JourFixe-2023-07-10

Date and place

Monday, 10 July 2023 from 13:00 – 17:05 at VC meeting in BBB.

If you like to participate at the Jour Fixe, please join our BigBlueButton-based Jour Fixe VC!
We recommend to use BBB in Chrome (or Firefox).

1 Appointments

2 Miscellaneous

2.1 UI Clinic

Our UI/UX/A11y experts Yvonne Seiler, Kristina Auerswald and Kendra Grotz are offering bi-weekly UI clinic consultation hours for UI/UX and accessibility topics. The consultation hours are open for all users that need or are interested in related help for their ILIAS development activities. The UI Clinic consultation hours take place every Tuesday before Jour Fixe from 14h30 to 15h00.

If you are interested in discussing an issue, please register here!

2.2 Style Guide for English Language

Our expert for English language, Chris Potter, has created a Style Guide for English Language in ILIAS to help developers when writing English labels and bylines. Major aim is to improve the quality and the consistence of the English language file. We kindly please all developers to have a look at this style guide and follow its recommendations!

In addition, Chris is currently revising the entire ilias_en.lang for ILIAS 9 and corrects and streamline the texts. This already came with a couple of commits in the last weeks (and still will go on).

In case of questions to the style guide or the correct use of English language in ILIAS, please feel free to contact Chris.

2.3 Maintainerships

2.3.1 Maintainerships to be Handed Over

The following maintainerships are offered for takeover by another developer:

• Administration: Alexander Killing and Stefan Meyer (2nd maintainer) would like to hand over maintainership of Services/Administration to an interested developer. Code is in good state and the service ready to be used with PHP 8.
• Tree: Stefan Meyer would like to hand over the maintainership for /Services/Tree to an interested developer in the nearer future.

Developers willing to take over this maintainership are highly appreciated. Please contact the Technical Board if you are interested in taking over the maintainership.

2.3.2 New Maintainerships

• none

2.4 Community Tools

The Technical Board was approached by different actors in the ILIAS-Community expressing discontent about Discord as our Community-Tool. Right now we feel that we, the Technical Board, have more important and urgent issues to tackle. Please contact us, if this is an important issue for you and you would like to tackle it with other members in the community.

3 Maintained Versions

At the time being, we are maintaining ILIAS version 7 and Version 8.

3.1 Roadmap

Lifecycles of maintained versions

• ILIAS 7 : end of maintenance of ILIAS 7 is expected for April 2024. At this time, ILIAS 9 will hopefully be available as a stable release. 
• ILIAS 8 : end of full maintenance at 31 DEC 2024, security bug fixes (only) until 31 DEC 2025.

3.2 Mantis Reports

All open issues reported or modified since the last Jour Fixe were screened by the product manager before the Jour Fixe and assigned to the responsible developers if necessary. The following issues were discussed in detail:

1. #13813: Conceptual issue: admins and tutors should not have columns for 'passed' a.s.o: We keep the report open. The product manager will call for a workshop to find a reasonable solution for this problem, esp. related to the option to edit multiple course members. Additional information: the learning progress of users with course admin or course tutor role only (!) is not stored and shown. They always have the status "not started yet" as long as they do not have another additional role (member, ...) in the course and made LP related activities (test, session, ...).
2. #31192: Ordering-questions are not responsive in ILIAS Learning-Module: We agree to remove the question mark background image in questions for ILIAS 8 and trunk in the system style and in content style.
3. #31664: Delete processes in ILIAS commonly much too slow: We suggest to add a related index for the mentioned installation and check if this index has a negative impact on performance, esp. for learning progress but also other services. If no clear influence of the performance is measurable, an index could be introduced. Otherwise, we prefer to have slow delete processes than a slow learning progress. Please give us a short update once the measurement has been taken.

Postponed to next Jour Fixe:

1. #:

3.3 Mantis Statistic

Mantis reports[1] set to status 'open' and not been touched by responsible maintainer for more than 21 days (checked this morning) as well as bug reports with priorisation voting:

* New votes: bugs priorised within the last 14 days   ** Old votes: priorised bugs before last JF (older then 14 days)   *** Resolved: Resolved or closed bug reports in the last 14 days

Reports with status 'Fixing according to priorisation' should be fixed before other bugs are tackled. Priorised bugs are very important for one or more institutional members of the ILIAS society. Handling this reports with low priority contradicts the intention of the established bug fixing process.

3.4 Development Issues of Maintained Versions

The following development issues concern one or more maintained versions. Issues related to upcoming versions have to be added in chapter 4.

