[maemo-developers] Extras-testing improvements

[From: Niels Breet]

On Tue, March 9, 2010 11:19, Riku Voipio wrote:
> On 03/09/2010 01:04 AM, ext Attila Csipa wrote:
>
>> I hope Valerio won't mind me taking the initiative here, but I'd like
>> once again to underline the testing-squad is not the Spanish Inquisiton
>> nor do we adhere to a dogma which makes testing procedures unchangeable
>> (and we
>> certainly don't want to create/impose them without a general consent).
>> Many of
>> the problems brought up have been met before, are already known and have
>>  been/are being worked on to make Extras-testing as painless as
>> possible (and yes, I also personally have several packages in
>> Extras-testing that make me
>> curse at some of the current rules, so I know both sides of this
>> occasionally painful story :). I invite everyone who has not alredy done
>> so to take a good look at
>
>> http://wiki.maemo.org/Extras-testing/QA_Checklist/QA_Improvements
>>
>
> From what I see, the problem is mostly that there is not enough
> voters.. Well, there are probably lots of more people who add
> extras-testing and even extras-devel to their devices and test random
> applications from there, but can't bother to vote the maemo.org website. I
> can see several reasons for this.
>
> 1) extras-testing voting is well hidden in maze of the website

Yes, this probably needs to improve. Suggestions are welcome though.

> 2) Once you find the place, you get an ugly list (especially if viewed
> with n900):
> http://maemo.org/packages/repository/qa/fremantle_extras-testing/

CSS is here:
https://garage.maemo.org/plugins/scmsvn/viewcvs.php/midgard-data/style/maemo2009/static/css/packages.css?root=maemo2midgard&view=log

Patches are appreciated, I'm not a designer by any means ;)

> There is no correlation with packages you have actually installed on
> your n900, so you need to browse around to actually find what to vote for.

This is a harder part to solve, there is no way for the website to know
what you have installed or not.

>  3) the website kicks you out randomly
>

I noticed this too, need to find out why this happens.

>
> etc. no wonder we don't get many testers..
>
>
> But I think perhaps the website is the wrong place anyway. a
> "extras-testing-assistant" application in extras that allows you to
> add/remove extras-testing to application manager, shows a list of packages
> installed from extras-testing and gives you a chance to thumb up/down.

The appinstaller application might be a good candidate to add this testing
and voting features to. It is currently in extras-devel and only using
information from Downloads. But that can change of course.

--
Niels Breet
maemo.org webmaster