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[grouper-dev] Draft Minutes, Grouper call 24-Oct-2012


Chronological Thread 
  • From: Emily Eisbruch <>
  • To: Grouper Dev <>
  • Subject: [grouper-dev] Draft Minutes, Grouper call 24-Oct-2012
  • Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2012 14:10:28 -0400

Draft Minutes, Grouper call 24-Oct-2012

Attending

Tom Barton, University of Chicago (chair) 
Michael Girgis, University of Chicago 
Bill Thompson, Unicon 
Andrew Petro, Unicon 
Lynn Garrison, Penn State 
Chris Hyzer, University of Pennsylvania  
Jim Fox, University of Washington 
Steve Olshansky, Internet2 
Emily Eisbruch, Internet2, scribe 

*** New Action Items ****

[AI] (SteveO) add VOOT connector to the Grouper software download page with appropriate disclaimer that it's not fully tested.

[AI] (MIchael) design a simple outreach instrument, with checkboxes, to email to Grouper users to discover the community's top priorities for UI redesign.

[AI] (TomB) reach out to TomZ around the PSP build steps

[AI] (Jim) create a wiki page documenting the U. Washington's experience using Amazon WS


** Carry Over Action Items ***

[AI] (Chris) Upgrade the Grouper demo to the latest Grouper version 2.1 

[AI] (SteveO) contact MikeL of TSG to set up a call with Jim and Andrew regarding adding optional Grouper registration to the downloads 

[AI] (unassigned) add info to the wiki regarding doing testing on provisioning  

[AI] (unassigned) put test data in the Grouper demo to show using an LDAP source.

**Carry Over Action Items**

[AI] (Chris) upgrade the Grouper demo to the latest Grouper version 2.1 

[AI] (SteveO) contact MikeL of TSG to set up a call with Jim and Andrew regarding adding optional Grouper registration to the downloads 

[AI] (unassigned) add info to the wiki regarding doing testing on provisioning  

[AI] (unassigned) put test data in the Grouper demo to show using an LDAP source.

DISCUSSION

Potential Grouper Plugins for Spring Security and Shiro

- Bill reached out to Spring Security and Shiro project members 
-  discussed Grouper project committers maintaining Grouper add-on extensions/plugins in the Spring Security and Shiro distributions
- this would be similar to how Spring Security has extension for SAML and other things
- Bill got positive responses from both projects 
- It's up to the Grouper project to decide if we want to resource taking this forward.
- the Grouper team would need to maintain/upgraded as needed

Grouper Roadmap - Quick Review


- the group agreed that the items assigned for Grouper 2.2 make sense
- no changes needed for now

VOOT Connector


The new VOOT connector works with Grouper 2.0
- it is running on the demo server
- it is a separate component in SVN
- Decision: add it to the software download page, with a mention that it is not thoroughly tested
- it's a proof of concept that seems to work

- SteveO may take wording from other open source projects, such as from the Shib Contributions page for things not fully tested.

[AI] (SteveO) add VOOT connector to the Grouper software download page with appropriate disclaimer that it's not fully tested.

Emily has linked VOOT  Connector documentation on the Admin Guides page


Grouper UI Planning 

Grouper UI Planning page:

MichaelG reported on the plan for the next 2-3 weeks
- set up user interviews with Grouper users at U. Chicago
  - they are intermediate grouper users, not admins or expert users
  - they use grouper on a periodic basis
- talking with them for about 30-40 minutes each about how they use Grouper
- what tasks they do
- pain points they have with Grouper
- what frustrations they may have with the existing UI
- to glean what features or functionality or workflow will improve the experience for them

- do users always use Grouper while sitting at their desktop in front of a big screen?
- need to verify that to determine how much functionality we need to provide on small screens

- want to settle on finalizing the list of new feature requests
- tried to categorize feature requests on whether they affect the front end directly
- see "category" column

- at some point we need to put a freeze on feature requests
- what's the best way to finalize the list?
- Should we solicit community input again?
- could create a poll to let people vote on priorities

-  create a user voice forum?
- a formal way to give people the opportunity to suggest features and put down allotted # of votes for the features they are interested in

- MichaelG:  
- once we create the wireframes
-  we will reach out to users and do remote testing
- tasks for users to perform
- and get them involved and get feedback
- can do a few iterative rounds of that kind of user testing

- TomB: 
- would be useful to announce that we have started again working on the Grouper UI redesign
- since initial research (user interviews) will take a few weeks

-  let people cast their vote on an existing list of feature requests
- and give people an open space to request their new feature requests
- so we identity what to tackle first

- MichaelG will make a simple feedback form
- not the "user voice forum" approach
- might be a series of check boxes
- check the top 3 you are interested in, with an open space for feedback

- If MichaelG has questions in describing the features, he'll check with the core group.

 [AI] (MIchaelG) design a simple outreach instrument, with checkboxes, to email to Grouper users to discover the community's top priorities for UI redesign.

Q : Have you considered responsive web design?

A: MichaelG:
- yes will keep those principles in mind.
- the tree widgets, etc. often don't translate to the small screen
- But fully responsive design down to phone size might not work
- Designing for desktop down to portrait IPAD makes sense
- might have combo of responsive design and a small screen version

Chris: if you go down small enough, the tree control could fall off

MichaelG:
- might build out the wireframes as HTML pages using Twitter Bootstrap

- Twitter Bootstrap is popular at U. Washington
- Unicon has heard good things about it

Timeframe? Hope to wrap up the Grouper UI Redesign by Fall of 2013

Include Support for Services?


Services were not listed in the requirements  docs
- This involves adding the ability to manage things in terms of the services that the groups enable, not just in terms of groups
- Perhaps we should incorporate Services into the Grouper UI work


Grouper 2.1.3

- For the Grouper 2.1.3 release, need to communicate with TomZ around PSP steps for Maven Central

[AI] TomB will phone TomZ about the build steps for PSP


Active MQ Integration


- ActiveMQ messaging doesn't come with a good way to do security
- latest version has some kind of LDAP security
- previously you had to use XML file
- They provide a Java interface
- allowing you to capture events, act on them, or veto events
- you can protect destinations based on who is authenticating through Grouper permissions
- ActiveMQ vs Amazon's service has been discussed on the Grouper-dev email list

- the fact that ActiveMQ is so inexpensive is attractive
- next step for Active MQ is to finish this plugin and to have integration points w clients so it can listen for events
- based on things that change in the change log, like it does for XMPP

Jim: 
 U. Washington has used the Amazon GUI console to manage clients of the Amazon WS
- SNS and SNQ are parts of same service Amazon WS
- The Amazon WS is RESTful is all JSON
- they allow a "get" of the info you want to send
- UW picks things off the Grouper change log, posts them, and "puts" them to Amazon
- other processes pick up those things

Q: TomB: Should the Grouper connector for Amazon WS be one that each site does for themselves, or should it be in the Grouper distribution?

A: Jim: instructions would be helpful

[AI] (Jim) create a wiki page documenting the U. Washington's experience using Amazon WS


Next Grouper-Dev Call: Wed. 7-Nov-2012, noon ET




Emily Eisbruch, Technology Transfer Analyst
Internet2
office: +1-734-352-4996 | mobile +1-734-730-5749

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  • [grouper-dev] Draft Minutes, Grouper call 24-Oct-2012, Emily Eisbruch, 10/30/2012

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