[Ubuntu Urdu] Launchpad Updates

[Fouad Riaz Bajwa]

By Kiko

Here's a report of changes for the last two weeks of August.
These changes were rolled out today, September 5th, at revision level 4006.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Highlights
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Welcome to another round of Launchpad updates. This has been an even busier
three weeks, and the list of changes below seems to go on forever!

Bug tracking
============

Let's start out by covering a feature in our bug tracker I would like to
call your attention to. The advanced search page for bugs now provides a set
of interesting options for people managing bugs for a distribution:
filtering based on status of remote bugs and upstream reports linked to your
bug. Launchpad now offers three new filtering options:

    * Bugs that need to be linked upstream
        Ubuntu URL: http://tinyurl.com/oavke

        The first option is very useful for the bug triage team: it
        points out bugs that have been identified as upstream issues but
        for which no remote bug watch has been established yet.

    * Bugs that are closed upstream:
        Ubuntu URL: http://tinyurl.com/kdjx7

        This option is useful for package maintainers: it points out
        bugs that have been marked as resolved (or rejected) upstream.
        These bugs are prime candidates for packaging work, because all
        that's needed to fix the issue is package a new version.

    * Bugs not known to affect upstream:
        Ubuntu URL: http://tinyurl.com/l49be

        This option lists bugs which have not been identified as
        upstream issues; this is currently the vast majority of bugs
        open on Ubuntu.

This update also provides us with a number of improvements to bug tags:
creating a new tag now offers a confirmation step, you can do advanced
searches for tags, and the portlet listing bug tags includes counts of open
bugs.

Translations
============

On the translations front, we are (finally) proud to announce the opening of
Edgy translations in Rosetta! After a lot of hard work in getting the
initial data setup right, and processing a billion uploaded templates and
translations, Rosetta is now offering translators with a new distribution
release to work on, but without losing the work that was done in Dapper.

Rosetta now also displays the identity of the person who entered the latest
version of an approved translation for a string. This allows translation
reviewers to assess work done and provide feedback to translators,
tightening the process of getting top quality translations.

Support
=======

A number of important changes also went live on the support tracker this
week. If you visit the Ubuntu page for tickets at:

    https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+tickets

you'll notice that the display is now formatted using a table, which
provides a much more compact display of tickets. It also allows for simple
searching and ordering through tickets, one of the top requested features
for the support tracker; as an example you can see open tickets sorted
newest first at:

    http://tinyurl.com/hjba2

New support requests now go through a guided process, which first tries to
locate similar reports, avoiding duplicates and helping users get answers
faster. You can test this for yourself on our staging server:

    https://staging.launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+addticket

and entering a summary; the next step will list similar tickets, if they are
found.

Also new in the support area is the fact that Karma is properly attributed
to people providing answers and updating tickets; the listings will soon be
updated to include the top contributors in this area as well.

Other news
==========

Other noteworthy updates: the official URL for the specification tracker has
been changed to http://features.launchpad.net/ as part of our branding
cleanup. A /very/ serious amount of work went into refactoring and cleanup
of Soyuz, our distribution management system, and we are currently in the
process of running our first smoketest to verify that the changes were
successful (and we caught a performance regression already). On the branch
management front you can now safely change branch metadata without causing
imports to fail; this should make the feature more robust over time and is
one of the first practical benefits of the bzr transition.

Finally, handling of OpenPGP and SSH keys has been overhauled and sanitized;
if you had trouble registering keys, or signing the Code of Conduct, now
would be a great time to test and provide us with feedback.

Again, I'll close by reminding people of the launchpad-users mailing list
which is shared between developers and users of Launchpad:

    https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/launchpad-users

Come help us define what Launchpad should become. Thanks!

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Detailed Changelog
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Note: In the listings below, important user-visible features or fixes are
marked with exclamation points; other highlights marked with a star.

