Jenkins Google Summer of Code Office Hours, 25 Nov 2020

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From YouTube: Jenkins GSoC office hours, Nov 25, 2020

Description

Recording of the office hours we had on Nov 25. The session was solely focused on Q&A with the students who joined the call. Topics: Getting started with contributions, exploring previous projects, when to prepare proposals, etc. Meeting notes: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1H0gJt1zdr37YDpuSLXSeFqYco_a_CIrAuZ1f0Oyl4XE/edit

A

Okay, hello: uh today we have a short ghoul somewhere, of course office house. uh There are uh two contributors on the call, and since we do not have uh so many people, we will just go through connie and the nilma had a question about how many participants we accepted yourself right.

A

Okay, so yeah to answer this question: uh we can just go to the.

A

Okay, so here you can find history of our gsoc participation, so you can see that in two previous years we had seven student projects how this number is formed. uh The number is formed on the couple based on the capacity of orcad means and mentors and on the applications in jenkins gsoc.

A

We intend to have not so many projects. We mostly focus on finding high quality applications and formal, strong mentor teams. Last year we had a strong requirement that we have at least three mentors for each project and yeah it commonly limits the number of projects we are going to accept.

A

uh So, for example, here, if you take and go to regis online and project ideas, you can see that we had quite a long list and actually we've got quite a lot of good applications uh for this project, but uh yeah we were unable to form uh mentor teams for all applications and uh we just requested seven slots uh that year and we got seven projects from google. So that's why we had uh seven projects.

A

There is no particular hard number we set, so we will be working with potential mentors with organs and based on that, after the applications, we will apply for projects number, but the reasonable expectation that we will have a relatively low number of projects. So there are organizations which have 50 projects, mostly foundations.

A

In the case of the jenkins project. We are looking approximately the same numbers in previous years, maybe a bit less, maybe a bit higher, depending on how many mentors and project ideas we get.

A

Does it answer your question.

B

Yeah. Thank you, sir another one is uh I'm a beginner, I'm a like. I haven't participated uh to gsoc before so. um Can we contribute to the past uh past projects of yours.

C

B

You uh you have uh mentioned three or four projects to be uh continued uh in next yeah in next year, and should we contribute to them or can we contribute the past project of yours.

A

um Yes, so basically, you can contribute anyway within the jenkins ecosystem. So when you do contributions, there are multiple objectives. You may have, firstly, studying the subject area. So jenkins is a huge project. It includes multiple technologies, multiple components, and if you can see the particular project, then the best opportunity is to focus on something with along the lines of your project idea or along the lines of your personal interests. So, for example, yeah this is just a sketch. We will have more project ideas. So now we have three.

A

But for example, uh you want to work on automatic specification generator. You go here and yeah. There is a description which needs uh update, but here you can find some references to existing components to newcomer friendly tickets. You can start exploring this area, for example, take something which is referenced, for example, ticket or take a look at similar implementations. Like I mean, I'm not sure why skeleton generator is here, but, for example, so swaggy, jenkins, etc.

A

You can just take a look at these implementations, maybe contribute there or maybe take a smaller error within this project and try doing that so, for example, uh yeah you can have automatic specification generator or you could start from doing specifications for particular parts of jenkins rest api, and it would still help you to understand the subject area and it will help you to make first contributions in the project because, for example, yeah there is a lot of plugins which would benefit from my rest api specification, even if it's generate manually or you could already play with some automatic annotation processing.

A

So yeah. Basically, that's the idea. You take an interesting career and just look at smaller contributions.

B

Okay, thank you.

A

Yeah, so regarding previous projects and project ids, you can definitely take a look at this areas because all projects in all these projects there are few future work sections, so you can just go, and even if it's not listed right on the project page, you can take a look at the presentations.

A

All students make presentations after phase 3 and you can find a list of tasks to be completed or, for example, here there is just a roadmap link which references a few tickets. So again, it's something you could to take a look at, because if we had a project last year, continuation of this project is definitely a potential project idea, even if it's not on the list.

A

At the moment, if you have a student who is asking about this particular project id, we could contact past mentors or other contributors and see whether we could have a project which continues this idea. It's definitely a good opportunity. If you want to explore us projects.

B

Yeah and also uh in 2021, there are like three or four new projects over there. uh Are you going to increase the number of projects and those three or four projects are to be continued.

A

um Do you mean this project.

