...
This page lists the numerous actions required to make an Apache OpenOffice release happen. Initially, it will cover a simple point release, without major user interface changes. It can be expanded later to cover more cases.
Goal
Describe the actions in detail, so that everybody should be able to take over and not specific project committers and members.
The actions are sorted in specific sections and not in chronological order. This should be done in the release schedule on a separate Wiki webpage.
Short legend
...
- TBD = To be defined. More details are needed to describe the task.
- TODO = A specific detail needs to be described.
...
Files and folders structure
See https://archive.apache.org/dist/openoffice/4.1.36/ for an example. Note in particular that we have:
...
NOTE
The structure must not be changed since the scripting on the download pages assume it is identical to any former release.
Everything must come with hashes and signatures
...
https://www.apache.org/legal/release-policy.html#release-signing
All files need
...
Release scripts can be found at: https://svn.apache.org/viewvc/openoffice/devtools/release-scripts/
How is the source code obtained?
...
RSCREVISION BUILD LAST_MINOR
QA
- Generic QA
TBD - Specific QA focused on the selected bugfixes/enhancements
TBD
...
Upload builds using svn mv to ASF Dist server (dist release area) - the target SVN URL has the pattern https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/release/openoffice/4.1.68 and this can be done before or after the copy to SourceForge (Example: svn mv https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/dev/openoffice/4.1.8-RC3 https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/release/openoffice/4.1.8)
Since 2017, OpenOffice is not on the Apache mirrors anymore. It it unlikely that the Infrastructure team will change that. But when OpenOffice is back on the Apache mirrors, then the Infrastructure team needs to know about the new release and the following notification is becoming a MUST DO again:
IMPORTANTThe Infrastructure team needs to know about an upcoming release to be able to prepare servers and resources and to make sure they are up and running. Write a mail to infrastructure@apache.org and tell them what can be expected (number of files, total file size, directory structure, etc.). See http://www.apache.org/legal/release-policy.html#heads-up for further details. You have to do this before executing svn move !Upload to SourceForge mirrors (copy requires just a few hours, with the normal rsync instructions shown; note: project name has changed since 4.1.2 and now the rsync target must be written asusername@frs., e.g., username@frs.sourceforge.net:/home/frs/mirror/openofficeorg/4.1.68/.
IMPORTANT
Make sure it's going into a "staged" directory.
STEP BY STEP (assuming you updated the ASF dist server first)
1) Open https://sourceforge.net/projects/openofficeorg.mirror/files - Add Folder, name: 4.1.6 8 and mark it as staged (this will automatically apply to all contents)
2) svn export https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/release/openoffice/4.1.68 (in case you don't already have a local checkout)
3) Remove all checksums/hashes/SVN internal files since we don't want them on third-party servers:
$ rsync -avz --exclude '*.asc' --exclude '*.sha256' --exclude '*.sha512' --exclude '*.svn' 4.1.6/ username@frs.sourceforge.net:/home/frs/mirror/openofficeorg/4.1.6/
Make sure builds are on the ASF Archive server
NOTE
Hash files must not be stored on public servers but only on ASF servers. The files get copied automatically when the files get uploaded to the ASF Dist server (dist area).
- SourceForge: Update to "Latest Version"
Set the attribute "Latest Version" to all full installation files for every platform. Update Feed: New check.Update for the aoo<version> area. The update notification will create a high load on the SourceForge mirror servers as a lot of users will then update their AOO installation. This must be avoided. Therefore this task has to be done always some days after the release.
Create new SVN tag
IMPORTANT
Do not create any SVN tag as long as the release is not officially announced and public available. Otherwise the created build files cannot be published when a late show stopper will be found. This must be avoided in any case.
When to do
The best time to do it is when the press announcement is published and the installed files are available on the download webpage.
What to do
Double-check what version was built (for 4.1.3 it's Rev. 1761381, you find it even in the About Box); of course, if this happens during the release process, the Release Manager knows it.
- Find the relevant branch in https://svn.apache.org/viewvc/openoffice/branches/ (in this case it's AOO413 and revision number is indeed 1761381) and check it is aligned (it is, since the two revisions match).
- SVN copy the branch to the tag. You can do it locally but it's much more efficient to do it remotely. So, from anywhere on a machine with SVN access, just run:
...
Communication
Pre-Announcement
Notifying or not?
Do we want to notify the world that a new release is cooking:
- What is coming?
- Some details?
- When does it come?
