Grouper Developers Forum

[Jessica Bibbee <>]

MACE-Dir-Groups Conference Call
April 6, 2005

*Participants*
Tom Barton, U. Chicago (Chair)
Minh Nguyen -Stanford U.

Brenden Bellina, USC
Gary Brown, U. Bristol
RL "Bob" Morgan, U. Washington
Ann West, EDUCAUSE/Internet2
Steve Olshansky, Internet2
Jessica Bibbee, Internet2 (scribe)

*Action Items*
[AI] {Gary} will put together an initial static demo and send this out to the {grouper-dev} mailing list for feedback.

 

[AI] {Minh} will prepare integration questions related to Grouper, with the aim to present this information to the audience at the I2 Spring Member Meeting.

 

Carry-over *Action Items*

[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*

This conference call centered around discussion of the upcoming release dates of Grouper, and primarily includes changes to the API itself. Hibernate sessions have been redone, and there are updates on the effective handling. This release also includes major changes dealing with Oracle, and possibly also the back end. The upcoming maintenance release of Grouper API v0.5.5 is hoped to be released by April 15, and includes structural and API changes. The initial release will include Search & Browse capabilities. {Gary} detailed a list of buckets: Bucket 0 includes display name and display extension, search by group name (to be included in v0.5.5); Bucket 1 covers view privileges, with some enforcement of the API; Bucket 2 includes search by group, name and display; Bucket 3 comes from the earlier list (Buckets 1-3 will be in the v0.6 release); Bucket 4 is the subject interface.

 

One of the desirable functions of Grouper v0.6 is to choose then add a user to the list – default incrementation so that people can load to Grouper tables and work locally. Once the v0.6 undergoes the initial UI release, an additional 2 weeks of consecutive coding time will follow – getting documentation then building from there. It is important that we come up with a user interface that is logical and easy for others to download and use. This will require a lot of feedback and testing – the more, the better before it goes to release. Currently, the actual developers have done most of the testing, themselves. Ideally, testing from other users would provide valuable input as well. Realistically, Grouper v0.6 might be available by the end of May.

 

There are plans to provide a static demo, which would provide screenshots of which features are available and what works. This would offer a look into what Grouper is offering, without having to worry about performance issues. However, once the release comes out, there will likely be an available demo. This would provide a series of instructions – a path for people to follow as they maneuver through and learn how to make groups. By using a subset of data from the University of Bristol, people would get a first-hand glimpse into a real scenario – not just a generic use case that does not go into specifics. Show people how to browse, find, search, join, and create groups, etc. – include all the answers to basic questions that one would have during a first time run of application. [AI] {Gary} will put together an initial static demo and send this out to the {grouper-dev} mailing list for feedback. The initial cut can be viewed here: < http://www.bris.ac.uk/ips-projects/portal/groupsmanager/projectdoc/demo/index.html>

The Group will have a BoF on Monday, May 2 at the upcoming Internet2 Spring Member Meeting in Arlington, VA < http://events.internet2.edu/2005/spring-mm/>. There will also be two talks on the Subject Interface and also the common User Interface; abstracts are available from the website. Tuesday (May 3) may be a better time to present the static demo to the audience.

 

Additionally, it will be important to have answers for questions that people may have regarding how Grouper integrates with other applications – how things plug-in, how they work in someone's environment, etc. What does Grouper integrate with, and how do you execute that integration? How does this tie into the Subject Interface and User Interface? [AI] {Minh} will prepare integration questions related to Grouper, with the aim to present this information to the audience at the I2 Spring Member Meeting.

 

[AI] {Gary} will send the list of work-arounds that he has built up to the {grouper-dev} list. These can be found at < http://www.bris.ac.uk/ips-projects/portal/groupsmanager/projectdoc/workarounds/>

The next MACE-Dir-Groups conference call will be April 20, 2005 at 12pm ET.