Forum OpenACS Improvement Proposals (TIPs): TIP #90 (proposed): Installation Tracker for quality assurance

I propose to write an installation tracker that will report installations back to openacs.org and allow for quick feedback by users on the quality of the packages.

The installation tracker consists of two parts. The installation tracking package on openacs.org and the reporting scripts on the clients site.

On the clients site the tracking package will ask (on an opt-out basis) during installation if:

  • This installation will be a development server or a production site
  • The user is willing to report the installation back to openacs.org
  • If this is a production site, if he is willing to provide continous data to openacs.org, which includes the following information:
    • Packages installed with version number
    • Number of users
    • Number of objects
    • If somehow possible, number of server errors
  • Type of install.xml used (is this .LRN, .WRK, .KNW, .VANITY, .CUSTOM 😊).
  • Operating System
  • Feedback on the installation process (after all when he comes to the installer page, he achieved the most gruelsome part of the installation)
If the user agreed to report back on a continous basis, this data will be submitted to openacs.org on a weekly basis.

Once every six months all users who reported an installation back as a production site will recieve an e-mail with a link to rate all installed packages and the option to confirm the maturity level (along with comments). If the rating (from 1-5 stars) is below 4 stars and there is a comment, the report will not only show up on the installation tracker, but also a ticket in the bug-tracker is generated with the comment in it.

At openacs.org the installation tracker will gather all the data and provide a summary view of the installations (how many installations, how many installations of a certain package, rating of the package, number of confirmations for the maturity level, all comments for the package).

If approved that we go this way I would start working on this package end of september with anyone who is interested in collaborating. I would put in the basic functionality to gather the data but most likely pass the task of writing the reports to someone else.

Approve.
Approve.

It'd be really slick to also have a way to track how forked the installation was, and in what packages, but this is probably a two-point-oh feature.