Post a 2010 december maintainer newsletter

Fixed the subscriber list for the maintainer newsletter, so we can now actually use it properly :) http://drupal.org/node/378898#comment-3780268

Yeah, this all sounds worth broadcasting. Unfortunately, I have extremely limited time to generate content for this. I'll keep an eye in here and if we're desperate, I'll try to help out. But, none of the project changes are that complicated that my expertise should be required to explain them. ;)

Thanks for getting all this moving again, Gabor!

Cheers,
-Derek

I made some edits on etherpad.

Edited the etherpad a bit, mostly taking out what I saw as extraneous details and adding a few more details around the D7 release.

Ok, did some "final"(?) editing and I think this would be great to go now.

December 2010 maintainer newsletter

It is that time again! Drupal 7 is nearing completion, drupal.org project spaces were redesigned and we are switching version control systems. There is lots of new things to learn, and great new opoortunities to use. We'd like to inform you about these developments, so you are best equipped.

--------------------- Drupal 7 is around the corner -------------------------

Drupal 7.0 RC1 was just released on December 1st, 2010. This means a release is not far off, perhaps as soon as 7-10 days from now. Moshe Weitzman started off the Drupal 7 Contrib Experience (D7CX) movement almost one and a half years ago with the goal to get as many contributed modules ported to Drupal 7 as possible by the time Drupal 7.0 is released. This among other factors lead to the availability of over 700 modules for Drupal 7 (compared to 7000 overall) - at varying levels of completeness.

There is of course more work to do, and you might have one or two modules or themes not ported yet. We have documentation detailing all the changes in the API with before/after examples for most items. The Coder module is of great help in this migration as well, and now it includes the Coder Upgrade module, which attempts to do automated code conversion for you.

Related links:
- Drupal 7.0 RC1 release: http://drupal.org/node/985946
- D7CX announcement: http://cyrve.com/d7cx
- D7CX progress tracking: http://d7cx.com/
- Converting modules to 7.x: http://drupal.org/update/modules/6/7
- Coder module: http://drupal.org/project/coder

----------------- Drupal.org project spaces get new features ----------------

You probably already noticed that drupal.org was redesigned earlier this year. If you have not seen that already, now is the time to pause reading and go wander around on the new site!

The redesign affected project spaces as well. Here are some tips to use the new features more effectively:

1. Each project now has a "Maintenance status" and a "Development status" flag, which you can use to inform users about the state of your work. Categories are also prominently displayed now. These are all good to provide users with the information necessary to choose the right modules. Make sure to set yours properly.

2. There is entirely new maintainer management for each project! You'll see the "Maintainers" tab on projects you own, which now allows you to add maintainers inline and grant fine grained permissions like "maintain issues" or "edit project" separately.

3. The new dashboard on drupal.org helps you keep tabs on your project issues. You can add a block with all issues you are involved in (across all projects) or individual project issue overviews.

--------------------- CVS is being replaced with GIT ------------------------

Drupal.org is moving off of CVS for project version control! The Drupal Association sponsored the project to help move drupal.org to a more modern system enabling the community to do even smoother collaboration. Your new helper will be git (originally written to manage the Linux kernel code). The team is hard at work to accomplish the migration before Drupalcon Chicago. Mid-Februrary is the tentative launch date.

What does moving to git mean for Drupal.org? Read more at http://groups.drupal.org/node/106224

We made the existing source of drupal.org projects available under git.drupal.org in a ready-only mode, so you can use it to roll patches or just check out code already.

It's very important to understand that the migration will not be a gradual process - when the flip is switched, CVS will become instantly read-only, and git will replace it entirely. So the sooner you familiarize yourself with git, the better! Get books for the holidays, read some great tutorials. Here are some of our tips:

- http://gitref.org/
- http://gitready.com/
- http://book.git-scm.com/
- http://www.archive.org/details/GitFundamentals
- http://groups.drupal.org/drupal-org-git-migration-team

------------------ Translations decoupling from projects --------------------

Translations have long been an integral part of the drupal.org project space, using the same CVS version control system and issue queues. Drupal core translations had their own projects and distinct project translations (think Views, Fivestar, etc) got their .po files hosted with the projects themselves.

This resulted in a long list of issues, including translators needing to know CVS or project maintainers needing to distinguish between an outdated translation and an updated one. It is a burden for project maintainers to generate translation templates and keep them up to date, and there is no opportunity for translators to keep their translations complete with project releases. Finally, the tools were missing to maintain an up to date translation database on actual Drupal sites with module updates and removals.

This is all changing since we are decoupling translations from the module, theme and installation profile projects themselves. What does this mean for you?

A. If you are a translation maintainer: you've already been contacted, and your team is in the process of moving from drupal.org to localize.drupal.org.

B. If you are a translator: stop working on .po files in CVS (either for Drupal core or contrib), instead import existing .po files from CVS to localize.drupal.org (if not already), remove the imported file from CVS and work on localize.drupal.org from now on.

C. If you are a drupal.org project maintainer: do not accept .po files anymore in your issue queues and remove your .pot files from CVS; tell people to use localize.drupal.org.

For more background information, follow the news feed for localize.drupal.org at http://localize.drupal.org/news

-------------------------------------------------------------------

We hope these news items were useful for you. We wish you happy holidays, and looking forward to an even more eventful 2011.

Yours,
The Drupal.org infrastructure team

I can manage sending it out, if it is agreed.

"There s/is/are lots of new things ..."

Lets add: "If you made a D7CX pledge, this week is the time to tag your final release."

s/wonder/wander

For git resources, I really enjoyed this screencast. I think it is worthwhile to list a video resource for folks who like to learn that way: http://peepcode.com/products/git

IMO, the letter should be signed by the d.o. webmasters team but who cares really.

Great work and great advice, Gabor.

The header lines came out like:

-------- DRUPAL 7 IS AROUND THE CORNER
---------------------------------------

I think in the future we should make it more like README.txt

DRUPAL 7 IS AROUND THE CORNER
=====================

Or do it like Markdown:

## DRUPAL 7 IS AROUND THE CORNER

Automatically closed -- issue fixed for 2 weeks with no activity.