[Sugar-devel] Meeting #2 of the project Setting up activity server.
James Cameron
quozl at laptop.org
Mon May 7 17:32:45 EDT 2018
We've always need extensive effort to keep activities working in the
face of change to the libraries they use. Next up we have GConf to
Gio.Settings and API changes in GStreamer. Possibly also
NetworkManager.
At this rate, expect those 87 to be 67 this time next year.
It would be nice to say that activities are supported with the current
release of Sugar, but the reality is that the effort is limited to a
small setof activities that have developers interested or paid to work
on them. Also depends on what supported means; just saying "it needs
work, don't upgrade" is support, of a kind.
Yes, we can import WebKit in a way that works with both Ubuntu 18.04
and Fedora 18. Sugar itself has the best example;
https://github.com/sugarlabs/sugar/blob/master/src/jarabe/view/viewhelp.py#L38
The environment is checked, and one or another import is made.
The imported files are about a hundred lines of code each.
https://github.com/sugarlabs/sugar/blob/master/src/jarabe/view/viewhelp_webkit1.py
https://github.com/sugarlabs/sugar/blob/master/src/jarabe/view/viewhelp_webkit2.py
The alternative is to maintain backported branches, with a different
version number. This is how we have Browse 157.x and Browse 202.
On Mon, May 07, 2018 at 04:35:57PM +0800, Tony Anderson wrote:
> Clearly my intent with the inventory is to identify those activities that
> are working (and in which environments). Hopefully, Caryl Bigenho's
> educational committee can get information from the users as to which of the
> non-working activities should have priority to bring back into working
> order. The 87 activities are working when generated by bundle-builder on
> both Ubuntu and the XO (needs further testing but the one's tested so far
> with one exception have worked on an XO-1.5). So I don';t see what extensive
> effort will be needed to keep them working.
>
> Where we need to be realistic is in stating that an activity works on Sugar
> versions from 0.84 to 0.112. In general activities should be supported only
> with the current release of Sugare github.
>
> I was hoping there was a place on github.com/sugarlabs where we could post
> the spreadsheet so that it can be kept up to date reflecting the current
> status.
>
> Aside from the port to gtk3, the primary problem seemed to be webkit. Is
> there a way to import webkit that works with both Ubuntu 18.04 and 13.2.9?
> Do we need to have two separate versions of activities - one for Ubuntu and
> one for 13.2.9?
>
> Tony
>
>
> On Monday, 07 May, 2018 03:17 PM, James Cameron wrote:
> >Thanks, this will be useful for anyone deploying Sugar on Ubuntu
> >18.04.
> >
> >I think the best thing to do is to concentrate on the 87 working
> >activities and keep them working. That will take about 50% of our
> >effort for the next year.
> >
> >Then fix the activities that did work on the XO-1.5 with Fedora 18 and
> >did not work on Ubuntu 18.04.
> >
> >Activities that don't work on either are defunct, and not worth
> >fixing, or someone would have done so by now.
> >
> >I don't think official repositories are at all necessary, until and
> >unless the activities can be made to work. My preference is to remove
> >from github.com/sugarlabs activities that can't be made to work in a
> >reasonable time ... i.e. the past year.
> >
> >On Mon, May 07, 2018 at 01:50:29PM +0800, Tony Anderson wrote:
> >>Attahed is a spreadsheet inventory of the Sugar activities on ASLO. Except for
> >>clerical errors, this is accurate and complete as of mid-April, 2018. It
> >>reports on 537 activities. With a very nine exceptions, each activity has an xo
> >>bundle on ASLO ([1]http://downloads.sugarlabs.org/activities). The first column
> >>gives the folder name. The fourth column is the bundle (file name).
> >>
> >>The bundles tested on Ubuntu were built (setup.py) from the github repository
> >>(fifth column). There is no assurance that this bundle corresponds to the
> >>bundle with that name on ASLO itself. The testing on the XO-1.5 is not
> >>complete. This testing was done by downloading the bundle built on Ubuntu to
> >>the XO from the schoolserver. The ten activities on the Ubuntu install were not
> >>independently tested.
> >>
> >>In Summary, the spreadsheet shows 528 sugar activities (bundles). Of these, 224
> >>have repositories on github. Of these, 87 work on 0.112 on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS.
> >>
> >>My assumption is that the official repository for each activity is on
> >>github.com/sugarlabs/. Any bundle released to ASLO is built from the that
> >>repository. This implies a need to get official repositories established for
> >>the 304 activities which do not have one. A reasonable first focus is on the
> >>137 repositories that do not produce a working version.
> >>
> >>These numbers need to be taken with a grain of salt. For example,
> >>sugar-web-activities are shown among the 304 only because of the testing
> >>procedure. However, with help from interested parties, the spreadsheet can be
> >>made more accurate. It probably needs to be put up on the Sugarlabs site -
> >>possibly on github. I am certainly willing to follow instructions in this
> >>regard.
> >>
> >>My primary motivation is to provide an inventory of Sugar activities on the
> >>schoolserver which users can download and install. The school server view is
> >>similar to that cited by Walter. It requires only the simplest of html5 and
> >>javascript. The display is data driven. The primary problem is to know which of
> >>the activities are viable. It can be very discouraging to download an activity
> >>and have it return 'did not start'.
