[Soc-coordination] Backend Tools and Infrastructure for DEX - Report 1

[Nathan Handler]

Hello everyone,

Here is my first official Google Summer of Code report. As I still had
classes, the first week of coding was rather slow. However, after my
first phone call with my mentor, Matt Zimmerman, things started to
pick up. I spent most of my time working on a dashboard/portal for the
Debian Derivatives Exchange (DEX). We decided that the best approach
to this would be to store as little information ourselves as possible.
Instead, we will try to pull most of our information from other
sources, such as Debian's BTS. The main advantage to this is that
package maintainers do not need to change any of their workflows, but
they still get to benefit from DEX's work. Currently, I have a python
script that gets a list of usertags and bugs for
debian-derivatives at lists.debian.org from the BTS. This script will end
up getting run by cron. It stores the information it gets in static
HTML files. Finally, JQuery and Javascript are used to present the
final dashboard to the user. I created a mockup showing how this looks
[1]. I also have a functioning website that looks and acts like the
mockup, but the code is not publicly available yet (see below).

DEX uses Alioth to host its git branches and website. I have spent
some time trying to familiarize myself with the recent changes that
have taken place on Alioth, as well as trying to figure out the best
way to store and execute my script to generate the website. So far, it
looks like people are still deciding on the best way to handle having
websites that are updated from VCS hooks (due to things being split
between vasks and wagner). I will continue to look into this, and
might try using an alternate host until things settle down.

Next, I plan to work on updating the dashboard to provide a way to
edit, store, and display certain extra fields of information. This is
necessary for certain pieces of information that are not appropriate
for adding to bugs and in a few other cases. I will also be taking
some time to talk to a few people who were active contributors to the
last DEX project. This will allow me to learn more about their
experience, find out what changes they feel should be made to make
things run smoother, and get feedback on my current Summer of Code
work. Finally, although I have been posting updates on my Summer of
Code work to my blog [2][3], Matt thinks that having all of this
information in one place will be useful. As a result, I will be
creating another wiki page about the project that will contain all of
the information people need to know. This page will be updated as the
summer progresses. I am also hoping to have my code available in a
public VCS by the time of my next progress update so that people can
check it out and provide feedback.

In addition to the dashboard, I will be working on creating a few
other tools to assist with the creation and tracking of new DEX
projects. I will also be coming up with a way to generate graphs to
visually allow us to track our progress on projects versus time as
well as show the work done by people at the individual level. This
last task is part of a goal to get more people involved in the DEX
project.

While we may only be a few weeks into the actual Google Summer of
Code, I have already learned a lot of new things. I am looking forward
to working more with Matt and other members of the community over the
course of the summer.

Thanks,
Nathan Handler


[1] http://nhandler.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/dexdashboard.png
[2] http://nhandler.wordpress.com/2011/05/28/google-summer-of-code-update-1/
[3] http://nhandler.wordpress.com/2011/05/31/google-summer-of-code-update-2/