Signet Working Group conference call
March 2, 2007

*Attendees*
Lynn McRae, Stanford U. (chair)
Dave Donnelly, Stanford U.
Kathryn Huxtable, U. Kansas
Joy Veronneau, Cornell
U. Gary Brown, Bristol U.
Tom Barton, U. Chicago
Brendan Bellina, USC
Steve Olshansky, Internet2
Jessica Bibbee, Internet2 (scribe)

New *Action Items*
[AI] {Tom} volunteered a role in vetting the nearing Signet v1.2 release with Grouper v1.1 to have a common JVM.
[AI] {Kathryn} will send code and links to {Dave} regarding HQL join queries, and they will speak offline with {Blair} about Hibernate performance.
[AI] {Dave} will share a link with the Group for the UML tool, JUDE.

Carry Over *Action Items*
[AI] Dave will post documentation in I2MI-Commons (CVS), which outlines all the dependent jar files, for use by anyone checking files in or out. (19-Jan-07)
[AI] {Dave} will schedule a call with {Blair} to talk offline about coordinating standard procedures for checking files into I2MI-Common. (19-Jan-07)
[AI] {Lynn} volunteered to relocate items to the I2MI-Common, such as loading tools, etc. (9-Sep-06)
[AI] {Dave} will update the requirements text to reflect the upgrade to Java 1.5. (18-Aug-06)
[AI] {Tom} will email the list with potential contacts at Macquarie University. (18-Aug-06)
[AI] {Bob} will send .htaccess local syntax to the group via the list. (5-Aug-05)

*Agenda*
1.  Signet 1.2 Release Candidate 1 (CVS tag signet_1_2_rc01)      
a. code is ready      
b. unit tests need updating      
c. Some DDL work remaining      
d. documentation work (see #4)

2. Brief description of major/significant changes since Signet v1.0.3    
 a. Signet DB      
b. Hibernate changes

3. Proposed supporting documentation for the Wiki      
a. Release preparation; archiving strategies  (Jessica)      
b. Developer documentation (Dave)          
- High-level UML diagrams          
- Developer notes: how-to, what's-where          
- Signet API JavaDocs

4. Other release preparation work      
a. Building internal release    
 b. Building signet-demo      
c. Building QuickStart package

*Discussion* {Kathryn, Nate, and Tom} have expressed interest in using Signet/Grouper in a single application mode; {Dave} is leaning towards a more prominent role for I2MI-Common acting as a common project, where Signet/Grouper would take on more of a plug-in role.

{Dave} discussed the tagging conventions within CVS, where Signet/Grouper have their own required versions of common jar files in I2MI-Common. Signet would create CVS tags that are project specific, so you can be confident that you are downloading the right set. Signet will maintain proper jar files, which are also in I2MI common. {Dave} has tags for the last year of his work on Signet.

{Tom} suggested putting a table in the I2MI-Common wiki listing the tags and what they refer to.

{Dave} plans to post the work he has already started for others to view. [AI] {Tom} volunteered a role in vetting the nearing Signet v1.2 release with Grouper v1.1 to have a common JVM. {Dave} plans to participate more actively in the Grouper WG conference calls in order to understand how Signet can be better coordinated with Grouper. He anticipates that high-level use cases and requirements will drive this work.

{Dave} said the code for Signet v1.2 Release Candidate 1 is ready and available in CVS. He has run unit tests to ensure they compile, but he expects a need to rewrite the tests due to the architecture change. While the Postgres file has been kept current, they continue to work on bringing the other DDL files up to speed.

{Dave} has advanced Signet to now use Hibernate v3.2. {Lynn} mentioned that an improvement of Hibernate v3.2 is that it allows local sequences to work, as opposed to having a dependency on the Hibernate sequence. Using Hibernate’s ability to cache database connections, {Dave} has made it such that every transaction through Hibernate is a new session. He also turned off lazy fetching. [AI] {Kathryn} will send code and links to {Dave} regarding HQL join queries, and they will speak offline with {Blair} about Hibernate performance.

Other significant changes include a simplification to using only Signet Subject Attribute and Signet Subject tables, eliminating the need for a third table. Unit testing should identify any issues with this method.

Currently, there is no set release date for Signet v1.2, as there is work in addition to the internal release yet to be done. {Lynn and Dave} will be working on building the Signet-demo site, as well as a QuickStart package, separate from the main distribution.

In addition to updating code, {Dave and Jessica} are working on updating the documentation in the Signet wiki. Feedback is welcome and encouraged, as to whether it is not technical enough or overly so. {Dave} is working on the high-level UML diagrams, developer notes, and the Signet API JavaDocs.

{Jessica} explained how the documentation will be updated and also archived as each new release is born. A snapshot of the wiki will offer a PDF view of the compiled wiki pages prior to being updated for the new release. Each of these pages will continue to be accessible in the older version of a current page, as versioned by Confluence. {Jessica} will look into using an external tool, such as Web Zipper, to capture the wiki pages, as the PDF version provided by Confluence has some drawbacks.

The next Signet Working Group call will be on Friday, March 16, 2007 at 11am EST.