Launchpad 1.2.4: copy PPA packages, new code overview page and more

[Matthew Revell]

The Launchpad team is proud to announce the release of
Launchpad 1.2.4 on 1st May 2008!

New features this month include:

 * the ability to build PPA packages for multiple series and
   copy packages from one PPA to another
 * a new design for project code overview pages
 * an easier way for casual contributors to post to
   mailing lists.

Read on for more about what's new and how it affects you.


Copying PPA packages
---------------------

Building on other people's work and publishing packages for
different Ubuntu releases are now easier. You can copy
packages both:

 * from other PPAs directly into any PPA you can upload to
 * and to different distro-series within the same PPA.

For an example, take a look at the Ubuntu Mobile team's PPA
package copy page:

https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-mobile/+archive/+copy-packages

There's more in the PPA quick-start guide:

https://help.launchpad.net/PPAQuickStart#copy


New project code overview page
-------------------------------

Project code overview pages have an improved page layout.
Tim Penhey, who created the design, explains the changes:

  Usually, people want to know a couple of things from a
  project's code page: how active it is and which are the
  important branches.

  You can now see, at a glance, how many commits, branches
  and code contributors a project has. And there's a new
  branch listing that highlights which branches are
  associated with a series.

Take a look at the Bazaar project's code overview page for
an example:

https://code.launchpad.net/bzr


Contributing to mailing lists without subscribing
--------------------------------------------------

If you need to make a one-off post to a mailing list you
may not want to subscribe. Now you can make a post and
Launchpad will hold it for the list's admins to moderate.

See https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp#moderation


Other changes this month
-------------------------

 * Project bug contacts are now called bug supervisors.
   See http://news.launchpad.net/bug-tracking/meet-the-bug-supervisor

 * Watches on bugs in Gforge and Savane based trackers are
   now supported.

 * You can now subscribe to all the bugs affecting a project
   group, project series or distribution series. See
   https://help.launchpad.net/BugSubscriptions

 * A distro's PPA overview page now shows you recent uploads,
   most active archives and supported series.
   See https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+ppas

For full details of the bug fixes and features that make up
this release, take a look at the 1.2.4 milestone page:
https://launchpad.net/launchpad-project/+milestone/1.2.4


Help us test Launchpad
-----------------------

If you want to help us test new features, we'd love to have
you in our beta team.

Find out more at https://help.launchpad.net/BetaTesting


Stay in touch!
--------------

Thanks for helping us make Launchpad a success! If you come
across any bugs, please file them at:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/launchpad

If you want to get in touch for any other reason, join us in
#launchpad or on launchpad-users.

https://help.launchpad.net/Feedback

There'll be more in Launchpad 1.2.5 at the end of this month.

-- 
Matthew Revell - Launchpad and Bazaar rock!
Join us in #launchpad and #bzr on irc.freenode.net