Author Archive for matthewrevell

Your questions for the Launchpad podcast

Published by Matthew Revell May 8th, 2008 in General. 0 Comments

Over the next couple of weeks we’re going to record a brand new Launchpad podcast.

In it we’ll talk to projects about how they’re using Launchpad and also to members of the Launchpad team.

Perhaps the most important part will be questions from you. Whatever you want to know about Launchpad, ask us on the podcast help wiki page.

Also, if you’ve got a suggestion for a name for the podcast or a Creative Commons licensed theme tune, send it over to feedback@launchpad.net! Best suggestion gets a hearty handshake.

Offline 21.00 - 23.00 UTC 10th May 2008

Published by Matthew Revell May 8th, 2008 in Notifications. 0 Comments

We’re taking Launchpad offline for a couple of hours this Saturday (UTC) to upgrade our main database server to Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (also known as Hardy Heron).

Going offline: 21.00 UTC
Expected back: 23.00 UTC

If you want to see Launchpad service notifications, such as this, in your feed reader please subscribe to our notifications feed.

We’re sorry for the down time this database upgrade will cause.

Launchpad 1.2.4 released!

Published by Matthew Revell May 1st, 2008 in Releases. 1 Comment

The Launchpad team is proud to announce the release of Launchpad 1.2.4 on 1st May 2008!

New features this month include:

  • the ability to build PPA packages for multiple series and copy packages from one PPA to another
  • a new design for project code overview pages
  • an easier way for casual contributors to post to mailing lists.

Read on for more about what’s new and how it affects you.

Copying PPA packages

Building on other people’s work and publishing packages for different Ubuntu releases are now easier. You can copy packages both:

  • from other PPAs directly into any PPA you can upload to
  • and to different distro-series within the same PPA.

For an example, take a look at the Ubuntu Mobile team’s PPA
package copy page.

There’s more in the PPA quick-start guide.

New project code overview page

Project code overview pages have an improved page layout. Tim Penhey, who created the design, explains the changes:

Usually, people want to know a couple of things from a project’s code page: how active it is and which are the important branches.

You can now see, at a glance, how many commits, branches and code contributors a project has. And there’s a new branch listing that highlights which branches are associated with a series.

Take a look at the Bazaar project’s code overview page for an example.

Contributing to mailing lists without subscribing

If you need to make a one-off post to a mailing list you may not want to subscribe. Now you can make a post and Launchpad will hold it for the list’s admins to moderate.

See the mailing list user guide for more.

Other changes this month

  • Project bug contacts are now called bug supervisors. More about the change.
  • Watches on bugs in Gforge and Savane based trackers are now supported.
  • You can now subscribe to all the bugs affecting a project group, project series or distribution series. More about bug subscriptions.
  • A distro’s PPA overview page now shows you recent uploads, most active archives and supported series.

For full details of the bug fixes and features that make up this release, take a look at the 1.2.4 milestone page.

Help us test Launchpad

If you want to help us test new features, we’d love to have you in our beta team.

Find out more about our beta programme.

Stay in touch!

Thanks for helping us make Launchpad a success! If you come across any bugs, please report them.

If you want to get in touch for any other reason, please do.

There’ll be more in Launchpad 1.2.5 at the end of this month.

Offline 00.00 - 02.00 1st May

Published by Matthew Revell April 28th, 2008 in Notifications. 0 Comments

We’re releasing Launchpad 1.2.4 in the early hours of 1st May 2008. To roll out the new code, we need to take Launchpad offline.

Going offline: 00.00 UTC 1st May 2008.
Coming back: 02.00 UTC 1st May 2008.

We’re sorry if you want to use Launchpad at that time.

Meet the bug supervisor

Published by Matthew Revell April 25th, 2008 in Bug Tracking. 1 Comment

If you’re involved in a project that uses Launchpad’s bug tracker, you’ll know that one of the most important roles is the bug contact.

Next week, when we release Launchpad 1.2.4, we’re changing the name of project and distribution bug contact to bug supervisor. The role stays the same but we think the new name better reflects what it has become.

This does not apply to package bug contacts who will be renamed to bug subscriber, as their role is quite different to bug supervisor for distros and projects

Bug contacts and bug mail

Originally, the main part of being a bug contact was dealing with bug notifications. Whoever was in the bug contact role - whether a team or individual - would receive email about new bugs and changes to existing bugs for their project, package or distribution.

