Preparing a PhpGedView Release

This article documents the process of making a new PhpGedView release. Currently John Finlay and Greg Roach are responsible for preparing new PhpGedView releases.

Preparatory Tasks

1. At least one week before the release date, freeze the language files.
   1. Post to the developers forum asking that no more changes be made to language variables before the release date.
   2. Post to the translators forum asking translators to submit any pending changes before the release date.

Packaging the Files

1. Identify the trunk/branch of phpGedView that you intend to release.
2. Ensure the version number is correct in session.php (PGV_VERSION and PGV_VERSION_RELEASE).
3. Ensure the version number is correct in build.xml (pgv.version).
4. If any new modules have been added since the last release, you will need to add definitions for these in build.xml.
5. If the database schema has changed (i.e. changes to includes/db_schema/*.php), then update the sqlite database file used by the democd application.
6. Create a tag for the release in the tags directory of the SVN repository.
7. Check out a working-copy of both the tagged directory and the distribution directory from the repository.
8. If these two working copies are not in the same parent directory, update the "dist.dir" value in build.xml to the actual location of the distribution directory.
9. Download the Apache Ant build tool. To configure it, simply define the environment variable ANT_HOME as the location of the Ant root directory.
10. Run Ant from the phpGedView directory using the appropriate command line for your operating system.
    1. "%ANT_HOME%\bin\ant"
    2. $ANT_HOME/bin/ant
11. Ant takes approximately 5 minutes to run, and will generate all the required zip archives in the distribution directory.
    1. PhpGedView-all-Version
    2. PhpGedView-basic-Version
    3. PGV-Demo-Version
    4. PGV-Languages-Version
    5. PGV-Places-Version
    6. PGV-Themes-Version
    7. PGV-Modules-All-Version
    8. PGV-Module-XXX-Version (for each module XXX)

Release the Files on SourceForge

Refer to the SourceForge release documentation for information on how to create a release on SourceForge

1. Upload the files using the Web Upload Page
2. Set the basic package to be the default by clicking on it, and clicking the "select all platforms" option

Update the Bugs Tracker on SourceForge

1. The bugs tracker "group" is used to record the PhpGedView version. Rename the latest version from, say "4.2.3 (svn)" to "4.2.3" and create "4.2.4 (svn)". Thus all outstanding bugs in the current SVN will be listed under the release.

Update the PhpGedView Website

1. Update the PhpGedView.net website. The simplest way is to directly edit the website files using SSH. Refer to the sourceforge documentation for information on how to access the website files.

Announce the release

It is usually a good idea to wait a day or two just in case there is something wrong with the package.

1. Send out the release announcement to:
   1. the mailing lists
   2. the sourceforge users monitoring the release package
   3. Post a message in one of the sourceforge forums
   4. Add a News item on the SourceForge project page

PGVWiki Tasks

After a new release is made, changes need to be made to some PGVWiki articles. Bug fix releases (e.g. 4.2.x) require only a few changes to be made to existing templates and articles, whereas, minor releases (e.g. 4.x) and major releases (e.g. a version bump from 4.x to 5.x) will require a little more work.

For Bug Fix Releases

1. Simply update Template:Latest version 4.2.x to reflect the release date and version for the new release.

For Minor Releases

1. Copy the contents of Template:Latest version 4.2.x to the equivalent page for the new release e.g. Template:Latest version 4.2.x and update the release date and version of the new release.
2. Update Template:Latest stable series to indicate the latest stable series has incremented.
3. Update Template:Latest development to indicate the version number of the new development branch.
4. Update all references/links on this page from 4.2.x to 4.3.x

For All Releases

1. Update file sizes of the new downloads on the Download v4.2.x and update any references/links required for the new release (in particular the patch download, which patches from the previous version to the current version).
2. Ensure the following article exists (4.2.4) with a redirect to PhpGedView v4.2.4
3. Simply copy the contents of PhpGedView v4.1.3 (or similar) to PhpGedView v4.2.4, changing any contents as needed.
4. Update the News section on the main page to show details of the new release.
5. Ensure the date pages for the new release (13 January, 2011) exist and appropriate content is added using information from a previous release as a template e.g. 16 November and 2007

Wikipedia Tasks

The following Wikipedia articles contain information about PhpGedView and thus need to be checked and updated after a release is made:

• The PhpGedView article
• The Comparison of genealogy software article