B

A

Yeah, so these are basically uh projects I took uh from the previous year, which didn't have a student working on them, and since I am as potential mentor interested in this project, I put them as draft project ideas. For this year we still haven't announced gsoc 2021 in wider developer community.

A

So basically, these project ideas do not represent a final list at all, usually in september, which reach out to stakeholders to active contributors, to passion strategy participants to create a project ideas list.

A

We will actually need it for our project application in january, but we try to build a list in december, so this list will definitely grow and there will be more potential mentors and more project idiots.

B

Okay, thank you.

A

Yeah and again, these project ideas are just project ideas. If you have your own project idea, it's totally fine to discuss it and explore it, though, in this case it's good to reach out to the coming unity earlier, so that we could look for potential methods for your project idea.

B

uh If you have a new project idea, it's like a solution for our own problem. Is it? um Is it okay to? uh Is it okay? To present you.

A

Yeah, that's right.

B

Like it is not a uh public problem or a common club problem, or it is not uh relevant with the jenkins technology or like that, I mean it is a solution for our own problem and is it okay uh to present as a new project idea.

A

Okay, so let's break it down uh jenkins. Google summary of code is about jenkins, so what it means that we are looking for projects which are somehow related to jenkins ecosystem and, for example, in 2020. We also participated together with jenkins sex, so we were also looking for project ideas which were very relevant to jenkins sex. What does mean relevant if you have a problem, so if you're, a junkies user, if you want to address it, it might be available to the rest of the community and might be a totally relevant project idea.

A

If you have such idea in mind, my recommendation would be to reach out to the community in the mailing list or in the guitar chat and to discuss it so that we could see whether we could have this project idea.

A

So, in order for this idea to happen, uh the multiple additional requirements which need to be made, firstly, they need to meet the gsoc time frame. So this idea should be around 12 weeks of coding or 10 weeks of coding this year, and also we should find mentors for this project idea even further interested mentors. If the ide is available to the community and if it fits the time frame, then it can become a gsoc project.

B

Okay, thank you.

A

Okay, so do you have any specific idea in mind.

B

Still I don't have, I don't have mean uh I have a. I had a little idea. That means in my university in our software project we built in software and uh I need to. uh I need to uh actually uh improve it. Entry like it develop it to uh ford.

B

So, uh as you said, it is better to uh put my idea on the data chat right.

A

B

If I had something to something new.

A

Yes, it would be good because you can get quick feedback, but it could fit gsoconaut.

B

Okay, thank you. Yeah.

A

So there is a lot of generic problems which could definitely hit jsoc. There might be some discovery topics, so, for example, this year we had a project focused on machine learning,.

B

A

There was a group mentors which was interested in this topic and they were users who were interested in this topic. So, although there was no existing plugin for this particular use case, it was still available to the community and it was considered as a great gsoft project idea, because it would allow jinx system to expand there or you just may have, um for example, a specific tool chain.

A

Let's say you develop something for embedded automotive and you have particular tools you want to integrate with jenkins. It could be also a project idea, and actually it was there was such project idea case in 2020 uh integration for eda tools, um yeah, for example, uh plugins for electronic design, automation. So again, somebody who's interested in this area could come and propose a project id of particular tools and we would find mentors who would be interested and then this project idea would happen.

A

So it's not a problem. If the project idea limit addresses a particular subset of the jenkins community of users, but yeah this subset shouldn't be limited to just you. If it's a wider community value, then it's potentially a good project idea.

B

Okay, thank you. uh The problem I had is uh uh like uh if the beginners, if the beginners have not much knowledge about the technologies, the uh that project used uh like uh docker, I have not much uh not much uh knowledge or not docker.

B

uh If our project proposal is selected, uh the gen um is jenkins, ready to uh mentor us or uh give us a work. Give us a workshop like to improve our knowledge or should.

A

B

Selfless self learn about that technologies.

A

Okay, so how we commonly do that, so when you apply for a project, it's definitely not a requirement that you have deep knowledge of that. Firstly, because your student, you expect to study during this project. Secondly, because there is a lot of various specific topics which still need to be discovered. So, for example, uh jenkins development changes test tools. You will still need to study that and and when you apply, we definitely do not require you to have a lot of expertise on that.

A

Then, if the project gets accepted, there is community bonding phase and during community monument phase we organize additional trainings for students. So how we do that using usually just ask students what additional information they need work with their mentors as well, then we schedule some training sessions, usually for a wider junkies community or just for particular students, so that we can have these sessions and we could record them and our expectation that by the time the coding begins you get at least the basic information for technologies.