Since our February release, bug mail is open to everyone. If you want to get email notifications about a particular project, package or distro’s bug activity, all you have to do is subscribe. Similarly, bug contacts can unsubscribe from those bug notifications.

So, the name “bug contact” no longer seems appropriate.

So, what is a bug supervisor?

Bug contacts - or bug supervisors after April 30th - are automatically subscribed to the relevant bug notifications. In addition, they can:

  • target bugs to milestones
  • set the importance of a bug
  • set certain bug statuses.

The change is already in place on our Edge environment. Take a look at Launchpad’s bugs overview page on Edge to see it in place.

Launchpad 1.2.3: mailing lists in Launchpad

Published by Matthew Revell March 28th, 2008 in Releases. 0 Comments

We’re proud to announce a much requested new feature as part of Launchpad 1.2.3: mailing lists in Launchpad!

If you run a team in Launchpad, you can request a mailing list straight away on your team’s overview page. Once the list is active, each team member will have the option to subscribe.

If you don’t yet run a team but you’d like to create a mailing list that wouldn’t be covered by an existing team, create a new team and then request a list.

There’s more in our guide.

And there’s plenty more going on in this release, including:

  • Translations can now have up to six plural forms.
  • Each project’s files are now available to download from its overview page.
  • You can search for PPAs by name and keywords.
  • We’ve revamped branch listing pages to give you quicker access to commit messages and author information.

As with all new software, there may still be some bugs in this new release. If you come across something that looks like a bug, please report it.

See the full Launchpad 1.2.3 release announcement.

Six plural forms in translations

Published by Matthew Revell March 28th, 2008 in Cool new stuff. 2 Comments

Up until this release (1.2.3), Launchpad Translations has supported only four plural forms. This works for many languages but has been a problem for Arabic, in particular, as it has six different plural forms.

I’m pleased to say that Launchpad now supports up to six plural forms in those languages that need them!

Mailing lists in Launchpad!

Published by Matthew Revell March 28th, 2008 in Cool new stuff. 5 Comments

Mailing lists are one of the main ways we communicate in the free software world. They’re crucial to the day to day work, as well as the planning and debate, of most projects.

Now, each Launchpad team can have its own mailing list hosted and managed by Launchpad. If you run a team in Launchpad, simply visit your team’s overview page to request your list. If you want to subscribe to a list, first join the team that owns it and then subscribe. Full details are in our guide.

Let’s look at some of what Launchpad brings to mailing lists:

  • Simplified administration. As someone running a list, Launchpad does everything for you: you don’t need to manage a server and there’s no mailing list software for you to patch.
  • Simplified subscription management. As a list subscriber, all you need are your Launchpad login details and your team memberships. Nothing more to it. Change your email address? Update it once in your Launchpad profile and it’s automatically effective for your mailing list subscriptions. To subscribe to a list, all you need is to be a member of the relevant team.
  • Post from any email address. You can post to your Launchpad mailing lists from any email address registered in your Launchpad profile.
  • Automatic archiving and distribution. Launchpad lists are automatically archived for history, in a format that is easily cataloged by search engines. Copies are also archived on mail-archive.com, a popular long-term list archive site.

The full details on creating and joining mailing lists in Launchpad are available in our guide.

File downloads on project overview pages

Published by Matthew Revell March 28th, 2008 in Cool new stuff. 2 Comments

After all the work that’s gone into a release, you want to get your software out to users.

One way is to use Launchpad to make your release files available for download. Now, Launchpad makes it even easier for users to get the files from your latest release, by listing them on your project’s overview page.

Let’s take a look at the Bazaar project, as an example:

Files for download on the bzr project overview page

Here you can see files from Bazaar’s recent 1.3 release.

To distribute your project’s files through Launchpad, first you need to register a series and then register a release on the series overview page.

Once you’re on the release page, in Launchpad, there’s a link to upload files.

There are a few things to bear in mind when uploading files. They should be:

  • code release tarball
  • installer files
  • README or other documentation
  • changelog file
  • release notes
  • no more than 60MB per file.

Let us know how you get on using Launchpad to distribute your project files.

New branch listing pages

Published by Matthew Revell March 28th, 2008 in Cool new stuff. 0 Comments

We’ve given branch listing pages a major overhaul, giving you more information about each commit.

In particular, the start of the commit message is quoted in the Last commit column, with the full thing available when you hover your mouse over it. If the author’s email address is registered in Launchpad, their name is hyperlinked to their Launchpad profile page.

Take a look at the Bazaar branch list page for an example.

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