Releases and Patching

Releases

The deliverables are:

• the tar.gz files (server-debian-postgresql, server-debian-centos, client) which could be the base for manual installs, and for RPMS
• the standalone installer for Windows
• the remote client installer for Windows (not published on Sourceforge, since it would be bound to an IP address)
  • a special tar.gz file that is used as a base for building the patches (see below)

Things todo for a SourceForge release

What can/should be done a day or even a few days before the actual release date

Performing all the steps that are listed here on this page can take - on average - a day if the last release has been some months ago. However, the time it takes on the day of the release can potentially be reduced by doing several steps a day or even a few days in advance.

These are the steps that can be done before the actual release:

Mantis Tracker

• All steps under this section can take some time and can be done a few days in advance to get the most work involved done.
  • Step Creating Static 'Bugs Resolved in this Release' HTML File
    • Doing this step a few days before the release has the advantage that it is easier for the developers to see what has been achieved by them between the last and the the upcoming release, which in turn helps in writing the Release Notes and the News Update. (That step makes most sense if the steps before this step are also done already as the produced bug list will then be as complete as possible at the time.)
• Obviously all the steps also need to be performed on the day of the release to ensure that everything is covered.

Preparing the text for the News Update

• Compiling the text for the News Update is a time-consuming process as the most important completed tasks of each developer should find their way into them and therefore the developers need to be asked for that information and once it comes back it needs to be compiled and formatted. Usually this can all be done once the testing phase begins which precedes the release - that might even be a week before the release because even if there is still a major new functionality that might get added before the release will be done this will be known by now and can be written up already.
  • Obviously the text needs to be looked at carefully at the day of the release, but most of time-consuming work will have been done by then.

Preparing the text for the Release Notes

• Usually this can be done once the testing phase begins which precedes the release - that might even be a week before the release because even if there is still a major new functionality that might get added before the release will be done this will be known by now and can be written up already.
  • Obviously the text needs to be looked at carefully at the day of the release, but most of time-consuming work will have been done by then.
    • Don't commit the text yet to the bazaar repository, but keep it in a separate file so that you can copy the contents of that file into the file that gets committed to the bazaar repository on the day of the release.

Preparing up-to-date screenshots

• Check which (if any) screenshots on the 'Screenshots' page of the OpenPetra website need updating.
• If any need updating and these screens won't change any more until the release is done, take those screenshots now and store them until the day of the release has come as this process takes some time.
  • If any screenshot is to be replaced check the file name of the existing screenshot and name the new one accordingly.
  • Screenshots are listed on that page in a smaller size, and when one clicks on them the full size is shown. The smaller size can also already be prepared in advance.

Update translations from/to Launchpad

• Download the latest language files from Launchpad using nant translation
  • Adding new languages (if desired)
    • New languages might have been downloaded after running nant translation. These would show up in the 'Unversioned' section of Bazaar Explorer. If we really want to add one of those new languages to OpenPetra then perform these steps:
      • Add DLL in section '[Files]' in file setup\petra0300\standalone\standalone.iss;
        • e.g. Source: ..\..\..\delivery\bin\es-ES\OpenPetra.resources.dll; DestDir: {app}/bin30/es-ES for Spanish
      • Add language at task 'downloadTranslations' in file i18n\i18n.build;
        • e.g. <move file="${dir.root}/i18n/de.po" tofile="${dir.root}/i18n/de-DE.po"/> for German
      • Bazaar-Add the language file that is showing in the 'Unversioned' bazaar section so it is under Version Control.
• Generate the latest translation template
  • run nant buildTranslationTemplate
    • after running this, check any modified source code files for additions of 'Catalog.GetString' and if they make sense, i.e. they are not added for placeholder text of Labels, TextBoxes or Form Titles, etc - or codes that must not be translated.
    • also, look at a diff of the file template.pot to see if any additions make sense, i.e. they are not added for placeholder text of Labels, TextBoxes or Form Titles, etc - or codes that must not be translated. Warning: This can be a time-consuming process! (Depending on how much time has been between the last release and now.)
  • if you have found translations that do not make sense,
    • add them to the file \trunk\i18n\donottranslate.po in the pattern that can clearly be seen in this file;
    • re-run nant buildTranslationTemplate to have the translations that got added to the file \trunk\i18n\donottranslate.po removed from the file template.pot.
• run nant uncrustify since nant translation reformats some of the code and the changed source code files might not conform to our uncrustify rules.
• run nant quickClean and nant generateSolution to ensure the whole source still compiles
  • automatic additions of 'Catalog.GetString' to source code files could have happened where there was no 'using Ict.Common;' in the file; those files will not compile and will need to have that using statement added manually. (See Bug #1889)
• Commit to Launchpad trunk using Bazaar.

Mantis Tracker

Ensuring that all completed Bugs are set to resolved

Recent changes to our bug work-flow introduced a new bug status, 'completed'. Setting a bug to 'completed' means that the developer has fixed the bug in his own branch, but that it is not yet merged into trunk.

