Grouper Developers Forum

[Jessica Bibbee <>]

MACE-Dir-Groups Conference Call
November 30, 2005

*Participants*
Tom Barton, U. Chicago (chair)
Blair Christensen, U. Chicago
Brendan Bellina, USC
Joy Veronneau, U. Cornell
Gary Brown, U. Bristol
RL "Bob" Morgan, U. Washington
Steve Olshansky, Internet2
Jessica Bibbee, Internet2 (scribe)

Carry-over *Action Items*

[AI] {Joy, Tom, and Bob} volunteered to test the UI once code changes for v0.9 are made, and send any bug reports to {Gary}. (16-Nov-05)

[AI] {Steve Barrett} volunteered to contribute a one-page write-up on U. Cornell's experience with using SOAP as a wrapper around the API. (16-Nov-05)

 [AI] {Bob} will make suggestions regarding use of XML formats for load/distribution. (5-Oct-05)

*Discussion*
{Blair} confirmed that the code freeze on the API should happen by December 12. {Gary} will finish the code following {Blair's} work, allowing for several days to test the UI before {Tom, Bob, and Joy} volunteer their testing efforts.  Changes to the underlying schema for the database may change from v0.6 to v0.9, and those about to use v0.9 should be aware that this will not be resolved until v1.0.

Support for personal groups is a desired feature, but will probably show up after v0.9. {Gary} suggested that flexibility be provided for how a site establishes naming conventions for personal groups – perhaps offer a pluggable way for sites to incorporate this feature. {Tom} offered two possible approaches for supporting personal groups: 1) treat personal groups no differently than any other type of group or source – by provisioning, a site may choose to put the whole department under a name space, etc.; 2) offer a configurable mode, where the authenticated person navigates to a distinguished name space, such that if he/she did not already have their own group, it would be created at that time – without a change to the security or how it works. It will be a question of how they get there and how it is presented in the UI. The Group thought it would be desirable to have the Grouper API create on the fly.

{Gary} mentioned having made a personal group as a stem, under which you would place a group – the interface still exists in the form of a javadoc in previous releases, and may be of use to others with a bit of tweaking. There is no added difficulty in populating personal groups versus other types of groups. {Gary} said it would be possible to arrange for the creation of a stem for each individual that wants personal groups, though it would hang off the root stem.

The ability to delete/modify will be added as soon as possible, v1.0 at the latest. Additional features will appear in v1.0 or v1.1. Group math exists in v0.9, but nothing is exposed yet. Other features to be added are XML export/import, aging, changelog, contributed LDAP connector and ws-wrapper. A change-based provisioning support is anticipated. Generating a change log for large groups may present performance concerns. Another item not listed in the agenda but definitely needed is custom group types.

{Bob and Joy} raised concern about Grouper's adaptability to Signet – how it will work, how subjects will be loaded into Signet, etc. The Subject API should assist with the loading of subjects, via sources.xml. {Gary} mentioned the usefulness of events publishing - having the ability to register a list of events.

The next MACE-Dir Groups call will be held on Wednesday, December 14, 2005 at 12pm ET.