PicketLink RoadMap / Release Schedule / Nightly Build ?

[raycardillo]

I have been following PicketLink for a few weeks now, experimenting, evaluating, etc.  The state of the project has been a little frustrating because there is not a lot of documentation available yet, and there does not seem to be a clear RoadMap or release schedule established.  In particular, we are using JBoss-AS-5.1 with JBoss-ESB-4.8 and JBoss-WS-Metro-3.2.2 and we have had several problems that seem to be related to the fact that this configuration has not been tested by the developers (JBoss-WS-Metro is probably the most significant variable).  As a result, we have had several problems have require us to dig deep into code, etc.  Some of the issues have been discussed in forums and resolved in source code, but we don't want to be in the habit of applying custom patches, building our own releases, etc.

At any rate, it would be nice if a release schedule was established to help everyone understand when certain fixes will be available, etc.  Actually, it would be even better if a nightly build was established so people who want to just grab the latest build can do so easily.  That would make it much easier for people who are trying to work with the latest features and fixes.

So I guess I have two questions:

1. Any possibility of setting up something like a nightly build, or at least scheduling a regular build schedule, release schedule, or roadmap?
   
2. Any chance that testing JBoss-WS-Metro can become part of the standard test suite even in this early stage?  It is a very popular configuration these days, and the community has already found several little "gotchas" in this regard.  I'm actually working through a problem with STS SAML token validation in this configuration right now, and it may have been fixed already in the trunk based on some JIRA tickets I've seen.  Hence my curiosity about release schedule, nightly builds, and such.
   

Thoughts?

[anil.saldhana]

• Release schedules:  we typically do a Beta/CR every 2 weeks. Sometime, that can be extended.  Each release sucks a lot of our time.  This is an OSS project.  You have the anonsvn to build the project anytime you need a faster patch. We consume other OSS projects and face similar issues but we build the projects ourselves sometime to save time.
• Nightly Builds: we have not set that up. But we will consider doing that.
• Custom Patches: You mentioned that you do custom patching on your source tree.  This is OSS.  Have you considered feeding those custom patches back to our source tree? We do give out commit rights pretty liberally as long as you know what you are doing.
• JBossWS-Metro testing:  sure we will add that to our integration testsuite.  Not yet sure when I can give a date on that one. As long as our users tell us what they are doing with the project, we can beef our testsuite.  But we cannot guarantee that we will test every possible combination on the planet.
• Documentation:  You are free to fill the gaps using our wiki.

[raycardillo]

Understood.  Thanks.

I want to start working with the source code directly, and may consider contributing if I have something substantial to add.  However, I work in an environment that is heavily restricted (on the network side), so I cannot download from the anonymous SVN site using Tigris or Eclipse.  We typically have to download source (and other files) on those machines, and transport to our development machines.  The debugging I have done so far has been with the source JAR files, but that's usually not quite the same as working with the source project content (READMEs, POMs, build scripts, etc).

Is there any chance you can enable the download feature in one of the web source browsing interfaces?  For example, I believe that ViewVC supports this, but the feature is disabled by default.  Basically, I can access most content like this, but I cannot install custom clients, use custom protocols, etc.  So that's the hangup on my side regarding anonsvn access.

Thanks for any consideration on this.

[anil.saldhana]

Roadmap Article: http://community.jboss.org/wiki/PicketLinkRoadMap

I will try to keep it current as much as possible.

I am sorry to hear about the restrictions on network at your workplace.  If we think of better ways to help you out with the source code we will.