Ubuntu linking to upstream

Launchpad must make it easier for Ubuntu contributors to link source-packages to registered upstream projects.

Launchpad has had packaging links for years, but the message regarding its value is not compeling.

• Launchpad could provide information about what each package needs to send upstream to make the need specific and clear.
• Since crowd sourcing is the preferred solution to collect this information, karma can be awarded and top contributors can be displayed.
• Launchpad could do some of the montonous work for the contributors:
  • It could search for matching projects for the contributor and ask him or her to select from a list.
  • It could show exactly what information is missing
  • It could make project registration easier to pre-populating the form with the source package information.

Distro series +index page (updated)

The distroseries index page needs a portlet that encourages users to link source packages to registered upstream projects.

This proposed design is very similar to the portlet Curtis and Martin discussed in August 2009 when redesigning the project and distro series pages. The project series index page lists where to get the code as the second most important portlet so that user can start working on bugs and features. The same activity is hard to do in a distro series because most of the work must be forwardes upstream, or upstream needs their latest code sent upstream to Ubuntu. A different kind of portlet is needed by the distro series.

• The portlet sumarises the work that must be done.
• The portlet must list a fragement of the packages that need linking. The list is prioritised so that the users see the most urgent packages first.
• The portlet could show recently linked packages
  • Showing recent activity encourages contributors to be a part of the group.
  • Showing who and when it was done give contributors exposure
• The portlet has links to both the linked packages and unlinked packages views.

The recently linked listing breaks portlet conventions by showing the who and when on the same line as the what. This information is collected but has never been shown in the Launchpad UI.

Distro series +packacking page (updated)

The current distro series +packaging page lists unlinked translatable packges, and all linked packages. This information can be separted into seprate pages because neither listing is showing enough information to explain what needs to be done.

The packaging page could list the linked packages and show what information must be collected so that the Ubuntu community can work with the upstream project

• The list shows what the needed information in columns
• The information is either available, missing, or not needed

Since the comunity may desperately need to know the upstream bug tracker for a linked package, the listing could be sorted by most need. The packages with the most bugs and translations are listed first. This may make the liting difficult to use for users who was want to scan the list. This may not be an important issue because the +allpackages listing wa removed because it was not considered to be very valuable to the community. Any user can search the distro for packages to get a listing of packages that match a name/topic.

This listing is different from the unlinked packages listing, and that may be bad.

Distro series +unlinked-package page (new)

The unlinked packaging page could list the unlinked packages and show what information that illustrates why they need to be linked.

• The page shows a list of the packages order by urgency. The packages that most need linking are listed first.
• The table columns list the number of bugs and translatable messages that are not being shared with upstream.
• The branch column will always be shown as missing.
• Each row links to the source package where the contributor can start making the packaging link.

Source package +index page, unlinked (updated)

The call to link the source package toan upstream project was added in December 2009. The page could more.

• The portlet lists the registered projects that are most likely the upstream.
• The project and package are often the same name or similar, so instead of asking the user to do the obvious search, the portlet presents the results of the search as a form
  • The project name is not enough information. The form could show the project summary, but that requires not using the launchpad-form-macros.
  • There is a link to see each project because the user probably needs to see more than text.
• There is a link to use the standard set/edit form where the user can do the search himself.

The link is made the the default project series, the focus of development. There are a few cases where projects produce multiple source packages from different series (Python 2.6 an 3.1 for example). Showing series in this list complicates the form and will make most packages unnecessarilly complicated to link.

Source package +packaging page (updated)

Distroseries +index page, linked (updated)