Re: [Evolution-hackers] [evolution-kolab] towards Upstream-Integration

[Matthew Barnes <mbarnes redhat com>]

On Fri, 2011-07-01 at 23:33 +0200, Christian Hilberg wrote: 
> The first step could be to create an evolution-kolab git repository at 
> gnome.org, at least this is what came to my mind instantly. In order to get 
> the prerequisites right, I have applied for a GNOME account with git access. 
> This has been vouched for by the Evolution team (thanks, Matt), and I have 
> received confirmation from the GNOME account management team today.
> 
> Since neither my kernel concepts evolution-kolab team mates nor myself have 
> done upstream integration for an Evolution plugin yet, I would like to know 
> how we should best proceed from here. If there is any reading we should have 
> done prior to further acting, we'll gladly accept pointers to the relevant 
> documents. David (or anyone else involved there), I heard that you did the 
> same with your EWS team recently, so if there are any lessons-learned which we 
> should heed to, we will also be happy to know. Long story short, we will just 
> be happy for any directing through this process so we can get through it 
> smoothly.

First of all, welcome to the family!  It's great to have more developers
supporting new backends for Evolution.

I agree that getting the code into git.gnome.org is the first step.
Chen already pointed you in the right direction:

        http://live.gnome.org/Git/NewRepository
        
When you're ready to start accepting bug reports, you'll also want to
get evolution-kolab added to bugzilla.gnome.org as a new project.  The
steps for that are here:

        http://live.gnome.org/Bugsquad/ForMaintainers#To_add_a_project_to_the_bugzilla_database

Assuming evolution-kolab includes translatable strings, you'll want to
make sure the project is properly set up for localization using gettext
and intltool.  This is kind of a broad topic, but there's lots of
documentation about that here:

        http://live.gnome.org/TranslationProject/DevGuidelines

Then when you're ready for the software to start receiving translations,
file a bug asking for evolution-kolab to be added to "Damned Lies" (the
translation hub for GNOME projects):

        http://bugzilla.gnome.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=damned-lies&component=l10n.gnome.org

If you have any developer documentation, the wiki would be a good place
to post it and keep it up-to-date.  I'd suggest putting the top-level
page here:

        http://live.gnome.org/Evolution/Kolab

Once you have evolution-kolab synchronized with the latest Evolution and
Evolution-Data-Server release, we'll need to discuss release scheduling
and frequency.  As you probably know, GNOME works to a six-month release
schedule and we follow that schedule, which can always be found here:

        http://www.gnome.org/start/unstable/

At minimum you should aim for a new evolution-kolab release to coincide
with each major GNOME release, which usually occurs at the end of March
and the end of September of each year.  You'll also need to adhere to
GNOME's string and code freezes as a major release approaches, all of
which is detailed on the release schedule.

I would also suggest once you've synchronized evolution-kolab's code
with the latest E-D-S release, that you also synchronize its version
number (major.minor at least, such as 3.2) so it's easy to keep them
paired up properly.

I think this is enough to get you started.  There's a lot to digest
here, and a lot I'm probably taking for granted, but Chen and I are
happy to try and clarify points or answer questions.

Matt