Spring 2013 release

Release: January 19, 2013
Branch: unstable merged into master

Overview

The Spring 2013 release of Mediathread is now running live and in use at Columbia University. Updated code has been merged into master at https://github.com/ccnmtl/mediathread.

This release's improvements include:

• Redesigned home page, featuring a site tour for new visitors to a Mediathread site, contextual help, and a cleaner interface.
• Consolidation of previously separate “Add to my Collection” and “Instructor Dashboard” sections: all this functionality is now available directly off the home page.
• New Course Migration feature, allowing instructors to port all or selected assignments, compositions, items, and annotations from a previous Mediathread site into a new one.
• Coding standards compliance: python codebase is now flake8 compliant and passes Django code validation. See release notes for details.
• Testing protocols: existing doctests and unit tests reviewed for accuracy, additional unit tests implemented for existing and new functionality.

Developer Release Notes

• Django 1.3.5 upgrade for security patch. Requires updated DATABASES definition (as map) in your local_settings.py file. See her for the format: Django settings documentation

• Infrastructure - Continued emphasis on coding standards and testing. The Mediathread python codebase is now flake8 compliant and passes django code validation. The existing doctests and unit tests were reviewed for accuracy and additional unit tests were implemented for existing and new functionality. Javascript is passed through a JSHint filter. The harvest/selenium test infrastructure also continues to grow and is integral to ensure a quality product is released.

• pre-commit.py - As a Mediathread developer, you can help verify code quality by adding the pre-commit hook to your development environment. In Mediathread root, simply ln -s ../../scripts/pre-commit.py .git/hooks/pre-commit.

• Django 1.3.5 upgrade. May require an updated DATABASES definition in your local_settings.py file. See settings_test.py for an example.

• A Tastypie - based api layer was introduced in this release to support the course migration feature. This api introduces two layers -- object authorization (items, selections, projects) and a common JSON rendering template for each object type. The long-term plan is substitute this single consistent layer for the many custom json renderings and authorization calls within the view classes.