Report on the combined server / typo3.org / design / documentation Team Sprint in Basel (Jan 2017)

Categories: Community Created by Michael Stucki
2017 is only a month old, yet four teams have already had their first team sprint during 3 days. The sprint took place on January 16-18, 2017 at the <link https: wwz.unibas.ch _blank>Faculty of Business and Economics (Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät) in Basel (Switzerland). Initiated by the server team, it was for the first time that one of their <link https: typo3.org search>4 quarterly sprints was held outside of a weekend (Monday - Wednesday). The intention behind that idea was to be available for more people who can probably not join easily on a weekend. As we were 18 participants on this sprint, it can be said that this worked out really well! The sprint was attended by members of the newly formed typo3.org relaunch team (t3o), the design team, the documentation team and the server team. Most of the attendees already arrived on Sunday evening, so that we could start early on Monday. On each of the three days, we teamed up in small groups that worked on a list of tasks that we built together. Every few hours, a short meeting was held to tell about the results so far and discuss any questions that may have come up. Below we like to give you an overview of the results that were created during the three days:

Server Team

Web Hosting Setup and Migration from OpenVZ to KVM

One major pain point over the last years was the lack of a good "shared web site hosting" service. Based on the setup used at snowflakeOps, we recently finished our setups. During the sprint, several web sites have been migrated into the new infrastructure, such as the new <link https: t3dd17.typo3.org _blank>t3dd17.typo3.org site as well as the Piwik system. We also made good progress with migrating old servers away from our OpenVZ-based infrastructure to the new one running KVM virtualization. After discussions about the destiny of all remaining instances, we will pursue this topic in the following weeks. We assume that we will shut down the last instances when the typo3.org team has finished the current relaunch...

Working Mode Inside the Team

Sitting together is always a good opportunity to discuss our mode of operation. We discussed ways to reduce our lead times and also how to make ourselves more happy, i.e., by finishing tasks first instead of starting new ones.

LDAP

Bastian spent a lot of time on documenting the setup of the new LDAP server, which is now in place. Together we had a look at the installation to make sure that other members of the team know how it works.

t3o team

New TYPO3 Extension Repository

In the last sprint in Würzburg, the new TYPO3 Extension Repository (TER) website was initialized. On this sprint we optimized the local development, which is based on a <link https: git-t3o.typo3.org t3o ter _blank>Docker container (requires a typo3.org login), and included the TER extensions for SOAP and frontend and a Solr server with the corresponding TYPO3 extension. Also, we integrated a design and started with the Solr indexer. We are using currently TYPO3 7.6 due to upgrading the extension on a facile way. We need to put more work into the extensions before upgrading to TYPO3 v8, so we shifted that to "after the go-live". During the sprint, the TER team formed itself in person of Tomas Norre Mikkelsen, Thorsten Griebenow and Jonathan Iroulin. There will be weekly meetings within the team to keep the work on it.The next steps will be to get it running and fully tested on the subdomain, so we can go live within the first quarter of 2017. After that, we will refactor the extensions for TER and create a plan for getting the TER future-proof. Everybody is welcome to join the team and contribute to get this most visited part of t3o. If you are interested, say hello to us on <link https: typo3.org slack _blank>Slack in the <link https: typo3.slack.com messages ter-team _blank>#ter-team channel.

New typo3.org page

As we get the TER environment running in a stable way, we copied that information for setting up the new typo3.org page. After some evaluations, we decided to use the latest sprint release of TYPO3 v8. The design team in person of Oliver Oertel, Michel Loew and Fabian Stein joined us to improve and create the markup for the new site together with the integrators in person of Harry Glatz and Thorsten Griebenow. Besides the work on the output of typo3.org, there was a productive and agile discussion on the menu and content structure. Marco Seiler, Ina Burkardt, Jörg Ems and Stefan Busemann sat together and formed the new page structure. It will be reduced in the first menu level to focus on the main areas which we want to provide. Concerning the design, template and layout of the new typo3.org website, we decided to build a sitepackage with all required layout and content elements. This sitepackage (in form of an extension) will enable us to use it on most (maybe all) websites of the TYPO3 universe. We will use another "custom" sitepackage on each instance to overwrite the needed components like Typoscript, assets etc. This will reduce the amount of time for maintenance of the basics and will provide the same look and feel on all pages. On the sprint we made the initial setup of the sitepackage and built the first elements of the new layout. So far, we have a frame with a header, footer, navigation, and we also finished the first content elements. CSS is based on SASS and Compass and is, as well as the JavaScript, compiled by Grunt. All this will be done hand in hand with the design team which will basically do all the HTML/CSS work. We hope that all elements - both for the frame and normal content - will be done until the next sprint and within the first quarter of 2017. Anyone who is willing to join forces on this topic is invited to do so. Just get in contact with Thomas Löffler, Fabian Stein or Harry Glatz through Slack. We will provide you everything you need to contribute!