A

You would be using so from day one of the coding phase. You should be able to actually work on the project and yeah, of course, study in parallel, because there will be still things to study and discover, but for basic knowledge. We definitely try to provide it in advance.

B

A

A

Do you have any other questions.

B

uh Of uh how should we prepare proposal for this like uh if there is a timeline right.

B

um Are you uh uh I come media company uh about the proposal preparing proposals about uh in the jitter.

A

Okay, so, firstly, the jenkins project is not a company. It's a community; it consists of multiple company contributors and individual contributors yeah. Our main endpoint for gsoc is indeed this chart, and if you have any questions about your application, you can ask there, moreover, particular project ids, as you may have seen, the link to other charts, because there are special interest groups and other supporting musicians within the jenkins community, for example external fingerprint storage.

A

If you go there in connect, you can find the channels, and you can see that they point actually to cloud native special interest group. So, in addition to gsoc channel, you can use the channels defined here to get more information and to get in contact with contributors who are interested in this domain regarding time frame.

A

So this is the official time frame for google summer of code.

A

So here you can see that the application period begins on march 29 and the it ends on april 13th. So what it means that between these dates, you will need to submit a final proposal through the google summer of code website.

A

It doesn't prevent you from exploring the project in advance so and for example, here you can see that list of our subject. Organizations will be discussed on march 9th but effectively. We already have jso2721 running and you can start discussing your proposal.

A

Even now. You can discuss your ideas even now and if you're ready to start working on a project proposal draft again, you can start at any moment so you're not limited by a much nice deadline. You can start doing it later. You just need to keep in mind that not all contributors are available uh on a 24 7 basis, so some contributors take vacations. Some contributors are busy with their projects at work or other responsibilities, but in principle nothing blocks you from exploring projects and submitting proposals. Even now.

B

Yeah. Thank you one last question. uh Actually I heard about jenkins from senior student of our unicity. uh Can you please uh give me some more information about jenkins.

A

Okay, so yeah for jenkins in general, you can just go to the junkies. Are your website. So jenkins is a generic automation server.

A

It can be used for multiple purposes, it's mostly known as a continuous integration and continuous delivery tool. So if you deliver develop software or hardware or any other project, you can, for example, automated testing and verification of your project, or you can automate publishing of your project to marketplaces whatever but yeah. These are just use. Cases of watch agencies jenkins, can support various automation flows.

A

So, in the nutshell, it's basically just a java web application with distributed build system, and this java application is extensible. So you there are more than 700 plugins, integrating with different tools supporting different use cases, and it helps you to build your automation pipelines with this system.

B

Okay, thank you so much.

A

Okay, so if you want to explore more, you can just go through the website. For example, there is some documentation, including guided tour. So if you just started with jenkins, you can just go through this guide and create your first job using jenkins, install jenkins on your system and yeah just get introduced to the tweet.

B

Yeah all right.

A

So yeah again I'm putting links to the meeting.

A

A

So yeah this information uh could be a good starting point for you and then you can go through additional tutorials if you want to try something advanced and yeah some tutorials point to particular plugins, which your game might want to explore for your use cases. So just start from our documentation.

A

Try out something and if you have feedback, do not hesitate to submit it. So, for example, if you experience a problem in the documentation, there is reporter problem button which actually just uh goes to our github issues tracker and submit this feedback, because it will be also a valuable contribution to the community. Getting your feedback from us from somebody who just starts with teaching kids.

B

A

A

Okay, so any other questions.

B

um Now a question from me gary seems to be on one another participant.

C

A

Do you have any questions.

C

I'm from university, uh this is my first time. This was time.

C

C

I require some details past weeks.

A

Sorry, I still didn't get the question.

A

If you could write it in the chat, it's fine, I will answer from there.

C

Can I know technologies what are using in your company.

A

Oh yeah, I'll post this link.

A

So yeah, you can just put put a question here: I'll put it to the zoom.

A

A

A

A

A

A

That's a very really didn't get the.

A

A

A

Do you want to type a question somewhere or just try again asking.

C

I can't find the place that you are typing.

A

Just put it anyway, either in this door coin chat where I sent the link, or maybe just in the guitar chat. If you prefer, I will be able to answer from there as well.

A

A

uh What are the most used technologies in uh jenkins, right.