Bug Tracking (Malone)
=====================
! The upstream status filter functionality was completed, the last kinks
  in the implementation having been resolved. This feature really takes
  advantage of the multi-context model that Launchpad bugs possess,
  allowing triagers and developers to collaborate more efficiently.
  (bradb, r=BjornT)
! A number of usability improvements were made to the tags feature.
  The portlet that lists bug tags now includes counts of open bugs for
  those tags, and the advanced search page now allows you to search for
  bug tags. When defining a new tag (by using a word which was never used
before
  in the current context) a confirmation dialog is presented; this
  avoids typos in tags being propagated. 
  (bug 56339 and others, BjornT, r=salgado, jamesh)
* The first comment in a bug is now always omitted; if it differs from
  the description a link to the original content is displayed instead.
  (kiko, rs=sabdfl)
* Information related to attachments is now included in email
  notifications (bug 53903, BjornT, r=kiko)
- The update-cve script was rewritten to use cElementTree, which reduces
  its memory usage by an order of magnitude. (jamesh, r=SteveA)
- Changing the order of bug tags in the edit form no longer crashes.
  (bug 57461, BjornT, r=spiv)
- Font sizes on the milestone page were adjusted. (mpt, rs=sabdfl)
- A crasher in the advanced search page triggered by obsolete bookmarks
  was fixed. (bug 56700, bradb)
- Words ending in "bug are no longer linkified. (bug 28620, jamesh)
- Inactive milestones are no longer available for linking to bugs. (bug
  51405, BjornT, r=salgado)
- Two crashes in the package bugs report were fixed. (bugs 57698 and
  57717, bradb)
- Some Malone pagetests were moved from being standalone tests to being
  run as stories, slightly decreasing overall test time (kiko)
- It is now slightly less obscure why you can't change a bug's
  Importance. (bug 52120)
- The font size of the table of bug statuses was reduced slightly. (bug
  56839, mpt, r=jamesh)
- There is now an "Also affects" link in a bug's action items. (bug
  56840, mpt, r=jamesh)

Translations (Rosetta)
======================
! The translator who added the latest official translator is now
  identified in the translation form. (bug 80, carlos, r=spiv) ! A very
large number of fixes and changes were done as part of opening
  translations for Ubuntu Edgy. The SQL queries related to this work
  were implemented and iteratively improved; code was added to migrate
  template priorities to new distribution releases; a script was
  developed to verify sanity of the resulting data. (carlos, danilo,
  r=stub)
* We now list translatables for a template based primarily on your
  preferred languages, with options for displaying all translatables and
  changing your preferred languages close at hand. (bug 2237, danilos,
  r=kiko)
* A recurring crash that happened when trying to filter translation
  files with no translations yet was fixed. (bug 44860, danilos, r=kiko)
- When you save your language preferences proper feedback is now
  provided. (bug 1788, danilos, r=salgado)
- Renaming a template now redirects to the new location instead of
  erroring out. (bug 3986, danilos, r=spiv)
- A number of languages and plural forms were fixed in our sampledata.
  (carlos)
- Translations for universe packages were suspended. (carlos, rs=sabdfl)

