[TYPO3-core] Minutes of the 16th meeting of the 4.7 Release Team

[Steffen Ritter]

Hi dear TYPO3 community,

These are the minutes of the 16th TYPO3 Release Team Meeting for version
4.7.

The minutes are also available in the wiki of TYPO3 4.7:
http://forge.typo3.org/projects/typo3v47-projects/wiki/16th_Release_Team_Meeting_TYPO3_47


----------------------------------------------------------------------
*16th Release Team Meeting TYPO3 4.7*


The 4.7 release team meets weekly for a Skype discussion round on the
current activities.
If you find this report interesting or have some comment or question
about a particular topic, don't hesitate to follow-up on the thread in
the core mailing list.

On Monday, April 2nd 2012 we held our 16th meeting with the following
participants:

  - Steffen Ritter (Release Manager 4.7)
  - Ernesto Baschny (Release Manager 4.5)
  - Benni Mack (Core Team Co-Leader)
  - Oliver Hader (Core Team Leader)



==========================
= TYPO3 4.5 // TYPO3 4.6 =
==========================


 Backport Releases
--------------------------
Ernesto informed, that he hadn't had time to work on the backport effort
yet, thus kindly asked to postpone again. Benni argued we need shift
focus more on the "newer releases", thus not give backporting features
to 4.5 (and 4.6) so much effort. It looked like the interest in the
backports wasn't that big, considering only one backport review request
on Gerrit: but this might also be due to lack of publicity around it.

At the end we argued that at least a consistent set of Hooks (throughout
4.5 .. 4.7) would make a good reason for a backports release, thus
allowing extensions to use the hooks in a consistent manner throughout
4.5 and 4.7.

We postponed the backports RC to after the 4.7.0 release (ca. end of
May). In our meeting Ernesto also noted that this "backporting-release"
is currently only a "one-time shot". We won't do it (probably) again.
4.5 was released more than one year ago, and this gives us the
opportunity to "catch up" with newer releases. Fact is that 80-90% of
new "productive" installations of TYPO3 (in some agencies even 100%) are
still focusing on 4.5, mainly because of the promise for long term
security fixes.

Ernesto would like to re-discuss the content of the backport release in
our team again, and would consider the "virtual tree root" as a
"usability improvement / fix", amongs others (i.e. page tree with
selecting a page editing some item, or keeping a branch open after
closing a page-tree filter - both of which Stefan and Jigal plan to take
a look at during the T3DD). Kind of like a "Service Pack" for TYPO3 4.5 LTS.





==========================
=        TYPO3 4.7       =
==========================


 Outstanding issues
--------------------------

We considered the MEDIA Element as currently not stable and not
backwards compatible. Steffen Ritter took a look into it on the weekend
and found out about several issues:

* In versions before 4.7 the SWFObject TypoScript Object could be used
to add what ever Flash-Objekt into an Webpage. With the rewrite to
FlowPlayer this has been changed. Even if the actual SWF File can be
overridden, FlowPlayer JavaScript and CSS always will included.
* The HTML Output will always use <video> and <audio> even if no HTML5
is selected
* <video> element is rendered even if it makes no sense like custom
Flash-File or no <sources>
* swfobject JavaScript is not used anymore
* the MEDIA Element is not able to hand over SWFObject Configuration to
deal with videos using own swf player
* the FlexForm of Media Element is unusable as the many new options
cluttered it.

Steffen Ritter already pushed some CleanUp to Gerrit. Anyhow the
SWFOBJECT problems still are present. As a first start of reworking
SWFOBJECT showed, that it is quite hard to consider all places, the
release team suggested to move the current SWFOBJECT to an another
Media-Object (or into the Media-Object) and restore the SWFOBJECT from
version 4.6. Steffen Ritter will be working on that. Support, especially
like reviewing and improving the patches on Gerrit is highly appreciated
as these MEDIA element issues are considered as a blocker for Release
Candidate 1.


==========================
= Developer Days         =
==========================

Steffen Ritter asked if and what we would have to prepair for the
Core-Team Codesprint in front of the DevDays.
No starting time had been announced yet. We decided upon 10am on
Tuesday. We also will use the Thursday morning.
We considered that there are currently no FAL sessions at all on the
DevDays. Benni and Steffen, both member of the FAL team, will
spontanously present the architecture and work progress on FAL to the
core-team, to attract people to our hands on session and share
knwowledge about this important topic.
In addition - if possible - the File Abstraction Layer should be
presented at the Developer-Days as a side track. A german presentation
about FAL from including Class Diagram might be use as a basis to start
with.

In addition Olly and Benni meet up in Stuttgart Tuesday and Wednesday to
do some Core-Leadership work as well as prepare some other topics for
the DevDays like the jQuery Migration session.



Regards

Steffen Ritter & Ernesto Baschny (wrote the part about the Backports)

-- 
Steffen Ritter
Release Manager TYPO3 4.7

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