I’ve started poking around for ways I can help and came across this in the Jira ticketing system which seems to be asking for help with the calendar system (from October '21). The linked repo, however, seems to be filled with issues from '19 (for example, this one I’d love to help with) so it’s not clear if they are all valid or not. There is also a pull request for updating with “prod” which makes me think any contributions need to start from that PR (and it’s not clear what is needed for that to be merged in).
I know the Jira ticket does mention coordinating with @skyspook so he might have some of the answers.
So it sounds like that’s really my answer - come to the next infrastructure meeting (but I don’t see one on the calendar?) and volunteer there.
Yes for better SDLC practices, perhaps setting up a (decent, simple) CI/CD pipeline from GitHub (so it’s just as “easy” as it would be to update the code on the box) can help (it’s worked other places ).
Yes, I need to get one up there.
And that is the best way to get the most people together with the most knowledge of the most recent activity.
Justin has done the most work the most recently on the development side, so I would start from his PR (also gets a working Docker container so forward progress should be quicker/easier) and I would defer to his advice where this is concerned.
Indeed. But broken stuff needs fixing from time to time, and “ssh into the box and git’rdun” sometimes is employed because it gits’rdun. We would be delighted to have a true
but despite efforts by e.g. Dwight over the years, this is where we’re at.
Bottom line as far as my advice on this?
Start with a small effort.
Many volunteers have put in much effort over the years to revolutionize this process and contribute to DMS’ codebase. While I applaud that, the efforts often end up minimal realized product because once the original volunteer burns out, we’re left with a hulking husk that needs blown away to provide for the next break to get fixed. Meaningful contributions often are the little things. For example, it would better every user of the calendar’s day to have the FULL tag properly represent the existence (or not) of a seat to be filled. The fact that cancellations were marked as “fillable again” was revolutionary and very much appreciated by the end-users. This would feel similar to “Joe Plumber” even though it’s not terribly exciting.
So, are all those items in the backlog legit? Maybe. We can discuss, and the next Infra meeting is a great place to do that (though in deference to interested volunteers who aren’t able to be at those events, we are working toward a more free-time-inclusive methodology, and Jira is a part of that, so very exciting to see it’s being noticed!).
for better SDLC practices, perhaps setting up a (decent, simple) CI/CD pipeline from GitHub (so it’s just as “easy” as it would be to update the code on the box) can help (it’s worked other places 
).