> >>
> >>Tony
> >>
> >>On Monday, 07 May, 2018 11:02 AM, Thomas Gilliard wrote:
> >>
> >> On 05/06/2018 07:17 PM, Walter Bender wrote:
> >>
> >> On Sun, May 6, 2018 at 10:00 PM Tony Anderson <[2]tony at olenepal.org>
> >> wrote:
> >>
> >> Hi, Walter
> >>
> >> Is there a link to a description of the proposed new server? I
> >> assume that what you mean is that a new physical server will become
> >> host to ASLO. Naturally, I am much more interested in the
> >> capabilities of the service than the server.
> >>
> >> I am referring to [3]https://aslo3-devel.sugarlabs.org (I see James
> >> answered you while I was typing this.)
> >>
> >> looks like [4]https://wiki.sugarlabs.org/images/thumb/2/29/
> >> SN-0.3_Offline.png/800px-SN-0.3_Offline.png
> >> sugar network [5]https://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Sugar_Network/Tutorial
> >>
> >>
> >> It is really hard for me to see any connection between [6]
> >> activity.info and an activity service (which supplies information
> >> about activities and downloads the bundle on request).I assume
> >> these consistency tests are made before a new activity version is
> >> released and is part of the process of creating a github
> >> repository.
> >>
> >> The database for ASLO3 is derived from the [7]activity.info files. But
> >> those data need cleaning up. This is why we have not gone live with the
> >> new server.
> >>
> >> The python script can use a loop on the list of bundles:
> >>
> >> for activity in activities:
> >>
> >> #use zipfile to read the [8]activity.info file
> >>
> >> #count or test for any property
> >>
> >> #report (e.g. print ) result of test by activity
> >>
> >> #report summary of loop execution
> >>
> >> I do not have any idea of what you are referring to by a
> >> screenshot. I certainly hope there is no intent to add a screenshot
> >> to an activity bundle. It may be fun to revel in storage available
> >> on a PC but the overwhelming number of our users have XO laptops
> >> with very limited storage. This is similar to the trend to make
> >> Sugar more dependent on the internet. For example, sudo apt-get
> >> install sucrose is difficult to accomplish in a room with 40
> >> laptops and no internet, the current situation in Rwanda with the
> >> Positivo laptop.
> >>
> >> We use screenshots in the activity portal. They need not be included in
> >> the bundles.
> >>
> >> Tony
> >>
> >> On Monday, 07 May, 2018 09:35 AM, Walter Bender wrote:
> >>
> >> This particular discussion was about [9]activity.info because
> >> the student is working on getting the activity server on line
> >> and cleaning up the [10]activity.info files is an essential
> >> step.
> >>
> >> I interpret [11]https://github.com/sugar-activities as an
> >> attempt to provide a separate place for Sugar activity
> >> repositories based on [12]download.sugarlabs.org/activities
> >> . The number of activities mentioned is consistent with the
> >> current content of ASLO. (see [13]http://
> >> activities.sugarlabs.org/activities/)
> >>
> >> Yes. We have an on-going effort to migrate to a new activity
> >> server which is both easier to maintain and a richer experience
> >> for our users.
> >>
> >> A simple python script can process the [14]activity.info in
> >> activity bundles very quickly. Simply download every
> >> activity bundle and then use import zipfile to read the
> >> [15]activity.info file and check it for whatever is
> >> interesting. I generally use ls -1 *.xo > list to create a
> >> file. The python script can easily form a list of
> >> activities from this file.
> >>
> >> We are concerned about a number of inconsistencies with the
> >> data, including license, summary, screen shots, etc.
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> Sugar-devel mailing list
> >> [16]Sugar-devel at lists.sugarlabs.org
> >> [17]http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
> >>
> >> --
> >> Walter Bender
> >> Sugar Labs
> >> [18]http://www.sugarlabs.org
> >>
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> Sugar-devel mailing list
> >> [19]Sugar-devel at lists.sugarlabs.org
> >> [20]http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> Sugar-devel mailing list
> >> [21]Sugar-devel at lists.sugarlabs.org
> >> [22]http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
> >>
> >>References:
> >>
> >>[1] http://downloads.sugarlabs.org/activities
> >>[2] mailto:tony at olenepal.org
> >>[3] https://aslo3-devel.sugarlabs.org/
> >>[4] https://wiki.sugarlabs.org/images/thumb/2/29/SN-0.3_Offline.png/800px-SN-0.3_Offline.png
> >>[5] https://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Sugar_Network/Tutorial
> >>[6] http://activity.info/
> >>[7] http://activity.info/
> >>[8] http://activity.info/
> >>[9] http://activity.info/
> >>[10] http://activity.info/
> >>[11] https://github.com/sugar-activities
> >>[12] http://download.sugarlabs.org/activities
> >>[13] http://activities.sugarlabs.org/activities/
> >>[14] http://activity.info/
> >>[15] http://activity.info/
> >>[16] mailto:Sugar-devel at lists.sugarlabs.org
> >>[17] http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
> >>[18] http://www.sugarlabs.org/
> >>[19] mailto:Sugar-devel at lists.sugarlabs.org
> >>[20] http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
> >>[21] mailto:Sugar-devel at lists.sugarlabs.org
> >>[22] http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
> >
> >>_______________________________________________
> >>Sugar-devel mailing list
> >>Sugar-devel at lists.sugarlabs.org
> >>http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
> >
>
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--
James Cameron
http://quozl.netrek.org/
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