From erik@totalcirculation.com Thu Jun  3 17:40:35 2004
From: Erik LaBianca <erik@totalcirculation.com>
To: devel@lists.fedoraproject.org
Subject: RE: QA Application XML save formats.
Date: Thu, 03 Jun 2004 17:40:26 -0400
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: fedora-devel-list-bounces(a)redhat.com [mailto:fedora-devel-list-
> bounces(a)redhat.com] On Behalf Of Toshio
> Sent: Sunday, May 30, 2004 11:29 AM
> To: fedora-devel-list(a)redhat.com
> Subject: QA Application XML save formats.
>=20
> Hi,
>=20
> I've got a first cut of an xml save format for my QA Assistant App.  If
> Aur=C3=A9lien, Erik, and others interested in tools that help write QA
> reports want to take a look, I'd be glad of any input.  I'm only a
> novice xml author so my format could probably use some work.
>=20

Sorry I haven't been following your qa-assistant very closely, I don't run X =
most of the time. I did download the rpm from sourceforge, and took a look at=
 it. I'm assuming that version doesn't know how to save the .xml files you re=
ferred to?

Since you have taken the time to encapsulate the checklist as an XML file, I =
think we should all start adopting THAT as the canonical reference, including=
 going so far as to write an xslt sheet to render it as html and posting it o=
n the website.

I've created a first round xslt stylesheet, which can see the results of at
http://www.ilsw.com/~erik/fedoraus.xml

The xslt stylesheet is at=20
http://www.ilsw.com/~erik/checklist.xsl

I also spent some time thinking about how to integrate our code. I'm going to=
 throw out an idea here, and you can see what you think. If you look at the c=
hanges I made to the first couple of entries in fedoraus.xml, you can see I a=
dded a <script> section, with some simple code in it. My thought is that the =
best way to enforce a policy is to put the code to do it in the same place as=
 the policy definition, aka the checklist definition.=20

I also created a simple python script to walk through the checklist, find the=
 scripts, and run them. With some tweaking, I think it could work admirably b=
oth for an unattended checker, or integrated into a gui like yours. The scrip=
t is at http://www.ilsw.com/~erik/runchecklist.py

Outstanding issues:
We need to agree on a way to define input parameters to pass into scripts, ie=
 things like a gpg keyring file, or the srpm filename, or ??? You can see I s=
tarted doing this, but I haven't finished the job by any means.

We need to agree on an output method. I think the easy way to do it is by map=
ping return codes to states like I show in the example, or taking the entire =
textual output of the program and matching it to a state name. We can do both=
, they're both easy.

Other comments:
I'm not sure I entirely understand the difference between qasave.dtd and chec=
klist.dtd. My personal preference is to generate the qasave dtd (xml schema w=
ould be better) and xml directly from the checklist xml. Then there is 1 and =
only 1 definition of the policy, description, and storage format.

I think the checklist probably needs to carry more of the policy information =
we've argued about (and not decided on) with it. IE I'd like for each entry t=
o have a "class" or something indicating if it was a Blocker, Non-Blocker, Im=
portant, or Cosmetic only.

I think the checklist xml also needs to carry whatever information might be n=
eeded to create a QA report in the affirmative or negative for that particula=
r entry. IE you should be able to create some sort of human friendly listing =
of the packages status by transforming a "checklist data file" and a "checkli=
st" together. Maybe you already have this?

Anyway, I don't have more time to work on this today, I thought I'd get my th=
oughts out there and see what you all think

--erik

p.s. It's been a few weeks since the redhat conference, and I haven't seen a =
single status update about fedora extras. Am I blind?=20

I hate the idea of spending a lot of time putting together QA tools and then =
having the policy and methodology utterly pre-empted by decree when redhat re=
leases their external contributor policy and infrastructure.



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