• Nothing to discuss

3.5 Open Pull Requests to Discuss

The following pull requests in the ILIAS GitHub repository were marked with 'Jour Fixe':

1. PR5664 • [PROPOSAL] Add npm install to composer install and update commands : We discussed the suggestion by @PurHur and its implications on the build process. There is a soft vote for an extension of composer to JS libraries and no one objects. Discussion will be continued within this PR.
2. PR5810 • UI: Entity Representation : We highly appreciate this suggestion and accept the PR for trunk. We are looking forward to the first implementation of this UI element.
3. PR6070 • UI/Table/Presentation: expand/collapse all, use Alignments : We highly appreciate this suggestion and accept the PR for trunk.
4. PR6085 • UI: allow defining relationships in links : We highly appreciate this suggestion and accept the PR for trunk. 
5. PR6107 • UI: buttons are labeled, not named or captioned : Thanks for clarifying the wording with the PR. We highly appreciate this suggestion and accept the PR for trunk. 
6. PR6112 • UI/DataTable: async actions with tokens from URLBuilder : We highly appreciate this suggestion and accept the PR for trunk. 
7. PR6123 • Component: paper about layout and dependencies : ichard would like to discuss this proposal on the next Jour Fixe at 24 JUL and asks all developers and JF participants to read the proposal carefully and ask questions before the JF. Richard will pick up this input and give answers together with the presentation of the proposal.

Postponed to next JF:

1. PR • :

3.6 Continuous Integration

• Michael Jansen gave a short overview on CI.
• Unit Tests:
  • There are hundreds (=307) of deprecation warnings when executing the unit test suite with PHP 8.2!
    • tests/Setup/*
    • tests/UI/Component/MainControls/*
    • tests/UI/Component/Item/*
    • tests/UI/Component/Launcher/*
    • tests/GlobalScreen/Notification/*
    • tests/UI/Component/Table/*
    • tests/GlobalCache/*
    • tests/Language/*
    • Services/COPage/*
    • Services/Database/*
    • Services/Language/*
      
    • Services/MainMenu/*
    • Services/LDAP/test/*
    • Services/CAS/*
    • Services/Authentication/*
    • Services/ActiveRecord/*
    • Modules/LearningSequence/*
    • Modules/Test/*
    • libs/composer/vendor/guzzlehttp/psr7/*
  • As of today, there are (executed with PHP 8.2)
    • 9605 (+93)
    • 23378 assertions (depends on the order of tests being executed / not stably determinable)
    • 14 skipped unit tests
      • 1 x \TagInputTest::testUserCreatedNotAllowed
      • 10 x T&A
      • 1 x \ilServicesPreviewTest::testRendererFactory
      • 1 x tests/ResourceStorage/Consumer/AccessTokenTest.php
      • 1 x Services/Style/System/test/Style/ilSkinFactoryTest.php
    • 1 incomplete unit test
      • \ilSessionTest::testPasswordAssisstanceSession

4 Developing ILIAS 9

4.1 Timeline for ILIAS 9

Due to the changed timeline of ILIAS 8 we had to fundamentally change the schedule for ILIAS 9. The aim was to secure sufficient resources for the completion of ILIAS 8 and to take away the time pressure for the programming of ILIAS 9. In short, the release plan for ILIAS 9 has been postponed by one year.

• Feature freeze at April 30, 2023: deadline to suggest new features for this version ✓
• Coding completed: all features implemented and test cases finished until October 27, 2023
• Release 9.0 beta1 and release-9 branch planned for October 30, 2023
• Beginn of testing phase scheduled for October 31, 2023
• End of testing phase planned for Februar 02, 2024
• First stable 9.0 release planned for March 15, 2024
• Full maintenance support for version 9: until December 31, 2025
• Security bug fixes only: until December 31, 2026

4.2 Software Requirements for ILIAS 9

The required and supported software for ILIAS 9 is as follows:

1. PHP:
   • ILIAS 9 will support PHP 8.1 and 8.2.
   • Support for PHP 7.4 and 8.0 will be dropped.
2. PHPUnit: 10.x
3. Composer: Composer 2
4. DBMS:
   • MariaDB: 10.3, 10.4, 10.5, 10.6 (we recommend to use MariaDB)
   • MySQL:  8.0
5. HTTP:
   • nginx:
     • Supported: 1.12.x  - 1.18.x
     • Recommended: 1.18.x
   • Apache >= 2.4.x
6. JAVA:
   • JAVA 8 when using ilServer.jar
   • JAVA 11 when installing Maven (see related feature request)
7. NodeJS:
   • Supported: 16 (LTS) + maybe next LTS version (has to be evaluated when released), 17, 18
   • Recommended: 16 (LTS)
8. Other Software:
   • Ghostscript:
     • Supported/Recommended: 9.51
   • MathJax (optional): Supported 2.7 and >=3.2, Recommended: 2.7

