Grouper Developers Forum

[Emily Eisbruch <>]

**Grouper Call 14-May-08**
**Attending**
Tom Barton, U. Chicago (chair)
Gary Brown, Bristol U. (UK)
Caleb Racey, Newcastle U. (UK)
Bert Bee-Lindgren, Georgia Tech U.
Mike Olive, Stanford
Dave Donnelly, Stanford
Chris Hyzer, U. Penn
Bill Kasenchar, U. Penn
Joy Veronneau, Cornell U.
Josh Drummond, UC-Irvine
Neil Matatall, UC-Irvine
Tom Zeller, U. Memphis
Steve Olshansky, Internet2
Emily Eisbruch, Internet2 (scribe)

**New Action Items**

[AI] TomB, Gary and SteveO will discuss the archiving of documents from 
previous Grouper releases.
[AI] Chris will develop a changes file for upgrading from Grouper 1.2.1 
to Grouper 1.3.0.
[AI] Bill will finish the “Terminology in the Grouper User Interface” 
document.
[AI] TomB will merge or cross-reference the “Authentication for Grouper 
Web Services” page of the Grouper documentation with the Grouper 
Prerequisites page.

*Carryover Action Items*

[AI] (All interested) Review the Grouper and I2MI-Common roadmaps (links 
below), and discuss on the list, with a particular focus on whether the 
loader should be included in Grouper 1.4.

[AI] (All interested) Test functionality in the Jira 1.3.0-tagged 
components as you are able, and report to the list as appropriate.

[AI] (anyone interested in contributing to the documentation) contact 
SteveO and TomB to coordinate before making any substantive changes, if 
you have not already done so.

**Discussion**

There was a reminder that open issues in JIRA should be assigned to a 
release if possible or left unassigned intentionally.
https://bugs.internet2.edu/jira/browse/GRP

It was agreed that Grouper version 1.3.0 is ready for release, and the 
release date was set for Wed., May 21. Chris will tag the modules on 
Tues., May 20.

The current status of the version 1.3.0 documentation was reviewed.

Bill is working on a document called “Terminology in the Grouper User 
Interface as of v1.3.0.”
(https://wiki.internet2.edu/confluence/display/GrouperWG/UI+Terminology)
In light of the effectiveness of the approach in this terminology 
document, it was agreed that the translation column in the Grouper 
Glossary could be eliminated.

Gary mentioned that he plans to add a few additional items to the UI 
Developer level docs.

The possibility of expanding the Prerequisites page 
(https://wiki.internet2.edu/confluence/display/GrouperWG/Prerequisites)
was discussed. Should it be broadened to include common issues with web 
services? It was decided not to get into details of web services on the 
Prerequisites page, but rather to link or merge it into the 
Authentication page.

[AI] TomB will merge or cross-reference the “Authentication for Grouper 
Web Services” page of the Grouper documentation with the Grouper 
Prerequisites page.

[AI] Chris will develop a changes file for upgrading from Grouper 1.2.1 
to Grouper 1.3.0.

[AI] TomB, Gary and SteveO will discuss the archiving of documents from 
previous Grouper releases.

The hooks and notifications infrastructure for Grouper and Signet was 
discussed, building on the conversation in the Fri., May 9 Signet 
working group call.

TomB questioned what context information should be provided with hooks. 
Chris suggested the context information to be passed should include 1) 
the environment running (UI or not) and 2) things that are specific to 
that environment. Dave questioned whether the context could be implied 
by the event.

How tightly or loosely coupled should an extension handoff be? Will an 
extension have access to the runtime paraphernalia? Dave voted for very 
loose coupling.

Chris commented that plug-ins can be a kind of customization, in which 
case tighter coupling is useful.

A downside of tighter coupling was mentioned: it leads to dependencies 
and requires that we take on more obligations for fixing extensions if 
they break due to updates.

Also mentioned was the risk of plug-ins being able to modify internal 
objects, which are then changed from the state in which earlier plug-ins 
found them.

It was decided that the hooks and notifications discussion will be 
continued at next Signet call. Anyone interested who is not already 
subscribed to the Signet-Dev mailing list can find subscription linked 
from the Signet page:
http://signet .internet2.edu/

Next call: Wed 28-May Noon EDT