Distribution management (Soyuz)
===============================
! A (functional) system test strategy was devised and work on it
  was started. This will allow large changes to Soyuz to be tested
  against a much larger dataset, with improvements and regressions being
  verified before deployment. (malcc, cprov) ! Soyuz now includes the
ability to send out email notifications to
  developers when build failures occur. This feature has not yet been
  generally activated on production pending deployment of fixes in the build
  master which avoid generating irrelevant builds; build failure
  notifications for now are being sent to the build admins. (spec
  build-failure-process, cprov, r=BjornT) ! Serious surgery^Wrefactoring was
done across Soyuz. This covered death
  row processing, publishing and archive index file generation, which
  were factored into their own classes. Code quality in general was
  improved and unit-testing functionality is now a lot easier. (cprov,
  kiko,malcc)
* Architecture handling in the build master was santized and simplified.
  It is now unit-tested to an acceptable degree, and handles source and
  binary architecture overrides (known as Packages-arch-specific).
  (kiko, r=cprov, malcc)
* The improved death row processor now informs how much space was
  freed by each run. (kiko, r=malcc)
* The improved index file generator no longer produces duplicate entries
  for binary packages. (kiko, r=malcc)
* Upload notification email is only sent out for sourceful uploads, and
  for custom uploads containing single files. (bug 56677, malcc)
* The build IDs are now sanity checked when processing uploads, and the
  script is now tested. As part of this work, the process-upload script
  was refactored into a module library.  (malcc, r=spiv)
* Support for DDTP (Debian Description Translation Project) tarball
  uploads was implemented, and handling of its hardlinked files in the
  pool was corrected. (cprov, r=salgado, kiko)
* Soyuz' use of SQL views was reduced, inflicting massive updates to
  callsites. This is an essential step towards ArchiveRework (cprov,
  kiko r=kiko, malcc)
- A bug related to removing single symlinks from the pool was fixed.
  (bug 57497, malcc, r=kiko)
- Distribution archive mirrors now have an overall status which reports
  how up to date they are, summarizing statuses on the individual
  architectures and releases. (salgado)
- Improvements were made to the email notification sent to mirror
  admins. (salgado)
- A bug related to the handling of binaries in the queue tool is now
  fixed. (bug 57662, cprov, r=kiko)
- A bug in the removal of real files from death row was fixed. (bug
  57237, malcc, r=kiko)
- A corner case related to symlink handling in the pool was fixed and is
  now properly tested. (malcc, r=jamesh)
- An incorrect path to cron.germinate in cron.daily was fixed. (cprov)
- Soyuz developers met in London for a week, discussing improvements to
  the system and implementing a number of cleanups described above.
  (cprov, kiko, malcc)
- There is no longer UI to add independent source and binary package
  names. (matsubara, r=kiko)
- A tricky bug which caused mirror probe handlers to be processed out of
  order was fixed. (salgado, spiv, r=jamesh)
- Binary packages lacking files are now properly informed. (mpt)
- Two broken links (to help and support offerings) on distribution
  package pages were fixed. (bug 57705, flacoste)
- Minor visual tweaks to the mirror listings were done. The next rollout
  should include and improved mirror listing format. (salgado)
- The germinate script now cleans up properly after exiting. (bug 56830,
  Kamion, cprov)
- A number of XXX comments across Soyuz were cleaned up. (malcc,
  r=salgado)

Code Branch Management (Bazaar)
===============================
! Branch metadata can now be safely updated: the end-user can change the
  branch's owner, product and name. This was accompanied by a number of
  related improvements: name validation was improved, sane defaults are
  offered and more appropriate form elements are used. (ddaa, r=BjornT)
* The import daemon now uploads and downloads source trees through SFTP.
  This allows us to remove the last dependency on the Arch-based data
  model, and will provide us with more flexibility in job assignment and
  failure diagnosis. (ddaa, r=jamesh)
* A number of improvements in the release tarball finder were
  implemented, including fixes in file matching and dealing with
  existing releases. (bugs 53698, 57220, jamesh, r=lifeless)
* You can now edit a branch's whiteboard in the process of recording it
  in Launchpad. (ddaa, r=BjornT)
- A bug related to date parsing in the branch scanner was fixed (bug
  44793, jamesh)
- References in web pages to the Bazaar VCS were made consistent
  according to the branding guidelines for Bazaar. (mpt, rs=sabdfl)
- The SFTP server now no longer requires branches to be pushed with the
  "--create-prefix" flag. (bug 36889, jamesh, r=spiv)

Support Tracker
===============
! During the process of filing a new support request similar requests
  are detected, based on the summary provided, and offered as potential
  sources of information (or duplicates) to the user filing the request.
  (flacoste, r=jamesh)
! The support tracker now offers the ability to search for tickets, and
  displays ticket listings in a table, similarly to how bugs are
  displayed. By default, only open tickets are listed. (bugs 3761, 37865
  and 50564, flacoste, r=jamesh)
! The support tracker now captures and properly accounts for karma.
  (spec SupportTrackerKarma, salgado, r=spiv)
- The interface for unlinking bugs now uses checkboxes. (bug 49760,
  flacoste, r=salgado)

