DDMS 4.0 imminent

[Brian Uri!]

DDMS 4.0 is going through a last round of voting this week, and is expected to be released around the beginning of September. Because IC-IRM was merged into DDMS in this release, there are some major changes throughout the specification. I have opened 48 tickets related to DDMS 4.0 in the DDMSence Issue Tracker:
http://code.google.com/p/ddmsence/issues/list

I will not start implementing DDMS 4.0 until after the voting is complete. I believe that the specification is stable and all-but-complete right now, but anything could happen during community voting. I estimate that this release will take 3 to 4 times longer to develop, test, and release than previous releases, so it will definitely not come out overnight.

My goals for the next release of DDMSence are:
1) Avoid having parallel downloads based on the DDMS Version: There should only ever be 1 "latest" copy of DDMSence, and it should support as many DDMS versions as is viable.
2) Maintain support for DDMS 2.0, 3.0, and 3.1: While it does make sense to phase out old versions to keep the code clean, I would prefer to give a large advance warning that an older version is going away, maybe even a full year.
3) Aim for Minor release: I'm hoping to be able to add DDMS 4.0 without breaking any backwards compatibility.

Depending on how tricky development gets once I dive in, I feel that #1 is a must, while the rest will take backseat priority to having a robust codebase. If you have any opinions, I'd love to hear from you!

Regards,
BU

[Brian Uri!]

Just an update -- DDMS 4.0 will be released in the next few days, but without the referenced Intelligence Community schemas (ISM, NTK). Downloaders of DDMS will be instructed to get the FOUO copies of ISM and NTK through normal channels and integrate them into their projects, but a Public Release version of these schemas will probably not be available for a month or two more.

I believe that DDMSence should work "out of the box" without additional downloads, so I will wait for the Public Release schemas to come out before I release my next version. However, coding on this next version is well underway, and should be completed in about two weeks.

DDMS 4.0 adds new components as expected, but also changes the structure of the DDMS resource in various ways (element names changed, wrapper elements removed). To support this, DDMSence will require a Major release that is not backwards compatible (but it will still support DDMS 2.0, 3.0, and 3.1 with minor changes). A list of changes that may require code changes on your end can be found here:
http://code.google.com/p/ddmsence/source/browse/trunk/compatibility.txt

When this release (v2.0.0) is finally out, that file will be HTMLized as an Upgrade Guide, and I'll be glad to work with you individually to update old code.

Regards,
BU

[Brian Uri!]

DDMS 4.0 has finally been released, and can be downloaded at:
http://metadata.ces.mil/mdr/irs/DDMS/

Coding on DDMSence 2.0.0 is complete now as well. I'm just waiting for the Public Release copies of IC-ISM and IC-NTK to be available so I can bundle them in. As soon as those are available (which is probably a matter of weeks, not days), DDMSence 2.0.0 will go live.

As a Major release, 2.0.0 may require a non-trivial effort to upgrade your existing code. You can get a sneak peek at the Upgrade Guide here:
http://ddmsence.urizone.net/upgrade-2.0.0.jsp

I have also updated the online DDMSence webapps to work with DDMS 4.0:
http://ddmsence.urizone.net/validator.uri
http://ddmsence.urizone.net/builder.uri

Regards,
BU