Before we finalise the the list of bugs that is fixed in this release we should therefore look into Mantis to find out if there are any bugs left in 'completed' state that indeed made it into trunk by the time of the release. To do this, follow the steps outlined here.

• Using Mantis,
  • filter for all bugs with 'completed' state and 'Hide Status' equals 'None'.
  • Open Bazaar Explorer on trunk and open the Log.
  • In the Log screen set the Search to 'Bugs' and enter one bug number after the other that you see on the filtered Mantis output.
    • if no trunk revision is found that contains this bug, try switching the search to 'Messages' and try again. If still no trunk revision is found, contact the developer to find out in which trunk commit the bug 'slipped' into trunk, of if it is indeed not in trunk yet.
    • if you could determine a trunk revision that fixes this bug, edit the bug and resolve it, setting the Commit Link to the revision where it went into trunk and add as a Note 'Resolved by #developer name#'. Set the 'Fixed in' to this release number (or to the corresponding 'Dev' release number if it was an internal bug).
  • Do this for all bugs on the filtered output until you are sure that either there are no bugs left with 'completed' status or that the ones that are left are indeed not in trunk and hence not part of this release.

Ensuring that all fixed Bugs have set "Fixed in Version"

We need to make sure that every developer has set "Fixed in Version" on all the bugs that have 'Closed' or 'Resolved' state. As this is normally forgotten on quite a few bugs, it must be done manually before a release in order to have a complete list of bugs that were fixed in this release.

• Using Mantis,
  • filter for all bugs with 'resolved' state that have 'Fixed in Version' equals 'none', 'Resolution' equals 'fixed' and 'Hide Status' equals 'None'.
  • do the same for 'closed' state (e.g. in a new Tab of your web browser).
  • In both steps, make a note of all bug numbers that
    • have been 'closed'/'resolved' since the date of the last release.
    • are not 'internal' bugs (which should be set to a 'developer release number' instead of a release number of an 'official release'!).
      • To be able to determine that open each bug and class it either as one that should get included in the bug list of the 'official release' or as one that should get a 'developer release number'.
    • this is best done as follows
      • if there are few bugs to be handled
        • create an empty text document, e.g. in Notepad
        • copy each mantis bug number off its web page and paste it into that text document, putting commas between the bug numbers.
        • once finished that whole text line can be copied and pasted on the command line of the MantisUpdateVersions Tool (see next bullet point).
      • if there are many bugs to be handled
        • create an empty text document, e.g. in Notepad
        • click on 'Excel Export', open the downloaded Excel Document, select the content of the whole first column excluding the title row and copy it to the clipboard.
        • paste into the empty text document that you created in the previous step
        • remove any bugs that should not get processed e.g. because they were fixed/closed before the last release or because they are 'internal bugs'
        • replace all CR+LF's with commas
        • once finished that whole text line can be copied and pasted on the command line of the MantisUpdateVersions Tool (see next bullet point).
• Run the MantisUpdateVersions Tool
  • The tool resides in \setup\tools\MantisUpdateVersions. As it isn't get built by nant generateSolution you need to load the C# Project 'MantisUpdateVersions.csproj' into your favourite IDE and compile it.
  • Open a command shell and change the directory to '\setup\tools\MantisUpdateVersions\obj\x86\Debug'
  • The tool does not execute correctly when run with MS .NET! Instead, it needs to be run with mono. In case you haven't installed it yet please do so!
  • Execute the following command: MantisUpdateVersions.exe -sf-username:pokorra -sf-pwd:xyz -bug-id:abc,def,ghi -version-fixed-in:"Alpha 0.2.20", replacing the value for -sf-username and -sf-pwd with your MantisBT username and password, the string that follows after '-version-fixed-in:' with the current release number and abc,def,ghi with the 1..n Mantis Bug ID's that you found in the two Mantis filter steps.
    • NOTE: Unless the mono.exe executable is in your PATH you will need to precede that command with the full path to the mono.exe, e.g. "C:\Program Files (x86)\Mono-2.10.9\bin\mono.exe" MantisUpdateVersions.exe ...!
    • NOTE: The MantisBT user that is specified in this command needs to have 'administrator' privileges in the Mantis Bugtracker so that the commands that are issued by this program can succeed!

Creating Static 'Bugs Resolved in this Release' HTML File

We need to create a static HTML page that contains the list of all bugs that got resolved/closed in this release. This page gets uploaded to SourceForge and is linked to from the Release Notes and News Updates.

• Simply filtering Mantis and creating a permalink [using the 'Create Permalink' functionality on the search result page] does not work with Mantis in the version that is used on Sourceforge!
• Instead, do the following:
  • In FireFox (Chrome is bad with external links),
    • go to https://tracker.openpetra.org/view_all_bug_page.php,
    • create the follwing Filter:
      • fixed in version 0.0.2.0 [use current release number],
      • hide none (thus the list will includes resolved and closed bugs)
  • Click on the 'Print reports' link and save the file to some local directory, plus the Images, CSS, JavaScript and Favicon in a folder named after the html file (if the file is named e.g. 'BugsFixed_Alpha-0.2.8.htm' then the folder needs to be named 'BugsFixed_Alpha-0.2.8_files')
• Upload that file and folder using some FTP program (directory username/openpetraorg@web.sourceforge.net:/home/project-web/openpetraorg/htdocs/ReleaseDetails).

