Tripal User's Meeting 2019/01/11 @ PAG in San Diego

Summary of CodeFest coding groups work/accomplishments

• Chado Group

  • New release/migration paradigm for how changes are made to Chado and new releases are bundled/created, using flyway.

  • Continuous integration checking for integrity of schema.

  • New (platform agnostic) Docker container for just Chado.

  • Governance discussion.  Moving from benevolent dictator model -> PMC type model.

  • Documentation migrating from the wiki into readthedocs style guide.

• Tv4 Group

  • In an effort to provide an alternative to PHP, we intended to create a set of microservices in Python to replace the functionality provided by Tripal. During this meeting we created 1 example microservice API using Flask which can be queried to get information out of a database, regardless of whether that database is CHADO

  • As another trial, we created a service using what’s referred to as a microframework in PHP called Lumen. The service uses docker compose to pull in all needed services such as MariaDB, PHP-FPM and Nginx. The purpose is to explore alternatives to Drupal without having to leave PHP.

  • Drupal 8 module.

    • We are thinking about keeping this a do-able process for smaller sites ie that they wouldnt have to learn and implement the microservices framework themselves.

  • What about permissions?  Dorrie is interested in node_access and how usable it would be in Drupal 8.

  • Will we have to set up Docker to set up production Tripal 4 ?  

    • no

• BrAPI Group

  • A new git branch was created to handle changes to be Tripal 3 compatible. It’s the 7.x-3.x branch.

  • BrAPI module installed on multiple sites (6), started to configure the module for those sites

  • Many issue were found as we run the module on different environments, most of them were fixed

  • Started to implement new calls but a tutorial is requested

  • Valentin started writing a tutorial to describe how to implement calls

  • Lacey started a “read-the-doc” for BrAPI module

  • We also discussed site-specific needs and how to handle them

    • Restricting access to certain data subsets...

Tripal Governance Discussion Group Report

• https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tOjaMHBbiJjx5zdN59wUXZpMP31giMOWQ2uY-dx6Rz0

• Who should be involved in the oversight committee?

  • Experts in various web/tech fields

  • PMC (Project Management Committee)

  • Stakeholders who are users

  • Industry stakeholders

  • Actually organized with an “internal” oversight committee, and then on top of that, an external review board with some of the above participants.

• Every 3rd/4th dev call, make it a steering committee call?

• Opinion/Whitepaper for Tripal?  What is it and why should you be excited, how do we keep Tripal relevant in the future….

  • Who will be in charge/write it?

  • Good item to discuss at first steering committee meeting?

• Community-wide funding….

  • Need to collect better usage statistics

    • Shawna is working on a registration module that would report some tracking info.

    • Will report to tripal.info, which is D8 which ahs restful API as part of the core… need a hosting solution

    • So reporting will be included in future tripal 3 releases as an opt-outable module

  • Need to have a good plan for future (which the white paper planning paper would accomplish)

  • Need to do a better job on the visibility of Tripal, growing Tripal

  • Larger international cooperative funding....

  • Should we go directly to program managers for funding.

  • Need a functional steering committee sooner rather than later?

Tripal Modules Rating System

• bronze,  silver, gold level See https://github.com/tripal/tripal/issues/774

• Check out the tripal module list https://tripal.readthedocs.io/en/latest/extensions.html

  • Users should submit pull requests to self-evaluate your module to assign the rating

  • You get to be included in the core repo as a comitter this way too!

• Current list of extension modules: https://tripal.readthedocs.io/en/latest/extensions.html

How to encourage people to contribute to core

• People unsure of how to write sharable code…

• Is training the issue?

• So do we need Tripal training?  Or Drupal training?

• Can we bring community members in and have them offer their services to help with training or answer questions.

• Could compile a list of people with expertise and pull them into conversations

• But perhaps would be better if those people would self-volunteer within the issue queue.

How many people are still actively developing Tripal 2.

• Several users are still in Tripal 2.  Specific issues include views functionality and install issues.

• Plans NOT to convert to Tripal 3 until programming experience

Sofia is hiring for a remote tripal developer :P

Not upgrading from Drupal 7…

• “Backdrop” of Drupal 7 as a backup plan? https://backdropcms.org

• Need to be aware of security issues, need to be aware of the security issues with core releases no longer updated.

Dinner plans