If yes, write first status update and call for volunteers on dev@ mailing list and on the AOO Blog: https://blogs.apache.org/ooo/
Release Notes
Requires a Confluence account that can edit OpenOffice pages. Create a page for the release as a child of Releases. Select that page, click "Create" in the Confluence menu bar, and create a blank page. Copy the planning for a previous release. Under that page, create a release notes page that can also start as a copy of prior release notes. Edit to reflect reality.
TODO
Create templates for the release planning and release notes pages.
A template for the Release Notes has been available since 2016-08-03.
- Short User Guide coming soon
ASF Press Release
Coordinate with the ASF VP, Marketing & Publicity
Currently Sally Khudairi is responsible for press releases and general publicity help. Write a mail to press@apache.org and ask for help. Then she will answer with further steps.
Where to do the announcements?
English Release Notes : AOO <version> Release Notes
English Press Release : https://blogs.apache.org/foundation/
English Press Release to the AOO Blog : https://blogs.apache.org/ooo/
Announce mail : Write to announce@ (every mail needs to be moderated, so don't expect to arrive immediately)
Translations
The following documents should be made available for translation, and :
- Release Notes
Press Release
IMPORTANT
Give translators a heads-up of 48 hours before the release should happen. This should enable a parallel press release.
Changes to Webpages
Main download webpage
https://www.openoffice.org/download/index.html
TBD
Main homepage
https://www.openoffice.org/index.html
Version in the header link
TBD
Blog & News
TBD
Localized download webpages
IMPORTANT
Every language has its own website area that needs to be updated.
Example:
https://www.openoffice.org/xx/download/index.html
Of course the languages depend on the release. The most important languages - with its ISO codes are the following (ordered by download popularity):
en-US, fr, de, it, es, ja, ru, pl, nl, zh-TW, cs, zh-CN, el, pt, da, no
Do not forget the template files with code "xx".
TBD
Localized homepages
https://www.openoffice.org/xx/index.html
Project's homepage
Homepage
https://openoffice.apache.org/index.html
TBD
Download webpage
https://openoffice.apache.org/downloads.html
TBD
Apache's project data (DOAP RDF data)
https://projects.apache.org/project.html?openoffice
Update the data of the following file: https://github.com/apache/openoffice-project/blob/main/content/doap_openoffice.rdf
This file is located on the project website, which is self-publishing. Just make sure you do the changes in one commit.
IMPORTANT
The new data is not shown after it was published. There is a delay due to a cron job that runs maybe every 24h.
Apache Committee Report Helper
https://reporter.apache.org/addrelease.html?openoffice
Add the new release with exact version number and full date.
Statistics webpage
In order to get also the downloads for the new release counted the following changes have to be done:
This results in the new tag appearing at https://svn.apache.org/viewvc/openoffice/tags/.
Communication
Pre-Announcement
Do we want to notify the world that a new release is cooking?
- What is coming?
- Some details?
- When does it come?
If yes, write first status update and call for volunteers on dev@ mailing list and on the AOO Blog: https://blogs.apache.org/ooo/
More things to do?
Release Notes
Requires a Confluence account that can edit OpenOffice pages. Create a page for the release as a child of Releases. Select that page, click "Create" in the Confluence menu bar, and create a blank page. Copy the planning for a previous release. Under that page, create a release notes page that can also start as a copy of prior release notes. Edit to reflect reality.
TODO
Create templates for the release planning and release notes pages.
A template for the Release Notes has been available since 2016-08-03.
- Short User Guide coming soon
ASF Press Release
With whom to coordinate?
Currently Sally Khudairi (ASF VP, Marketing & Publicity) is responsible for press releases and general publicity help. Write a mail to press@apache.org and ask for help. Then she will answer with further steps.
Where to do the announcements?
English Release Notes : AOO <version> Release Notes
English Press Release : https://blogs.apache.org/foundation/
English Press Release to the AOO Blog : https://blogs.apache.org/ooo/
Announce mail : Write to announce@ (every mail needs to be moderated, so don't expect to arrive immediately)
Translations
The following documents should be made available for translation, and :
- Release Notes
Press Release
IMPORTANT
Give translators a heads-up of 48 hours before the release should happen. This should enable a parallel press release.
Changes to Webpages
Main download webpage
https://www.openoffice.org/download/index.html
TBD
Main homepage
https://www.openoffice.org/index.html
Version in the header link
TBD
Blog & News
TBD
Localized download webpages
IMPORTANT
Every language has its own website area that needs to be updated.
