Grouper Developers Forum

["Jessica Bibbee" <>]

Grouper WG Conference Call
September 6, 2006

*Participants*
Tom Barton, U. Chicago (chair)
Blair Christensen, U. Chicago
Gary Brown, U. Bristol
Joy Veronneau, U. Cornell
Brendan Bellina, USC
Will Norris, USC
Mark Weber, U. Wisconsin
Monica Crawford, U. Wisconsin
Stephen Langella, OSU
Steve Olshansky, Internet2
Jessica Bibbee, Internet2 (scribe)

New *Action Items*
[AI] {Blair} will share his testing results with the Working Group.
[AI] {Stephen and Blair} will speak offline regarding the development of additional interfaces.
[AI] {Tom} will add discussion items to the wiki, and pass the links to the mailing list.
[AI] Please contact {Tom} if you would like to submit a proposal for a track session, etc., for the upcoming Fall 2006 Internet2 Member Meeting.
[AI] {Gary} will speak with Kathryn Huxtable regarding changes for the next v1.1 release.
[AI] {Stephen} will pass along a link to their CVS for a model similar to the Grouper object model, including use cases and code.

Carry-Over *Action Items*
[AI] {Tom} will work with {SteveO} to create higher-level screenshots. (12-Jul-06)

*Agenda*:
1. recommended heap size in gsh, other java contexts running grouper api
2. round-up of issues that have surfaced with 1.0
3. what's in 1.1, take 1
  . already checked-in
  . already on blair's or Gary's todo list
  . other items that should go on a todo list?
4. Events - I2MM December 4-7

*Discussion*
Grouper will not have a maintenance release (e.g., v1.0.1), but will instead move directly to a v1.1 with functional enhancements. This anticipated release date has not yet been established.

{Tom} opened discussion for existing and other v1.1 items. {Stephen} raised an issue regarding GridGrouper's use of GH cache when loading default files with other components within caBIG.  They are interested in deploying multiple applications together, which is currently impossible.

{Stephen} mentioned another issue with setting view/read privileges for default groups, as there were difficulties in changing the default group type. Blair confirmed that this should be possible and suggested another attempt; if there is still no success, then it is likely a bug.

{Mark} shared his update with their progress with Grouper at U. Wisconsin. They are deploying in Tomcat and working with WebLogic, though they are not to a functional testing state yet. They are open to collaboration with others, and hope to have more information to share within the next month.

{Blair} has several items on his To Do list, including: query filters for creation of memberships query, privilege resolution and caching code, subject caching, performance issues, regular benchmarks for code on a couple of different databases, and general code clean-up. [AI] {Blair} will share his testing results with the Working Group.

The Group discussed several potential bus or issues raised by {Kathryn} regarding attribute problems (cf. 1-Aug), the deletion of groups (cf. email 1-Sep), and performance in oracle (cf. 11,13-Aug). There are several bugs that Blair and Gary will work on, for inclusion with v1.1. [AI] {Gary} will speak with Kathryn Huxtable regarding changes for the next v1.1 release.

{Gary} plans to make improvements for Grouper imports: as opposed to the existing method of discarding the old and creating new ones, it will eventually be able to compare the new with the old and make corresponding adjustments. Additionally, {Gary} will work to enable export to preserve internal attributes.

{Stephen} expressed an interest in creating a set of interfaces that could be implemented elsewhere, e.g., with GridGrouper. Such interfaces would allow for grouper network activity, which would be useful for developing applications in the future.  [AI] {Stephen and Blair} will speak offline regarding the development of additional interfaces.

{Monica} asked when there will be discussion about moving to a 2.4 servlet option. This issue was raised in the last Signet Working Group call, regarding the general approach for Internet2 Middleware products with respect to Java and Tomcat. {Bob} commented that Shibboleth users are more in favor of the latest products, and this issue will be of importance as many folks may want to deploy Signet and Grouper together.

There was a request for an area in the wiki to park discussion items. {Jessica} has created a page for Development Items, including discussion items for consideration by the working group: <https://wiki.internet2.edu/confluence/display/GrouperWG/Development+Items>. [AI] {Tom} will add discussion items to the wiki, and pass the links to the mailing list.

There are two upcoming events with relevance to Grouper:
    .CAMP: Building a Distributed Access Management Infrastructure – 7-9 Nov., Denver, CO.
             <http://www.educause.edu/CAMP064>. Beyond technical deployment issues, there
              Is also potential issues regarding actual use, i.e., how to delegate, how do naming stems
              look, etc. {Bob} added that their campus is also addressing departmental readiness
              issues in advance of and coordination with Grouper deployment.
    .Fall 2006 Internet2 Member Meeting December 4-7,
            <http://events.internet2.edu/2006/fall-mm/index.html>
             <http://events.internet2.edu/2006/fall-mm/calls-forms.cfm?type=Side%20Meeting>
             [AI] Please contact {Tom} if you would like to submit a proposal for a track session, etc.,
             for the upcoming Fall 2006 Internet2 Member Meeting.

{Tom} is interested in hearing more of {Stephen's} story, regarding how Grouper technologies will broaden activities within the caBIG environment. {Stephen} said they are approaching matters from two perspectives: 1) how to use Grouper, and 2) the more obscure setting of policies for the creation and management of these groups. [AI] {Stephen} will pass along a link to their CVS for a model similar to the Grouper object model, including use cases and code.

The next scheduled Grouper Working Group call will be Wednesday, 20-Sep at 12pm EDT.

-- 
Jessica Bibbee, Technical Analyst
Internet2

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