Release Notes

• Update Release notes files in setup/petra0300/releasenotes. (English: releasenotes.html, German: releasenotes_de.html)
  • Format:
    • never empty the contents of that file as it is meant to be cumulative!
    • rather, add the Release Notes that pertain to the current release on top of the file.
    • follow the format of the previous Release Notes.
• Commit the changed files to Launchpad trunk using Bazaar.

DB Patches

• add new patch sql file to db/patches
  • this only applies to increased patch numbers, not builds! so the patch sql file will always be for version.release.patch-0, where 0 is the build number.
  • file with new version number needs to exist even if there were no DB changes!
    • in that case it is best to simply copy an existing file that also contained no DB changes.
• modify file version.txt in directory db/patches so it contains the Version Number of the OpenPetra release that you are creating.
  • Alternative: use the commandline argument -D:ReleaseID=0.0.2.0 [use current release number] to specify the build number when running nant buildWindowsStandalone in step Installers.

Final Steps

Bazaar

• Tag trunk with the name of the new release (e.g. ALPHA-0.2.22 [use current release number])

Installers

• On a Windows machine:
  • Perform a bzr update on your check-out of Bazaar trunk
  • Run nant buildWindowsStandalone -D:ReleaseID=0.0.2.0 [use current release number]
  • Perform a bzr revert to get rid of i18n files that are not wanted.

• On a linux machine (on openpetrabuild: /home/timop/bzr):
  • Perform a bzr update on your check-out of Bazaar trunk
  • Run nant buildLinuxSourceforgeRelease -D:ReleaseID=0.0.2.0 [use current release number].
  • Perform a bzr revert to get rid of i18n files that are not wanted.

• Installers end up in the /delivery/ directory.
• Test installers on Windows and Linux.
• Upload all installers to SourceForge using some FTP program: username@frs.sourceforge.net:/home/pfs/project/o/op/openpetraorg/openpetraorg

Making the Release Known to the Public

Website

• Screenshots
  • see above for the preparation of up-to-date screenshots
  • update the 'Screenshots' page of the website (English, German).
• Release Notes
  • Post Release Notes on the 'Download' page of the website (English, German).
    • Format of the Release Notes: refer to previous posts.
    • Include download link for the Windows Installer and the Linux packages that pertain to this release.
    • Include link to the static HTML file that contains the list of closed bugs that pertains to this release (created in an earlier step in these instructions).
• News Update
  • If there is a News Update that corresponds with the release (which often is the case): post news update in the 'News' section of the website (English, German).
    • Format of the News Update: refer to previous posts.
    • Include link to the 'Download' page of the website (English, German).

Notifications

• Send out a 'Tweet' on Twitter
  • Tweet about the release on twitter (English [user: openpetraorg], German [user: openpetraorgde])
  • Format of the Tweet: refer to previous tweets that pertain to releases.
• Mailing Lists
  • Send out information on mailing lists (English, German).
    • Content of the emails: exactly the same as in the tweets - except if there is a News Update that corresponds with the release: in this case the content of what got posted in the 'News' section of the website.

Mantis Tracker

• Next Release needs to be added to all projects
  • as this is tedious if done manually use the tool MantisUpdateVersions.exe -sf-username:pokorra -sf-pwd:*** -release-version:0.0.2.0 from /setup/tools/ for that [use current release number]

DB Patches for Developers' Version

• add new 'empty' patch sql file to db/patches
  • this needs to have the new developers' version number, which is always an uneven number that is one number higher than the release that was just done.
    • Example: if the current release that was just done was 0.2.24, add an empty file by the name of patch_0.2.24_0.2.25.sql
• modify file version.txt in directory db/patches so it contains the Version Number of the new developers' version number (e.g. 0.2.25-0).

Patches

• we use the bsdiff algorithm from http://www.daemonology.net/bsdiff/ for binary diffs and patching
• see more about the patchtool

patching the database

Standalone:

• standalone is always delivered with SQLite database
• we don't have patch installers yet. a full installer will update the program files, and add sql files for patching the database (setup\petra0300\standalone\patches). We cannot write to the user's directory, since the installer must be run as admin.
• on the next startup of OpenPetra Standalone by the user, csharp\ICT\Petra\Server\app\Main\ServerManager.cs EstablishDBConnection() will check for the database version, and UpdateSQLiteDatabase() will update the sqlite database
• this will also run "UPDATE s_system_defaults SET s_default_value_c = '{0}' WHERE s_default_code_c = 'CurrentDatabaseVersion';"