Grouper Developers Forum

[Jessica Bibbee <>]

MACE-Dir-Groups Conference Call
March 9, 2005

*Participants*
Tom Barton, U. Chicago (Chair)
Blair Christensen, U. Chicago
John Ballem, Brown U.
Shelly Henderson, USC
Brenden Bellina, USC
Ito Carmi, USC
Gary Brown, U. Bristol
RL "Bob" Morgan, U. Washington
Ann West, EDUCAUSE/Internet2
Steve Olshansky, Internet2
Renee Frost, Internet2
Jessica Bibbee, Internet2 (scribe)

*Action Items*
[AI] {Tom} will find and resend emails to the {grouper-dev} list
regarding the Grouper.access.has() placeholder in the Grouper v0.6
list.

[AI] {Blair} will send signatures of the new methods to the
{grouper-dev} list, which will appear in the transition between v0.5.1
and v0.6.

[AI] {Gary} will send the list of work-arounds that he has built up to
the {grouper-dev} list.

*Discussion*
The next release of Grouper will be in the form of a maintenance
release, v0.5.1, which will hopefully be available by the end of March
– or sooner, if all desired changes are finalized.  This version will
include a To Do list of: revising hibernate session and transaction
handling code, revising effective membership algorithm, adding a
GrouperStem class, improving compatibility with Oracle, and adding
public methods to list all groups and stems within a given stem. There
are some external and internal changes, as well as bug fixes, to bring
more support to Grouper's functionality. Most of the code is now being
rewritten. No significant additions or omissions from {Blair's} list
were brought up during the call.

The following version of Grouper v.0.6, intended to support the UI,
are in the midst of ongoing changes and updates. An improved subject
interface should be available soon. {Blair} is working on the full
implementation of the privileges interfaces, as right now full use of
these privileges is not in place. [AI] {Tom} will find and resend
emails to the {grouper-dev} list regarding the Grouper.access.has()
placeholder in the Grouper v0.6 list. Most of the improved search and
browse capabilities will have a correlation to the subject interface.
Other ins and outs for v.0.6(x) include: Search by name, extension, or
displayName attributes of groups [S&B#1]; Search by name, extension,
or displayName attributes of namespaces [S&B#2]; Search by name,
extension, or displayName attributes of groups scoped to groups within
a namespace subordinate to a given stem [S&B#7]; Search by name,
extension, or displayName attributes of namespaces scoped to
namespaces within a namespace subordinate to a given stem [S&B#8];
More verbose and precise error reporting via exceptions; and the
Ability to delete groups containing members.

There was a suggestion and discussion regarding how to add the
capability to delete a member within Grouper. The Group agreed that
configuring a forced delete option would be beneficial. Other issues
mentioned, such as the ability to change a separator, will be
considered in a possible v0.6 maintenance release. Final discussion of
the ins and outs of v0.6 will be on the agenda for the next call, as
will be the proposed release date. [AI] {Blair} will send signatures
of the new methods to the {grouper-dev} list, which will appear in the
transition between v0.5.1 and v0.6. [AI] {Gary} will send the list of
work-arounds that he has built up to the {grouper-dev} list.

There is a tentative date at the end of May for getting out a Grouper
v.0.6x that is complete with the UI and API. This would include a demo
that would clearly illustrate what we are offering. The important
thing is to provide something that people could download and work
with, even if it is not yet at a feature-complete production level.
The Internet2 Spring Member Meeting would be a place to air the demo
so people would know where to tune into for its location
<http://events.internet2.edu/2005/spring-mm/>.

The next MACE-Dir-Groups call will be Wednesday, March 23, 2005 at 12pm ET.