Feature Tracking (Blueprint)
============================
! The feature tracker is now available under the hostname
  features.launchpad.net.
- The Braindump status was renamed to New. (sivang, r=kiko)
- The specifications page for an upstream product was cleaned up and now
  includes real examples. (bug 56522, r=BjornT)
- The name "Blueprint" was replaced in the web pages in accord to
  Launchpad branding policy. (mpt, r=BjornT)

General Launchpad
=================
* Icons and images were inventoried and organized across the
  application. A number of unused icons were removed. (sabdfl, mpt)
* Session cookies are now shared across Launchpad domains, allowing
  single sign-on to work across launchpad.net and
  features.launchpad.net (bug 56397, stub).
* The OpenPGP key handling procedures were improved; fingerprint
  validation is now more robust and properly tested. (bug 56831,
  kiko, r=salgado)
* The wording describing person in Launchpad without accounts was
  slightly tweaked. (jamesh, mpt)
- A number of crashers related to editing SSH and GPG keys were fixed,
  and the code was generally much improved. It is significantly better
  tested now. (salgado, r=BjornT)
- The launchpad.Driver permission verification was refactored using a
  single interface. (bradb, rs=sabdfl)
- A large number of callsites across the Launchpad codebase were updated
  to no longer use explicit IDs when using the select*By SQLObject APIs.
  (kiko)
- A broken link on the feedback page was fixed. (matsubara)
- A number of random cleanups were done across the tree, including
  swapping lambdas in sorts for operator.attrgettr. (kiko)
- Traversing calendar events with non-integer values no longer crashes.
  (matsubara, r=kiko)

Infrastructure
==============
! The new form machinery now offers per-widget errors and convenient
  ways of setting initial focus. (bug 57621, jamesh, r=BjornT)
* The librarian is now able to transfer files across HTTPS, which
  is now used to avoid warnings when displaying emblems and
  hackergotchis. (bug 30370, matsubara)
- Informational notifications are no longer confusing and mistakenly
  displayed on error pages.  (SteveA)
- The code which converts plaintext to HTML was improved: URL matching
  was fixed to stop matching spurious identifiers (such as http-related
  perl modules), and the regular expression was simplified. (bug 40255,
  jamesh, r=SteveA)
- The librarian no longer allows uploading filenames containing slashes.
  (stub)
- A psycopg bug was found, and an updated psycopg is now required.
  (stub)
- The Makefile was updated to work on Edgy's default shell. (spiv,
  r=jamesh)
- Our version of BeautifulSoup was updated, and a number of tests that
  rely on it were updated. (SteveA)
- Email headers that span multiple lines are now properly unfolded
  before being stored in the database. (bug 31618, BjornT, r=jamesh)
- The urlparse helper function now handles sftp:// urls. (ddaa,
  r=jamesh)
- Librarian failures now have a special error page. (SteveA)
- A small cleanup related to FunctionalDocFileSuite was introduced in
  our functional testing environment. (flacoste, rs=stub)

Upcoming Changes
================
- Support tracker workflow enhancements (flacoste)
- Better rationale for creation of Persons (salgado)
- Release bug management (bradb)
- Distribution Release Bug Targeting (bradb)
- Attaching files to bugs through email (BjornT)
- Improvements in bug tracker registration (BjornT)
- Performance enhancements to the translation pages (danilo)
- Soyuz ArchiveRework (malcc, cprov)
- Magical yet Shocking Launchpad UI changes (stay tuned)

Feedback
========
Feedback to the release announcement can come directly to me:
    <kiko at canonical.com>
Bugs and regressions in Launchpad should go to:
    https://launchpad.net/products/launchpad/+bugs
Questions and administrative requests should go to:
    https://launchpad.net/products/launchpad/+tickets


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