Sugar on a Stick/Activity Criteria

This is a draft discussion. It does not reflect policy (yet) - it is our attempt to define a clear policy for inclusion for the 4th release of SoaS (October 2010, as per the Fedora Spin release cycle).

Introduction

This page is for gathering requirements for Activity inclusion on the default Sugar on a Stick image. These are the criteria we will be using to begin discussion on Activity inclusion in v.4.0, due for release at the end of October 2010.

Proposed requirements

Be installable via a package in the Fedora repositories

Rationale: Since SoaS is a Fedora Spin, everything that ships on the default image must be a package in Fedora. This is an upstream requirement.

Test: The version desired for inclusion should be in the Fedora repository for the current Fedora version under development (in this case, F14).

Instructions: See https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/PackageMaintainers for more information on how to make a package (or get a package made) in Fedora. We may want to clean this up or make a Sugar-specific guide to packaging Activities in particular, or gather a team of volunteers who offer to do the packaging for Activity maintainers.

Be hosted on ASLO

Rationale: http://activities.sugarlabs.org is the Sugar Labs community's primary online mechanism for updating and installing Activities.

Test: Go to http://activities.sugarlabs.org and search for the Activity name. You should:

• be able to find the Activity
• be able to see that the Activity is properly categorized in one or more categories
• be able to see that the Activity's metadata (version number, "works with", etc.) is up to date
• be able to read an accurate and up to date summary of the Activity on its ASLO page
• be able to successfully download and install the Activity from ASLO's web interface

Instructions: I can't find clear step-by-step instructions on how to get one's Activity into ASLO - can anyone else help find (or create) them?

Be translated in Pootle

Rationale: In order to support the usage of SoaS (and SoaS remixes) by students from around the world, it is important that Activities be translateable and set up for easy localization. Pootle is the system Sugar Labs uses for localization.

Test: I am not sure what a good set of minimal "you are translateable" criteria would be. Suggestions?

Instructions: I can't find clear step-by-step instructions on how to get one's Activity into Pootle - can anyone else help find (or create) them?

Have a usage frontpage

Rationale: Users (particularly teachers) should be able to find a quick getting-started guide on usage that will let them evaluate whether they want to use an Activity for their classroom or not. They should be able to get a sense of what they can do with an Activity without having to spend an hour or two (per Activity!) exploring it in-depth - this page will provide what they need to decide whether they do want to spend an hour or two experimenting to figure out how they specifically want to use it with their class.

Test: The ASLO page for an Activity should include a link called "instructions for users" (note: this is fairly arbitrary and we may want to standardize on a better title/format) that leads to a tutorial on how to start and run the Activity in question. This can be anything from a page on the Sugar Labs wiki with screenshots all the way up to a flossmanuals book on just that Activity.

Suggested things for inclusion:

• what the Activity does
• intended audience (what assumptions does the design make? does it assume you can read, add, etc?)
• how to install it (can link to generic Activity instructions)
• how to start it (can link to generic Activity instructions)
• how to uninstall it (can link to generic Activity instructions)
• how to stop it (can link to generic Activity instructions)
• an explanation of the interface (what do the different buttons, etc. do?)
• how to begin exploring it (this can take several forms: a walkthrough of a few basic tasks, some hints on exercises/things-to-try, a link to galleries of existing work and classroom stories of that Activity's usage, etc.)

Instructions: We need to write instructions and gather more examples for this. Right now the best examples are the flossmanuals books on various Activities, but to expect every Activity to do a book seems like too much - we need examples of a good minimum bar, which is likely to be a well-made wiki page.

Have a development frontpage

Rationale: If an Activity is included on SoaS, it will be used by many people; in order to hold to the Sugar Labs principle of hackability (particularly by children), we need a good resource to get new hackers started.

Test: The ASLO page for an Activity should include a link called "get started with development" (note: this is fairly arbitrary and we may want to standardize on a better title/format) that leads to a place with instructions on how people can...

• view the source code
• download the source code
• modify the source code
• share their modifications
• view existing tickets/bugs/suggestions for things to work on

You may notice that the first 4 entries on this list map to the 4 essential software freedoms.

Instructions: We need instructions/examples of this. Please help!

Have a ticket queue

Rationale: Users need a place to report bugs.

Test: The ASLO page for an Activity should include a link called "report a bug / suggest an enhancement" (note: this is fairly arbitrary and we may want to standardize on a better title/format) that leads to the "new ticket" entry for that Activity's component (which may or may not be hosted on http://bugs.sugarlabs.org, especially in the case of an upstream project such as EToys). Since we may not be standardizing on bug trackers, each Activity ASLO page should also have a link to instructions on how to file a bug, perhaps something similar to this tutorial).

Instructions: The simplest way to do this is to get a Trac component for your Activity. We need instructions on how to do this (although I believe it is as simple as filing a Trac ticket requesting a Trac component). We may want to discuss ways that students and teachers can report bugs without having to create a Trac username (which is, for some, a significant barrier to entry - not that it's difficult to make an account, but that there may be reluctance to create an account, particularly for children).

Add your own idea here

Be sure to describe:

Rationale: Where does this requirement come from and why is it important?

Test: how we can make sure that the requirement is met - what sort of testing needs to be done to verify this?

Instructions: links to instructions on how Activity authors and maintainers can fulfill the requirement, if possible.