Developer Area/Developer Meetings/94

Agenda for the 94th Mahara developer meeting on Tuesday, 21 March 2023 at 23:00 UTC

We will meet online using Big Blue Button (A Catalyst staff member will initiate the call).

Our #Mahara channel on Matrix will be our backup in case there are problems with the web conferencing tool and we'll need to chat to resolve it. You can connect to our Matrix channel also using the #mahara channel on Freenode IRC.

• Chair: Robert Lyon (Bob)
• Minute taker: Kristina Hoeppner

Chair and minute taker duties explained

Agenda

Items from previous meetings

• Change to makefile to add some basic security checks
• Update coding and code review guidelines to add words around security

General items

• Gridstack issues: Re-ordering, desktop to mobile to desktop block dimensions change
• Mahara 23.04
• PHP 8.2 progress
• Any other business
• Next meeting and chair

Minutes

Recording

Attendees:

• Robert Lyon, Catalyst IT, Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand (chair)
• Kristina Hoeppner, Catalyst IT, Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand (minute taker)
• Doris Tam, Catalyst IT, Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand
• Gold, independent, Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand
• Adam Bark, LearnOpenTech, San Antonio, TX, U.S.A.
• Brian Beck, LearnOpenTech, San Antonio, TX, U.S.A.

Items from previous meetings

• Change to makefile to add some basic security checks
  • Most third-party libraries are now pulled in via composer
  • GrumPHP is added that makes some checks, in particular around coding standards, during commits to code review
• Update coding and code review guidelines to add words around security: No update; more of an ongoing task

General items

• Gridstack issues: Block dimensions and order of blocks change when moving from desktop to mobile and back
  • Currently, block dimension is recorded and updated when going to mobile which then in turn doesn't display blocks any more in the correct way when moving back to desktop.
  • Idea: We are on Gridstack 4 but there is now Gridstack 7 → Upgrade first and then tackle the issue
  • Look into our implementation of Gridstack and see if we need to keep our customisations or if we can work more with default Gridstack and see if there are any tools available to determine the order and dimensions.
  • Idea: Record dimensions on desktop and also record dimensions for mobile. Do we need to worry about another breakpoint, e.g. tablet? It seems that Gridstack only knows of desktop and mobile.
  • Action: Beck to record screencast of his testing to show the problems
• Mahara 23.04
  • To be released in second half of April 2023
  • Looking at PHP 8.x compatibility, ideally PHP 8.2 because it's supported longer and there don't seem to be breaking changes between 8.1 and 8.2, but we'll make a decision closer to the date.
  • Third-party libraries moved to composer 2
    • If you don't have it, Mahara will give you the commands to install it.
    • Composer is used to make patching easier and also to not keep third-party library code in our repositories but pull in latest code (that we support).
    • Zip downloads will include the third-party libraries in full as they wouldn't use composer.
    • Getting the files for the zip downloads is already established in Mahara as we used composer for some libraries in the past.
  • New features, including
    • outcomes portfolio functionality
    • changes to the submission process so that copies of portfolios are submitted rather than the originals to make it easier for external systems where there is no tight integration; Moodle plugin needs to be updated
    • default width of blocks is 12 Bootstrap columns instead of 3 to make it easier to move from mobile to desktop
    • sign-off and verification functionality now a page setting not a block to avoid accidental misplacement and control it more easily
  • Get Behat testing to work on PHP 8 so we can test in both 7.4 and 8.
• PHP 8 progress
  • So far focus on PHP 8.1 but it's not supported as long as 8.2; Ubuntu 22.04 comes natively with PHP 8.2
  • PHP 8.1 security support until December 2024 and PHP 8.2 until December 2025
  • No breaking changes between PHP 8.1 and 8.2
  • We'll make a decision what we advise in regards to PHP 8 closer to the release date of 23.04
• Any other business
  • New podcast episodes
  • Community survey open until 15 April 2023; 3 Bronze support packages can be won (4 hours of support)
• Next meeting, chair, and minute taker
  • Next meeting: 10 May 2023, 00:00 UTC
  • Chair: Kristina Hoeppner
  • Minute taker: Robert Lyon

Actions

• Beck: record screencast of his testing to show the problems. Include desktop, mobile, and check if there is a different behaviour for tablet in portrait mode.