Spark progress/future

As cstux has joined this group and he’s the main and only developer now (btw, Andrew “winsrev” has resigned, we need a new project lead and i vote for cstux), i think we should also discuss this, though the main interest here i belive is about the Openfire, JIRA, SVN, Tinder, etc. But Spark is also a Ignite project and a very popular client. Many of the users are turning away seeing that this project has no releases for such a long time. It’s a pity especially when work is actually being done all the time. In the SVN.

cstux has to tell us what is his opinion about this, what is the quality of the Spark right now, maybe we can release a Beta 3 or something. The main question is about the installers. Will Jivers help us to release similar to 2.5.8 version installers or should we find our own way? There are some experimental installers here http://www.igniterealtime.org/community/docs/DOC-1822 We can stick with that, maybe for a while only.

I may sound annoying about that, but i just have to answer again and again in the forums that Spark will have a release someday, but im starting to not believe myself

Actually I have replaced the commercial code from spark and replaced jmf with fmj for better audio support.

I have rewritten old features which we have lost by removing the commercial code.

Now I’m working on finishing Spark 2.6.0 and the Video Support SIP.

Actually I will only fix Bugs in Spark to bring up the new Spark Release 2.6.0.

I think we need a new beta release, before we can release spark as version 2.6.0.

So, currently we have agreed with cstux, that he will postpone SIP Video a bit (not stopping the work, just not including in the next release), and we want to release another Beta as there were a lot of changes in the source. I will send my last bug reports to cstux and then i hope he will find Matt and they will find a way how to make Beta 3 release. And this should be also represented in the forums (probably in the News and Releases space also).

As i see that Openfire still uses install4j (commercial?), what i think about, maybe Spark can use it too as it always did? I know that cstux was pushing Izpack installer as an alternative. I don’t mind to have it, but maybe it would be easier to use same installer for all projects in Bamboo and releasing/testing them. Also it is a question about our products consistency.

I think the problem is that we don’t really seem to have a roadmap to go by. Yes, we have the JIRA issues, but, as with any project of substance, issues will almost always be discovered faster then they can be fixed.

If I may be so bold, I would like to propose we do the following:

  1. Rename Spark 2.6.1 to 2.7; I think we’ll need the third number for unforseen bug-fixes to 2.6.0 following release
  2. Go through all open Spark 2.6 issues and determine which ones need to be finished for 2.6, and which can be put off until 2.7
  3. Announce a “feature freeze” on 2.6; all new features must wait until 2.7
  4. Like other may other open source projects, announce our targetted milestones publicly, based on the current JIRA, I think it would be roughly as such:
  5. 2010 Oct: Beta 3
  6. 2010 Nov: RC1
  7. 2010 Dec: RC2
  8. 2011 Jan: 2.6.0 Final

Thoughts?

I will vote for any roadmap, as it is better than to have no roadmap at all So, i like your ideas. Actually i’ve been tagging some complex or not critical issues as 2.6.1 (for the future releases), so many of them can be retagged for 2.7.0.

Got my vote. Love the idea moving forward.

Hi,

now we are more developers then bevor. I think we need a roadmap, yet.

I will create a Roadmap for 2.7.

The Roadmap for 2.6 was to replace the commercial code and remove the most native code from spark.

And I have finished it the last days.

Good idea.

It looks like cstux has been made the project leader on the JIRA page, but this information should also be updated (or removed) on the main web site (http://www.igniterealtime.org/projects/spark/screenshots.jsp)

Hi Neil,

What exactly do you want removed from the page? I’d be happy to make any changes you want.

daryl

Hi Daryl. Currently on that page winsrev (who has been inactive since 2009) is listed as the project lead. On the JIRA page (http://issues.igniterealtime.org/browse/SPARK) we list cstux as the project lead. Can we change the screenshots page to have cstux shown as the public project lead?

Thanks,

Neil.

Will do. I PM’d cstux to see what he would like for a saying under his picture and if he wanted to create an avatar.

daryl

I think those project lead frames were removed by someone (or a bug in SBS) from every project’s main page. So, maybe we should put them back.

I had few thoughts about funny bio http://community.igniterealtime.org/thread/40344

The project lead frames are not removed, but they’re not shown as a result of a weird bug while parsing the latest blogposts. If you go to other pages of each project than the first page, you’ll see that they pop up correctly. I haven’t been able to fix this issue yet, sorry.