What did the guys do at the last typo3.org code sprint?

Categories: Community Created by ben van 't ende
From March 21 -24 we dedicated another sprint to typo3.org. There is a solid core of people present every time at these typo3.org sprints and we have found a comfortable mode working on typo3.org since the relaunch one year ago almost to this day.
The typo3.org sprints always have quite a few people attending and this time it was no different. Since the previous sprint we have combined meetings with other teams that are also involved in typo3.org, although not specifically for it’s maintenance. This time we had some of the guys from the server team and from the editorial team present.
most of the team

All attendants:

  • Tomas Norre Mikkelsen
  • Steffen Gebert - server team
  • Bastian Bringenberg - server team
  • Christian Händel - marketing team
  • Sascha Egerer
  • Thomas Löffler
  • Boris Hinzer - editorial team
  • Kay Strobach
  • Christian Trabold - server team
  • Christian Zenker
  • Roland Schenke - editorial team
  • Tolleiv Nietsch
  • Joern Bock
  • Ben van ‘t Ende

Time is too short

As usual time is too short and we did not get around to discussing a new extension repository concept that might be based on Composer and to cleaning out our communication channels. Currently maintenance of typo3.org is spread over many different Forge projects, our ticketing system, a newsgroup and Skype. No worries these items will remain on the agenda. The next typo3.org code sprint is target for summer and we will have a whole range of topics including these.The team also engage in a free discussion about the future of typo3.org. One of the things we discussed is another relaunch as the advance of mobile devices calls for that without a doubt. No decisions of any sorts were taken, but the realisation that another relaunch is imminent is now solidly engraved into the minds of the sprint participants. Another important topic that we discussed in that meeting is interacting with the user base we have on typo3.org. Currently user registration has not got that many benefits yet. We talked about creating a profile page for every user on typo3.org. Based on location we could send out info on TYPO3 events in your neighbourhood and we discussed quite some other interactive goodies. We decided to create a sub team that will further engage in these matters. Let us know if you want to participate or have any further ideas. Actually we would appreciate hands-on participation rather than ideas only of course.

The editorial team

Boris, Roland and Christian H. participated in the sprint to work on a concept to represent our new TYPO3 family of products. Currently typo3.org is very focused on TYPO3 CMS only and we need to include Flow and Neos as they gain relevance. In the new concept there is room for our three products TYPO3 CMS, Flow and Neos. The concept will be discussed in the next marketing team meeting and implementation will probably follow in the Summer sprint.

The server team

Steffen, Bastian and Christian T. used the meetup for a nice spring cleaning of the <link http: www.opscode.com chef>Chef deployment tools. The chef-repo is now cleaner and easier to use. The team upgraded <link http: www.vagrantup.com>Vagrant (portable development environments) to stay future proof. As a nice side effect a huge performance boost was achieved as well. Deployment tests run much faster now. And a short overview of the rest:
  • Encrypt sensitive data with a encryption key eg. to store passwords securely within our chef repo.
  • Obsolete 'rake' tasks have been removed and replaced with native 'knife' commands. Functionality stays the same and we get more flexibility and clarity.
  • Purge orphaned git-branches to streamline our development process.
  • Improved documentation to speed up on-boarding of new members - or old members that are new to Chef :)
  • Introduce tests and code style checks to verify the quality of our own Chef cookbooks.
This is the first step towards continuous integration for the Chef repository. More tests and checks will follow. A full buzz report on what happened will be published shortly.
Joern Bock in front of the burn down chart

The typo3.org team

Joern set up the Kanban board, that has proven to be so effective in the previous sprint, early Thursday afternoon. Together with the first arrivals we went through the issue list, cleaned out quite some issues and assigned the rest to a new target called ‘<link http: forge.typo3.org projects team-t3o-relaunch-week versions>Code Sprint March’. This link provides a pretty good overview of what has been realised during the code sprint. Sascha Egerer,  our Solr search specialist, did the following:
  • Fixed the suggested search in the Extension Repository. Now only extension related results are displayed in the suggested search.
  • Changed the format of the download-number in the extension list view
  • Added the professional-services page to the search. If you search for “professional services” you will now get the correct page as a result
  • Added PSL agencies and case-studies to the search index so that they can be found in the search
  • Changed the case-study listing to a solr-search view so that you can search inside the case-studies
Christian Zenker worked on:
  • <link>Wallpaper gallery (become a member of the TYPO3 Wallpapers group on Flickr and your wallpapers will show up),
  • Fix registration woes:
    • If the “Verify your account” email is lost, you can activate your account using “Forgot Password”
    • Fixed a bug that prevented some users to change their password if they registered their account on the old homepage
  • Bug fixing in event section
  • Added ics calendars by category
  • Use the new twitter api (nothing that needs to be reported - it’s just that you won’t have to explain when all of a sudden no tweets are displayed) ;)
  • smaller things in TER upload
Kay Strobach worked on:
  • several small css, js, extbase helps in other Issues with Tomas
  • Backend
    • Preview hidden news
  • Frontend
    • Added privacy aware social media icon api and icons to news and prepared them for TER
    • Fixed Marker position in PSL
    • After downloading TYPO3 you’re now redirected to the support section
    • Fixed a small issue due to displaying names in comments (wrong line break)
    • Fixed a powermail session problem, so that the session is cleared after sending the form
  • Still Working
    • on an easy feedback solution for typo3.org

    Thomas Löffler worked on TER issues and prepared several new options that will be rolled out somewhere around Easter, this year ;)

    • Time between extension upload and appearance on TER list is smaller now. Maximum 5 minutes.
    • Fixed some bugs
    • Added a task to import older extensions and versions that were missing.

    What's next :

    • Integrate a <link http: www.flattr.com>flattr button
    • Integrate a donation link
    • Add link to an external repository
    • Add link to an external manual
    • Set a G+ ID to get your profile image in search results

    Tolleiv provided all technical backup we needed for deployment, while Joern and me tried to manage the code sprint, accommodation, food and give the guys a sense of direction.

    A big thank you to all participants and to AOE media for providing the space to sprint. You are awesome! It is great that we can rely in you to keep our central hub typo3.org running smoothly, most of the time, and getting in improvements that enhance the functionality for visitors and users of typo3.org.