[Koha] What's on in koha-devel #11

[Jonathan Druart]

Hello librarians and developers,

Not much has happened this month in terms of development. Things are going
very slowly at the moment, despite the hackfest in Marseille.

We see a lot of new people on the mailing list and the IRC channel asking
for questions,  but we need more people to be involved in the discussions
and the signoff process. There are hundreds of people on this list, you
need to know that the Koha community needs you to make the project moving
forward. I know that nobody has enough time, but you know one hour per week
of even per month can help a lot. It is very easy, fun and interesting :)

= How to get involved? =

The first action would be to join us on the #koha IRC channel and the
koha-devel mailing list. Start by presenting yourself, where do you come
from, what do you do? For how long have you been using Koha? How do you
think you can help?

Attend meetings!
We have two kinds of monthly meeting. There is a general one to talk about
koha-related stuffs, and the development meeting to talk about technical
stuffs. It is important for the community to have a place to be all
together and try to make things move. If you are a librarian, we need you
to tell developers the directions they need to go.

Open bug reports
It is important to know that everybody can open new bug reports on our bug
tracker (https://bugs.koha-community.org). It is useful for the development
team to know the new bugs. And it is also important for you to search for
known bugs. A lot of bugs are known from developers but we do not know how
to fix them because we are waiting for feedbacks from users.
The dashboard (http://dashboard.koha-community.org) is very helpful to know
the "hot" bugs that need to be fixed/tested/QAed. The "Overall bug traker
health status" section displays the number of new bugs that are important
to follow, make moving.
If a developer submits a patch for the bug you opened, try and test it!

Test bugs
Here is how you can really makes things move for the community. You become
involved in the development process and make the Koha project better.
Sandboxes (https://wiki.koha-community.org/wiki/Sandboxes) are available to
test patch easily. You do not need to install anything on your computer and
do not need any technical skills. If you are a Koha user, you can test
patches!

Write patches
If you are a developer or have a minimum of technical skills you can write
your own patches and fixes bugs or develop new feature.
Our dedicated wiki page (wiki.koha-community.org/wiki/Submitting_A_Patch)
will guide you over the different steps.
It is very easy to get a development environment using KohaDevBox (
https://github.com/digibib/kohadevbox)
Start with small patches :)

= Refactoring =
If you have read my previous "what's on in koha-devel" emails, you may have
noticed I talked a lot of "refactoring" bugs.
And maybe you do not know what it is and what it brings.
The Koha codebase is aged/old, and has grown very quickly since 2006. Since
the last few years the development team decided to make the code more
robust and slow the integration of patches, getting a stronger integration
process. That's why we need to have at least one tester validating the
patches, then one QAer to review the patch technically and finally the
Release Manager to push it. That's mean 4 independent persons for a single
patch. That made our codebase stronger and less regression prone.
Some part of the code now needs to be rewritten, and it is why I have
focussed on the "refactoring" work over the last year. The goal is to
rewrite modules of Koha, step by step. It cleans the code, makes it more
readable, reduces the number of lines, centralise the responsibilities,
homogenise the code, fixes bugs, adds test coverage, etc.
On the mid-long term it means a modern application, easy to maintain,
robust, flexible. The bugs will be easier to fix, the enhancements will be
quicker to develop and so less expensive.
Do you start to understand how it is useful?
So yes, it's boring to test because it does not bring anything new to the
interface, but the project needs it.

If you have been using Koha for months or years, it made you save money, it
makes you happy to use it and you love it. If you already got answer from
people on the mailing lists or the IRC channel, it's time to say thank you,
by getting involved!

If you have any specific questions on how to get involved, you can join me
on the IRC channel or by email. I can help and guide you if necessary.

A developer that loves Koha but needs help,

Jonathan