A

Okay, so jenkins itself, it's mostly written in java, I mean as a core engine. So if you go to jenkins uh jenkins call, you can see breakdown by language and technology, so you can see that java is 85 and javascript is three percent. Actually it's not exactly true, because we also depend on a lot of external libraries etc.

A

So if you talk about uh the jenkins core and the majority of the plugins, it's a java for a back end java or javascript for front-end. There is also some groovy code here and there, but either these are the core technologies within the junkies. There.

C

Are also other components.

A

So, for example, our website uses ruby engine.

A

A

A lot of additional information, we also have companies which are written, for example, in goa, so let's say jenkins, kubernetes operator, it's written in goal and there are many other languages. So, for example, if you want you can write uh jenkins plugins in kotlin, there was also support for python and ruby. We duplicated.

A

But still, if you go across the jenkins ecosystem, you can find many different languages because, again, even on the main repository, we have more than 2000 projects, mostly.

B

A

But there are development tools, there are other components also we have infrastructure which is heavily about kubernetes at the moment, and there is also a lot of different technologies and tools being used. There.

A

Is there any particular technology you're interested in.

C

C

A

So you said you're looking for npm. Is it right or designed misunderstood.

C

A

A

A

I just not 100 sure so in in pms, basically javascript system right.

C

A

Okay, so yeah we use npm a lot. uh For example, yeah all our packaging, including uh jenkins components, are packaged with npm and web pack. At the moment. uh Also, there is, uh for example, plugin site which is again uh packaged by npm. It uses uh gatsby under the hood, but the engine itself is npm one.

A

So again you can just take it and yeah. It's npm. React gets with a lot of front-end technologies being used.

A

And there are other companies like that, so basically we try to build a new front-end and new services using javascript stacks.

C

B

B

Excuse me, I have a one more question. I.

A

B

Use that can you suggest me a project for for a beginner uh like uh I can do the my best uh with least skills.

A

uh Which skills.

B

A

You're looking for a project for beginner, so by using your existing skills or just to get started, okay, so projects for beginners, you may have seen this page jenkins sayo participate, so this page provides uh links for contributors interested in particular topics. So, for example, if you want to write some code and your google summer of code is about code here, you can find some overall introduction and links to different guidelines and steps, and also there is a section for newcomers.

A

uh So here there is a beginner guide to contribute. Some presentations also outreach programs, we organized, and there are newcomer friendly issues which you could uh start looking at. For example, if you query github, you can see that there is around 50 issues at the moment in different components, so you can see that some issues are related to documentation.

A

Some wishes actually related to the code, though there is a lot of documentation issues at the moment in the query, because yeah we need to update the query so that it excludes the documentation label uh but yeah. You can uh still find some coding tasks here.

A

Also, for example, there is jenkins jiren, and here again you can find, I guess, a few hundreds of issues which have been marked by maintainers as newcomer friendly. So what it means that you as a first timer contributor, can get started with them quickly, because there is clear description of what needs to be done and sometimes links to how to do that.

A

Okay, so just to check out these guidelines, there is some starting confirmation and the same for project ideas in uh on the project, ideas page. We also have some links to newcomer friendly issues so, for example, here, for example, junk it's a remote and monitoring and still uses google layout.

A

But here you can find newcomer friendly issues. So, if you're interested in this project, you can just click this link and let's see what we see here so here we see some issues. The filter needs to be been updated.

A

So, let's see we actually need to add more issues for those who are interested in this project, but you can still find some links in the project.

A

A

That's probably enough information for.

B

You yeah, thank you. uh Can you put the link to the cheater chat.

A

A

A

A

So I will just put it into the entire document.

C

B

Okay, thank you so much.

A

Thank you tom, so you can start from exploring these links and again, if you don't see any issues which would be interesting to you, you can just ask because maintainers usually have some ideas about what could be done and we do not always create issues for that, because even creating an issue creates time and sometimes it just it's waiting for a good opportunity.

A

A

So anything else for today, any questions you would like to ask.

B

uh That's all for me for now.

A

Okay, anything from you.

C

I am also no more questions.

A

Okay, then thanks a lot for your time and thanks a lot for your questions. So if you have any follow-ups, let's discuss that in the mailing list and yeah, I will publish the reporting tomorrow. So if you want to revise the discussion, you can you'll be able to see this recording.

A

Thank you, okay, so that's all and yeah thank.

B

A

We will do the next meeting next week, so if you have more questions, you can also join this meeting.

C

Okay, thank you very much. Okay,.

B

Thank you so much.

A