4.3 Deprecated for ILIAS 9

The following services, methods and UI elements are deprecated for ILIAS 9:

• Parts of UIComponent Service
  • Advanced Selection List
  • Buttons (except ilButtonBase as it is needed for the SplitButton to be removed with ILIAS 10)
  • Character Selector
• …

4.4 Important Changes

The scripts to gather style files to push them into a separated GIT repository are now active, see PR5209.

4.5 Development Issues

1. Samoila, Oliver [oliver.samoila]: Additions to Centralizing online/offline status - step 3: 
   We would like to include the Data Collection in the list of objects to be adjusted already with ILIAS 9.
   At the time of the feature decision, the responsibility was not clearly enough.
   The data collection should also get the centralised online-offline status and thus also new KS forms in settings screen.

   JourFixe, ILIAS [jourfixe] : Implementing the centralised online/offline status for the data collection component is highly appreciated. Please update request and related documents accordingly.

2. Kergomard, Stephan [skergomard]: While Implementing Improve Adopt Content (for Courses and Groups) I by oversight implemented a version, that always allowed to copy the page, even if there already is page content. I believe this behaviour to actually be more consistent.
   Additionally: After talking with Samoila, Oliver [oliver.samoila] the wording should be adapted to make it more consistent with other places.

   

   Englisch: "Adopt Content" - "Copy Content Page of Source" "Don't Copy Content Page of Source"

   JourFixe, ILIAS [jourfixe] : We agree with Stephan's suggestion to always allow copying a page even when already page content exists. In addition, we prefer a clearer wording for the offered options to adopt content - as suggested by Samoila, Oliver [oliver.samoila] on the screenshot below.

   

3. Use Mustache in Mail Template Configuration: Jansen, Michael [mjansen] notifies us about a change of behaviour when using placeholders

   JourFixe, ILIAS [jourfixe] : We prefer to substitute the placeholders by the related title of the placeholders ( {MAIL_SALUTATION} → Mail Salutation ). Otherwise, ILIAS would send a CC mail to all CC recipients for _every_ recipient in the TO field (when placeholders would be substituted by the real user names).

4. UI Data Table : Kunkel, Matthias [mkunkel] suggests to add the new UI Data Table already to the ILIAS 8 release branch to make it available for developing plugins for ILIAS 8. UI Data Table will be used in core components of ILIAS 9 anyway. Having it already available in 8 and use it for plugins will bring us user experience (and probably developer feedback) with this new KS element at an early stage.

   JourFixe, ILIAS [jourfixe] : We highly appreciate this suggestion and accept merging the new UI Table already to ILIAS 8. PR will be made by CaT.

4.6 Project 'Removing of Legacy-UIComponents-Service and Table'

Status news:

• ILIAS 9
  • Legacy Advanced Selection List: 32 of 261 usages left
  • Legacy Button: 109 of 634 usages left
    • some involved classes need further action
  • Special Character Selector has been removed from trunk.
  • Due to dependence on Services Table the deprecation of Checkbox List Overlay is postponed to ILIAS 10
• In process for ILIAS 10
  • Confirmation Screens are being processed via Revision of Interruptive Modal for Confirmation.
  • Also in progress: Legacy Glyph, Grouped List, Nested List, Legacy Panel
  • Legacy Lightbox has been removed from trunk.
  • A Toolbar workshop with parts of the working group and a follow-up meeting with Product Manager and UI/UX-Expert has taken place. This has resulted in two decisions on the direction of further work, which we will also present to the JourFixe at the right time:
    • Microforms within toolbars should be removed and displayed in their own contexts.
    • Possibilities for placing control elements for content in tables, panels, etc. closer to them should be found.
• Next appointments:
  • Follow-up workshop to microforms in Toolbars: Monday, 17 July 2023, 14:30 - 16:00
  • Bi-Weekly-Meeting : Monday, 31 July 2023, 14:30 - 16:00

4.7 Suggested Features for 9

1. IRSS: Draft-Revisions : We highly appreciate this suggestion and accept the feature for ILIAS 9.

2. Use IRSS-Draft-Revisions for WOPI Edited Files: We highly appreciate this suggestion and accept the feature for ILIAS 9. Once a draft has been deleted, it is possible to create a new version or replace an existing one _until_ another user starts to edit the file again. In this time, both related buttons are activated.

