Impact Framework updates

[Joseph Cook]

Hi IFers!

It's Thursday - time for another IF update. We have had a solid week and I'm excited to share some new features with you all.

What are we working on?

We are currently working on upgrading our logging and error handling to make it easier for plugin developers and IF users to debug their pipelines. This will include a new `--debug` command that will cause IF to show execution logs in the console, as well as some solutions that will make it easy for plugin developers to inherit our pre-built error handlers.

In the meantime, Asim and I are preparing the next epic, which will focus on improving how we output data, handle units and plugin metadata and lean into the idea of manifests as executable audits. I'm very excited about the next epic and in the next few days we'll be posting details on Github so you can get involved in the conversation and influence the design.


New features

We shipped if-diff!

It's merged into our `main` branch, so you can start using it today if you are working from a copy of our Github repository. If you are using our npm package, you will have to wait another couple of days until our next release is available.

if-diff enables you to identify differences between output files using a simple command. This enables rapid verification of IF output files and can be useful for debugging.

We are now *very* close to shipping out IF Explorer website, where you can search for plugins!

We're really excited about this because it provides a way for you to share the plugins you build with the rest of the ecosystem and search for plugins that you need for your pipelines!

People are already submitting plugins to be ready for the launch - you can get involved now too!

plugin submission info



Ways to contribute

We are grateful for some substantial community contributions over the past few weeks.

This includes users who have raised bug reports, contributed fixes and added new information to our docs website.

If you want ideas for ways to contribute to IF, you can look for the `help-wanted` tag on our issue board - I have been through and tagged some issues ranging from small bug fixes to more substantial upgrades to IF features.  

I added some good first issues today, including adding emojis to the `if-diff` output - this would make a great first contribution to the framework!

browse open issues


That's it for now, see you all online!

Joseph

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Joseph Cook

Product Owner: Impact Framework, 

Green Software Foundation

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