[Product-Developers] pypi vs plone.org releases

[Jon Stahl]

On Tue, Oct 11, 2011 at 8:00 AM, Alex Clark <aclark at aclark.net> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> On 10/11/11 12:59 AM, Dylan Jay wrote:
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> There was a previous thread where this was brought up but nothing
>> resolved.
>> Plugins these days tend to get released on plone.org OR pypi but not
>> always both.
>> This is confusing for inexperienced intergrators or end customers.
>> For instance looking at plone.org you'd think Products.PloneGlossary is
>> unmaintained
>>
>> http://plone.org/products/ploneglossary
>>
>> but if you look at pypi you realise it is maintained.
>>
>> http://pypi.python.org/pypi/Products.PloneGlossary/1.5.0b3#b3-2011-07-15
>>
>> There were some clever suggestions about how to fix this but none seems
>> particularly easy.
>> For instance make PSC mirror all the releases for software it manages
>> from pypi.
>>
>> Anyone got a bright idea on how to fix this?
>
>
> Easy fixes
> ==========
>
> The easiest fix would be to disable/abandon plone.org/products, but I don't
> think anyone wants to do that yet (including me).
>
> The next easiest "fix" (which isn't really a fix) is to promote
> dual-releases via mkrelease, releaser, etc.
>
> Hard fixes
> ==========
>
> As you mention, we could build some clever system to list PyPI entries on
> plone.org. But I think the new http://opencomparison.org/ stuff tackles some
> of this and I don't want to duplicate that effort.
>
> But the hardest fix involves just being able to do *anything* on plone.org
> right now. There are many ideas/tasks floating around; and I know the board
> is actively seeking resolution(s); I hope some of these will materialize
> between now and the end of the year:
>
> * Upgrade plone.org to 4.2.x
>  * Create a plonetheme.ploneorg package to hold the "new" theme, and factor
> it out of Products.PloneOrg
>  * Make releases for all dependencies and update the buildout, most of this
> has been done and is reflected in
> https://github.com/plone/Products.PloneOrg/tree/4.1-compat


I think Alex pretty much hits the nail on the head here.  In the short
term, as I see it, the only sensible solution is to actively promote
dual-releasing.  It is really really easy, I just think awareness is
not as high as it needs to be.  That is probably best changed by
one-on-one contact with product authors (and maybe a simple FAQ that
Alex (?) could write up on how to do it, so that anybody can easily
nag someone about this.)   We can't force people to do it, but we sure
as heck can make it clear what "community best practice" is.

In the longer term, I do think we want to seriously consider shifting
Plone.org to be more of a selective Pypi scraper.  We'd have to think
about how to best include the ultra-important Plone version
compatibility metadata, but I assume that with so many smart folks
running around, that is solveable.

$0.02,
jon