Example:
https://www.openoffice.org/xx/download/index.html
Of course the languages depend on the release. The most important languages - with its ISO codes are the following (ordered by download popularity):
en-US, fr, de, it, es, ja, ru ,pl, nl, zh-tw, cs, zh-cn, el, pt, da, no
Do not forget the template files with code "xx".
TBD
...
https://www.openoffice.org/xxstats/index.html
Version in the header link
TBD
Blog & News
TBD
Project's homepage
Homepage
- Add all build files as separate lines to a new file. Example for 4.1.6 : https://
...
TBD
Download webpage
https://openoffice.apache.org/downloads.html
TBD
DOAP RDF data
...
- repos/asf/openoffice/devtools/aoo-stats/416.lst
- Add all build files as separate lines to :
...
...
- /repos/asf/openoffice/devtools/aoo-stats/all.lst
- Add the new release version values to : https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/openoffice/
...
...
Finally, don't forget to publish the website.
IMPORTANT
The new data is not shown after it was published. There is a delay due to a cron job that runs maybe every 24h.
Apache Committee Report Helper
https://reporter.apache.org/addrelease.html?openoffice
Add new release
Statistics webpage
Webpage
http://www.openoffice.org/stats/downloads.html
What has to be changed?
...
- aoo-stats/detail-by-day.py
- Example for 4.1.6:
columns = [ ... , "count_416" , ... ]
- patternDict = { ... , "count_416" : "4.1.6" , ... }
IMPORTANT
The webpage itself does not need to be changed. The download numbers are taken from https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/openoffice/ooo-site/trunk/content/stats/aoo-downloads.txt
The file just needs to be updated with new numbers. As soon as the file is then committed and the website published, the new download numbers are shown in the chart.
Please see https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/openoffice
...
- Example for 4.1.3:
columns = [ ... , "count_413" , ... ]
- patternDict = { ... , "count_413" : "4.1.3" , ... }
IMPORTANT
...
/devtools/aoo-stats/README.txt for instructions how to get new download numbers.
Tasks after the release is public
Create new SVN tag
IMPORTANT
Do not create any SVN tag as long as the release is not officially announced and public available. Otherwise the created build files cannot be published when a late show stopper will be found. This must be avoided in any case.
When to do
The best time to do it is when the press announcement is published and the installed files are available on the download webpage.
What to do
Double-check what version was built (for 4.1.6 it is revision 1844436, you find it even in the About Box). Of course, if this happens during the release process, the Release Manager knows it.
- Find the relevant branch in https://svn.apache.org/viewvc/openoffice/branches/ (in this case it is AOO416 and revision number is indeed 1844436) and check it is aligned (it is, since the two revisions match).
- SVN will copy the branch to the tag. You can do it locally but it is much more efficient to do it remotely. So, from anywhere on a machine with SVN access, just run:
$ svn copy https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/openoffice/branches/AOO416 https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/openoffice/tags/AOO416 -m "AOO revision \
1844436 from branch AOO416 was voted to be released as Apache OpenOffice 4.1.6 on November, 18th, 2018"
Committed revision 1844437.
This results in the new tag appearing at ooo-site/trunk/content/stats/aoo-downloads.txt
The file just needs to be updated with new numbers. As soon as the file is then committed and the website published, the new download numbers are shown in the chart.Please see https://svn.apache.org/repos/asfviewvc/openoffice/devtoolstags/aoo-stats/README.txt for instructions how to get new download numbers.
Tasks after the release is public
Bugzilla
Prerequisite
This requires admin privileges on Bugzilla
What has to be changed?
- Add new version to the UI field "Version". This has to be done for every active product via "Edit versions".
- Deactivate (don't delete) previous version in the UI field "Milestone". This has to be done for every active product via "Edit milestones". Because the previously released version is done and will not be updated, then it shouldn't be able to choose it.
- Add new version to the UI field "Latest Confirmation via the custom field "cf_lastconfirmedver". This needs to be set only ones which is used for all products.
...
After the new release is published and announced, the Release Manager should have a look at the project checker to make sure that htere there are no problems:
https://checker.apache.org/projs/openoffice.html
...
OpenOffice is using a lot of spache space for each release. To keep it at a minimum it was agreed with the Infrastructure team to delete the previous release when the new one is published and no problems arised arose in theshort a short time frame.
What has to be done?
...