v0.1.6 release check-in

[Anish Umale]

Hi everyone, 

Hope everyone is doing well, we’re on track to make our next release, I am going to cut the release branch today, and we should be able to start the QA soon.

Here is v0.1.6 specific QA script: https://hackmd.io/UrCV4H_ZRF6-UBUrhR7chw

Here is the QA script from our last release that should help for regression testing: https://hackmd.io/p7PYsdLBTIa_dkNWvnW7zg

Here are some queries related to QA and some other tasks.

  

Pavish:

• Can you prioritise adding QA tests for i18n.(I’ve added a basecamp task assigned to you for this)
• Is there more work to be done on Enable i18n PR?
• Could you test and document upgrading from previous mathesar versions? 

Sean:

• Can you prioritise reviewing the QA script once Pavish has added tests for i18n?
• Can you QA test for regressions on internal.mathesar.org once the release branch is deployed?

Kriti:

• Can you take responsibility of post-release marketing tasks?
• Can you QA test building from scratch with multiple python versions on Mac?

Brent:

• Can you prioritise deploying the release branch to internal so that we can start QA?
• Can you QA test building from scratch with multiple python versions on Linux?

Ghislaine:

• Can you test all the tasks in v0.1.6 QA script except test case id 4?

Anish: 

• I’ll create basecamp tasks for everyone based on the responses I get on this email.
• Once the release is cut, I’ll be working on writing up the release notes.
• Once the QA is finished, I’ll be prioritising publishing the release. 

I’d request everyone to go through their basecamp tasks and let me know if you are blocked on anything, also let me know if I am missing anything.

Thanks,

Anish

[Pavish Kumar Ramani Gopal]

Anish,

1. Enable i18n is merged.

2. PR for GH workflow to create draft release with built static files is not yet merged. It's waiting for reviews from you and Sean.

• The related wiki PR is here: https://github.com/mathesar-foundation/mathesar-wiki/pull/109
• These PRs do not strictly block cutting the release and building the images, however, there are changes to installation docs (needed for QA) and it would be best if we have them merged before cutting the release branch.

3. > Could you test and document upgrading from previous mathesar versions? 

• I will test the upgrade process during QA.
• I'm not sure what documentation change is needed in this release for upgrades. We would have to discuss this with the team.
• Perhaps just updating the title `To 0.1.5` to `To 0.1.5 and later` in the docs would suffice?

4. Can you prioritise adding QA tests for i18n.(I’ve added a basecamp task assigned to you for this)

• I've added it to the QA test doc. It's quite straightforward.

Let me know if there's anything else you need from me that's blocking the release.

[Ghislaine Guerin]

Hi Anish,

Yes, I can start testing as soon as the release branch is deployed.

Ghislaine

[Sean Colsen]

Anish, your assignments to me look good. Will do!

[Kriti Godey]

I can do post-release marketing, but I do not anticipate having time this week to test out building with multiple Python versions on Mac. Could @Pavish Kumar Ramani Gopal do that instead? Do we even need to test on Mac if Brent is already testing on Linux?

[Pavish Kumar Ramani Gopal]

I can pick it up. Having said that, I have a backlog of work and I would only like to do this if we really need this QA test on Mac, since we're already testing on Linux.

[Pavish Kumar Ramani Gopal]

Anish and I had a chat and Anish will be picking up the QA test for installation on Mac: Build from scratch for multiple python versions.

[Kriti Godey]

Sounds good.

[Pavish Kumar Ramani Gopal]

I've finished my QA for upgrades.

It worked successfully for Docker based installations and for Install from scratch on Linux. I noticed several documentation issues, listed here: https://github.com/mathesar-foundation/mathesar/issues/3505, which needs to be fixed in 0.1.6.

I'm certain upgrading a from-scratch from 0.1.4 to 0.1.5 would not have succeeded since the upgrade steps on the docs would not work for 0.1.5. I'm not sure if we missed testing this last time or if we deliberately decided not to test them. We would have to update that as well.

In the course of this, I also attempted installing from scratch on a Mac. I was able to install Mathesar, however, the server kept throwing 500s when the application started. These 500 Internal server errors did not contain any information. I did not debug it any further.

[Kriti Godey]

Thanks Pavish!

I’m not sure if we missed testing this last time or if we deliberately decided not to test them.

We decided not to test them, and also I wrote the upgrade instructions without testing them because we realized we needed them at the last minute and everyone was busy (Brent reviewed them, though). Since we’re cutting the release in the middle of each month now, we should have more time and avoid flying by the seat of our pants so much.

---

Can someone (Anish?) summarize the current state of the release? It seems like we’ve found a bunch of issues in QA, do we need to do another round of QA? Do we need to follow up on the issue with Mac installation?

[Anish Umale]

We are on track for making the release and we do have everything we need except for some documentation changes and reviews, specifically:

• Documentation for debug images -- by Brent.
• Documentation for upgrading to 0.1.6 -- by Pavish(we already have a PR for this).  
• Review of docs from a holistic perspective -- by Sean
• Review of the draft release PR from a frontend perspective -- by Sean
• Review/re-review of Release notes for 0.1.6 -- by Kriti, Brent, Sean.

Regarding the QA, we didn't encounter any app-breaking bugs except this one which will be fixed in 0.1.7. So, I don't think we need to go through another round of QA.

Regarding installing from scratch on a Mac, I was able to get 0.1.6 working on all supported Python versions, Initially, I did run into 500s, but that was because I missed a step during installation where I had to copy static files into a specific directory. I wonder if Pavish also missed this?

[Pavish Kumar Ramani Gopal]

> Regarding installing from scratch on a Mac, I was able to get 0.1.6 working on all supported Python versions, Initially, I did run into 500s, but that was because I missed a step during installation where I had to copy static files into a specific directory. I wonder if Pavish also missed this?

I'm fairly certain that I placed the static files in the right directory. I did not debug it any further and I don't think this is blocking 0.1.6, so my recommendation is to not worry about it.

Eventually, I think we might need docs separately for Mac (and other posix variants that do not have systemd). I would like the docs to purely focus on getting Mathesar installed, and then a separate section on making it production-ready (using systemd services and caddy).

[Anish Umale]

That makes sense Pavish, I didn't set up gunicorn or Caddy while testing as it was beyond the scope of what I was trying to test, which was getting mathesar working with different Python versions.

[Kriti Godey]

So currently, we can publish the release after Sean reviews release notes, the upgrade docs, docs from a holistic perspective, and the release PR from the frontend perspective, right?

Sean, I know you have limited availability, please let us know if you’d like to hand off any/all of this to someone else.

Eventually, I think we might need docs separately for Mac (and other posix variants that do not have systemd).

I’m not sure we should maintain install from scratch guides to multiple platforms, it’s a lot to maintain. The current install from scratch guide is just meant to illustrate the steps for experienced sysadmins to adapt, it’s only meant to be step-by-step if you want to spin up a VM of the exact operating system we tested on. Maybe we should make this clearer somehow.

I do think we could support community guides to other platform, as long as the maintenance burden isn’t on us.

[Sean Colsen]

Sorry for holding up the show. As far as I can tell, I've completed my release tasks now.

[Kriti Godey]

@Sean Colsen

Review of https://github.com/mathesar-foundation/mathesar/pull/3507 still appears to be pending, I'm not sure if you also want to do the docs holistic review after that's merged.

And no worries, you weren't holding up the release, I finished my tasks only a couple hours ago.