Page and content concept

The typo3.org relaunch will not only provide a new layout, but also take care of the content structure. We examined the page tree and aim to restructure it while reducing the navigation points on the first level.
One goal is to define an easy to retrieve place for the content of every page in the page tree. The second goal is to add useful crosslinks between typo3.org and typo3.com. On our way, we identified outdated pages and marked them to be removed. Due to the lack of man power and an editorial team, we do our content restructuring work mainly on page level. Reworking the content on every single page should follow later and help is needed and welcome.

Full timeline

We created a complete timeline for our relaunch project. When we started the project last year, we planned to have only a new start page in fresh responsive design and have then a relaunch step by step. After we collected feedback in our community, we decided to have a full relaunch by end of June 2017. To reach this goal, we will have 3 additional sprints in the first half of this year. Also we will create tasks, which will be done between sprints. These tasks can be done by everyone who is willing to contribute. To wrap it up: Main focus for the second quarter of 2016 is new typo3.org page, with a responsive design and cleaned up obsolete content and functions. In the second half of 2017, new functionalities will be implemented.

Documentation Team

It's important to keep the connection to the other teams. We discussed site structure and what contents should be on typo3.org and docs.typo3.org. We are aiming for better notification about TER events and came up with a plan. The new template will be evaluated whether it can be used as start page for the documentation. And we took the chance for some more "documentation evangelism" to have more people in touch with how TYPO3 documentation works.

Insights

For Thorsten Griebenow, among others, it was the first time that he participated in a team sprint of the TYPO3 community. He likes to share some of his insights which could probably motivate one or the other person to join one of the next sprints, too:
For me as an frontend person and integrator there were some new techniques coming up (Docker for example) which - once running - were a good reason to join the sprints. I learned important actual trends and things and am looking forward to contribute my knowledge for building up a container for the teaser elements on the new home site. As we had just finished a company sprint which had been very intensive as well I must tell it is exhausting but productive. I hope I will be available for the next sprint which is not too sure as of a big release project in the company I work for. Thanks to all the persons who have been there as well, the fondue which lasted long and tasted very well, hope to see you soon again :).

Closing words

A team sprint is not only about creating results. For each one of us, it has been opportunity to learn new stuff, have interesting discussions and enjoy delicious Fondue :-) In short, it's a great chance to get some new motivation for the (sometimes) more boring time between two sprints. That being said, we hope to see even more new contributors at one of the next sprints. If you are interested to join, just contact us any time on the <link https: typo3.org slack _blank>TYPO3 Slack community in the <link https: typo3.slack.com messages t3o-team _blank>#t3o-team channel.

Next Sprint

Another joint sprint is planned to follow in May/June 2017. Prior to this, the next sprints will be held by each one of the teams separately.
So far it is fixed that the server team will meet again on the weekend of April 7-9 in Cologne, and the typo3.org relaunch team will meet on March 2-4 at a location which is yet to be announced.
Other teams may announce their upcoming sprints during the next weeks... In general, you can find information about upcoming team sprints on the <link https: typo3.org events typo3-sprints>events page on typo3.org.

Thanks

We like to thank the <link https: wwz.unibas.ch _blank>Faculty of Business and Economics of the <link https: www.unibas.ch _blank>University of Basel for being our host during 3 days. Many thanks to the members of the TYPO3 Association who are covering all travel and accommodation costs through their membership. Participants of the sprint: Andreas Beutel, Martin Bless, Bastian Bringenberg, Ina Burkardt, Stefan Busemann, Jörg Ems, Steffen Gebert, Harry Glatz, Thorsten Griebenow, Jonathan Iroulin, Michel Loew, Thomas Löffler, Tomas Norre Mikkelsen, Oliver Oertel, Marco Seiler, Fabian Stein, Andri Steiner, Michael Stucki