responsibilities I can think of currently: 1.ensure the conformity of the wiki content with the Usage Guideline 2.instruct editors how to write articles 3.categorize/index articles and create overview pages 4.take care of the Wiki forum/ML and gather community suggestions 5.responsibility for the Sandbox reviewing process The major responsibility therefore is not to write articles but to take care of the proper operation of the wiki in a moderating, assisting and supporting capacity. --- I certainly do not claim this concept-proposal to be complete yet, but I'd like to encourage you to provide feedback and ideas. Let's brainstorm together and improve/expand this concept-proposal to finally come up with a concept that addresses the current drawbacks of the wiki organisation, its quality, its usability and maintainability. I sent this concept-proposal to @wiki and @boosters MLs as we certainly need to sync the process we make with the openSUSE boosters team. Please let the discussion take place on @wiki ML though to avoid a split of the discussion. Thanks, Rupert -- Rupert Horstkötter openSUSE Community Assistant http://en.opensuse.org/User:Rhorstkoetter Email: rhorstkoetter(a)opensuse.org Jabber: ruperthorstkoetter(a)googlemail.com -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-boosters+unsubscribe(a)opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-boosters+help(a)opensuse.org

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Self-Introduction - openSUSE Community Assistant
by Rupert Horstkötter 14 Oct '09

14 Oct '09

Hi, please let me introduce myself. My name is Rupert, I'm 28 and I'm currently on the home stretch of studying business administration and electrical engineering at Darmstadt University of Technology. I've been involved with the openSUSE Project for several years. I served as the Project Manager of the openSUSE Forums Merge, I initiated the openSUSE Forums section at the openSUSE Weekly Newsletter and I contributed as a moderator at the openSUSE Forums to the openSUSE community. I was employed twice at Novell/SUSE - as an Intern in Product Management in 2007/2008 and as a Workstudent for Community Architecture in 2008/2009. As of the 1st of October 2009, I'm sponsored by open-slx.com to work for the openSUSE Project as openSUSE Community Assistant. I'm really looking forward to collaborate with several openSUSE teams on improving openSUSE documentation and community resources - namely the openSUSE wiki, the openSUSE Forums, the SDB and other support information for openSUSE. My current focus is to work on a concept for the openSUSE wiki to improve the content quality, to enhance its usability and to improve its maintainability. Have a lot of fun! Rupert -- Rupert Horstkötter openSUSE Community Assistant http://en.opensuse.org/User:Rhorstkoetter Email: rhorstkoetter(a)opensuse.org Jabber: ruperthorstkoetter(a)googlemail.com -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-boosters+unsubscribe(a)opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-boosters+help(a)opensuse.org

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