BuildBranchToArchiveUI

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Revision 18 as of 2010-01-28 14:46:23

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Refer to BranchBuildToArchive for the non-UI aspects.

The UI issue: unnecessary complexity

Although it is possible for Launchpad users to build a source package from a branch and publish it in their PPA using the bzr-builder plugin, we can radically reduce the complexity of this process and remove the need to transfer data in and out of Launchpad unnecessarily, as nearly all the data is already there on Launchpad (everything except the recipe specifying which branches/revisions to use for the source package).

Goals of the UI

[draft] Users with upload rights to any PPA can, when viewing a branch page:

When viewing a source package recipe build within their PPA, users can:

Users can view a list of all their recipes (?).

Users can see source package recipe builds when viewing a specific builder's history.

Target user audiences

(draft)

Use-cases

Please feel free to expand, correct or add further use-cases.

Manual build of the latest branch revision (no previous recipes)

Guilherme has his own branch of the Toggle project and would like to build and publish the resulting package in his PPA, using the available packaging branch from the distroseries.

While viewing his branch page, Guilherme:

  1. clicks on the "Build now" button,
  2. An overlay appears displaying the a default packaging branch (or a default recipe?) that will be used (with the option to choose from other available options, or customise a new recipe on a separate page), as well as a PPA selector. After selecting the appropriate PPA and clicking 'OK',
  3. The branch page is updated with a "Recent builds" portlet listing the new build and its status, linking to (somewhere appropriate within) the PPA.

At this point, Launchpad will have created both a new recipe for Guilherme and the first build of that recipe.

Without JavaScript, the "Build now" link would go to "/+buildbranch" (Note: +new-recipe doesn't work when there are already recipes to choose from.)

Manual build of the latest branch revision (previous recipes defined)

A few pushes later, Guilherme is keen to build a new version from his branch, so he:

  1. clicks on the "Build now" button,
  2. This time, the overlay displays the name and (editable) contents of his previous recipe. Guilherme just checks that the right PPA is selected and hits 'OK' [1].
  3. The branch page is updated with a "Recent builds" portlet listing the new build and its status, linking to (somewhere appropriate within) the PPA.

[1] If Guilherme had chosen to modify the recipe in any way then it would have created a new recipe (in this case, forcing him to change the recipe name). If other people had also created recipes for this same branch (a team branch, for example), then the recipe name would be a combo box instead which, when changed, populates the recipe fields with the appropriate contents.

Manual build of a specific branch revision

Yong-sik works on the ereader project and has a number of PPAs including 'ereader_daily' and 'ereader_beta'. He would like to build a specific revision of ereader and publish the result in his personal PPA. If all goes well after installing the resulting package, he'll copy this source and resulting binaries into the ereader_beta PPA.

Yong-Sik opens the Launchpad page for his devel branch and then:

  1. clicks on the "Build now" button,
  2. ...

Daily builds

Yong-sik works on the ereader project and has a number of PPAs including 'ereader_daily' and 'ereader_beta'. He now wants to automate his daily builds.

Yong-sik opens the Launchpad page for his devel branch and then

  1. clicks on the "Build now" button,
  2. ...

Initial design proposal

TODO: (the following is just a preservation of data, not an indication of design).

Design and interaction questions

Still requiring thought

Answered

Notes