3. New Permission to Edit File using WOPI : We highly appreciate this suggestion and schedule the feature for ILIAS 9. We prefer the title 'Edit File' for the new permission. This permission should be separated from Edit Settings. All existing permissions in templates and objects should be updated when changing to ILIAS 9 and all roles with 'Edit Settings' for files get the additional permission 'Edit File' (to be placed above 'Edit Settings').

4. Move Question Table in Question Pool Test to new UI Data Table : We highly appreciate the use of the new UI Data Table for the Question Pool Test and schedule the feature for ILIAS 9. We prefer to use the icons for checked/unchecked instead of a textual representation (yes/no) in the related columns.

5. User: Password History - Prevent early reuse of passwords : We like the suggestion but prefer a slighly different implementation of the feature. Instead of configuring the time until a password can be used again we prefer the option to _never reuse_ a password. This is just one checkbox and does not need additional configuration. Please adapt the request accordingly. The modified request is accepted for ILIAS 9.

6. Placeholder ‘Period of Event‘ for Certificate in Course: We highly appreciate this suggestion and schedule the feature for ILIAS 9.

7. [[]]

   • Feature request presented by
   • Requested time slot: '

8. [[]]

   • Feature request presented by
   • Requested time slot: '

9. [[]]

   • Feature request presented by
   • Requested time slot: '

10. [[]]

    • Feature request presented by
    • Requested time slot: '

11. [[]]

    • Feature request presented by
    • Requested time slot: '

12. [[]]

    • Feature request presented by
    • Requested time: slot: '

Postponed to Next Jour Fixe

• Metadata interface for querying by referatories

  • Feature request presented by Schmitz, Tim [tschmitz]
  • Requested time slot: 30'

5 Developing ILIAS 10

5.1 Timeline for ILIAS 10

• Feature freeze at April 30, 2024
  
• Coding completed: all features implemented and test cases finished until October 25, 2024
• Release 10.0 beta1 and release-10 branch planned for October 28, 2024
• Beginn of testing phase scheduled for October 30, 2024
• End of testing phase planned for Februar 05, 2025
• First stable 10.0 release planned for March 13, 2025
• Full maintenance support for version 10: until December 31, 2026
• Security bug fixes only: until December 31, 2027

5.2 Deprecated for ILIAS 10

The following services, methods and UI elements are deprecated for ILIAS 10:

• Services/Table
• Services/UIComponent
  • Checkbox List Overlay
  • Confirmation & Confirmation Table
  • Explorer & Explorer2
  • Glyph
  • Grouped List
  • Lightbox
  • Modal
  • Nested List
  • Overlay
  • Panel
  • Progress Bar
  • Split Button
  • Syntax Highlighter (only used in in Page Editor, move there?)
  • Tabs
  • Text Highlighter
  • Toolbar
  • Tooltip

5.3 Important Changes

1. Samoila, Oliver [oliver.samoila]: 
   The lessons learned so far from the project "Removing of Legacy-UIComponents-Service and Table", as well as the discussions in JourFixes over the last few months, show that we do not take adequate care in the development of a current release for the upcoming releases. 
   In effect, legacyUI elements are still being integrated, although it is clear that these will have to be removed again in the upcoming release.It is noticeable that the current development seems to be cheaper, while the expenses are passed on to the community in the second step of the reconstruction. This is not an efficient and fair approach.

   I would therefore like to ask the JourFixe to decide on the following:
   Developments that are discussed, decided and developed for the release ILIAS 10 and later must, as far as forms are affected by the changes, be implemented with new forms without exception.

   Such a decision should provide transparency and scheduling at an early stage.

   JourFixe, ILIAS [jourfixe] : We highly appreciate the suggestion: Developments that are discussed, decided and developed for the release ILIAS 10 and later must, as far as forms are affected by the changes, be implemented with new forms without exception. In case of missing features in the UI Form that prevent to use them for ILIAS 10 development, the developer is kindly asked to provide a related PR. Developers may contact the UI coordinators for questions regarding the extension of the UI element. The change of the UI interface has to be announced in the Jour Fixe.

5.4 Suggested Features for 10

No suggestions today to discuss.