Do you feel hot?

The time has come to arrange your summer getaways!

The 2nd openSUSE Collaboration Summer Camp has almost arrived this year in the familiar place (hotel Grand Platon in Katerini beach) at 20-22 July 2012!

Like last summer we will all meet together and we will combine our baths and beers by the pool with presentations and workshops (don’t forget to bring your laptop with you!)

The event is not only about openSUSE users!

The goal of the event is the collaboration between people who enjoy to contribute to FOSS and the acquaintance with the different ways they can do it.

We look forward to seeing all of you no matter the distro you use, to discuss, exchange opinions and of course we wait for your own presentations and/or workshops on the topics that interest you!
Like last summer there will be a variety of topics that are going to be presented, that will be interesting to everyone, even to the new and not so experienced users.
Everyone can actively contribute, attend the presentations and host their own workshops!

You have to know:
1.[CfP] Submission of presentations and workshops is open! We are looking forward for your ideas. Please fill the form , by clicking on the link below :

http://www.os-el.gr/content/submit-talk-collaboration-summer-camp-2012

2. Participation & room reservation : (It would be a good idea to do it as early as you can , so we can check the availability of the rooms with the hotel. Please send us an e-mail with your details at reservations@os-el.gr )

(In order to reserve a room you have to pay the 50 % of the total cost – You will receive more info about the bank deposit via e-mail.)

The cost for the rooms is (including breakfast & dinner):

* Single room – 35 euros/per night

* Double room – 45 euros/per night

* Triple room – 60 euros/per night

3. For more information & registration form:
– Send us an e-mail at : summercamp@os-el.gr
– Get into our IRC Channel #openSUSE-el in Freenode

4.Maps
Coordinates (Hotel):  40.249513,22.585809
Map (Directions from Thessaloniki) -> http://goo.gl/maps/HIGu
Map (Directions from Athens) -> http://goo.gl/maps/kxrN
Map (Directions from Railway station of Katerini to the Hotel)-> http://goo.gl/maps/TGkq

Because we love what we do, we are having fun contributing to FOSS and we hate doing it alone in our rooms during Summer time.

WE ARE LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING YOU ALL!

¿Tenéis calor?

Ahora es el momento de organizar las excursiones de verano!

La segunda openSUSE Collaboration Summer Camp, se acerca rápidamente y tendrá  lugar en el sitio ya conocido (Hotel Grand Platon – Playa de Katerini) , de 20 a 22 de julio del 2012.

Como el año pasado nos reunimos , disfrutamos de la playa , la piscina , la cerveza combinado con presentaciones y workshops (no te olvides de traer tu portatil!)

El evento no esta orientado solo para  usuarios de openSUSE!

El objetivo es la colaboración entre las personas que aprovechan las ventajas de la contribución en FLOSS (Free Software / Open Source).

Los esperamos a todos (no nos importa cual distribución utilizais), para discutir, intercambiar puntos de vista y por supuesto esperamos sus presentaciones o/y  workshops sobre los temas que les interesan!

Como el año pasado, habrá una variedad de temas,que serán presentados de forma que satisfaga a todos, incluso los nuevos y no tan experimentados usuarios.

Todo el mundo puede participar activamente, para asistir a las presentaciones y workshops! Además podéis presentar la presentación o/y workshop que os guste.

Teneís que saber:

1. [CfP]  La submision de las presentaciones y workshops ya  está abierto y esperamos sus sugerencias (solo en ingles)!
Todo lo que necesitas hacer es llenar el formulario: http://www.os-el.gr/content/submit-talk-collaboration-summer-camp-2012

2. Por formulario de inscripción y alojamiento (hacerlo en el tiempo indicado, para ayudarnos a mantener las habitaciones disponibles que serán necesarios en el hotel) enviar sus datos a reservations@os-el.gr

(Para reservar se requiere el 50% del coste – más información sobre el depósito, usted recibirá vía correo electrónico)

El costo de las habitaciones (incluye desayuno y cena):

* Habitación individual – 35 euros/noche
* Doble – 45 euros/noche
* Triple – 60 € /noche

3. Tenéis otras preguntas o dudas?

* Más información se puede encontrar en la página www.os-el.gr/summercamp/en/

* Para cualquier duda, póngase en contacto con nosotros a través del correo electrónico ya sea en(español,inglés): summercamp@os-el.gr

Porque amamos lo que hacemos y gastamos buena contribución a FS / OSS, incluso en verano.

4.Mapas

Coordenadas (Hotel):  40.249513,22.585809

Mapa (llegar desde Salònica) -> http://goo.gl/maps/HIGu

Mapa (llegar desde Aténas) -> http://goo.gl/maps/kxrN

Mapa (Mapa (llegar desde la estación del tren de Katerini hasta el Hotel)-> http://goo.gl/maps/TGkq

OS ESPERAMOS  A TODOS ALLÍ!

What did i do

This period of time was the continuity of the last one (ok i suffered from fever for 3 days). So the hacking is on and new features are already added. As i promised on my last post , i had to add some new useful features in the Event Calendar Plugin (while creating a new event). So i added some new fields which are useful for the ambassadors and also requested from users. These fields are :

Material ,Arrival,Departure ,Booth ,Travel,Talks [1] .

Adding these fields means that ambassadors can add more information while creating a new event. But what is going on when an ambassador or a new user wish to add extra info on these fields? In openSUSE Connect you can make comments as a general instance in a page , but by default you cannot make comments into fields. Μore detailed i made annotations for the ElggObject ($event) and then printed their value (annotation value is a comment for a example). [2] . In order to make the comments visible during “View Event” i created new fields (Material Comment,Arrival Comment, Departure Comment , Booth Comment , Travel Cmment , Talks Comment) where the annotation from the user are available [3].

Problems and Solutions

During this period i faced problems with annotation. Elgg only allows annotating ElggObject but not metadata (our fields are metadata of the object $event) . I made a lot of tries and tried many thoughts so as to reach my goal. Creating a new Object would be a disaster and with no sense. So annotating the $event and add the annotations as a new StdClass was the solution in the problem [4].

What i am going to do

This period of time i will add a map locator for the each event. Furthermore i will  find out if other fields are requested from users and try to add them to event calendar plugin.

What did i do

This period was a bit hard than the last one. I had a twist on my right hand so some days i was not available to carry on to fast with the project. Furthermore i participated in KDE Akademy Es and presented openSUSE Project to people there. So now let’s focus on my progress. The coding st started at 21 of May so until the “Community perod” took place. So i focused on the current documentation. My first step was to read “getting Started with Development” . Getting involved Development means to understand better the Elgg’s event system. Talking about Elgg’s event system means to focus on the “events” and “plugin hooks” that Elgg provides. Furthermore Elgg has a “Views” system. Views are creating a section of presentation code from input data , in other words view  is the templating system of Elgg.

Elgg’s documentation provides useful information about how the Elgg’s Engine works.

More detailed Elgg’s Data Engine is formed by the following parts :

a) Entities , where ElggEntity is the base class for the Elgg data model.

b) Metadata, where you  can add extra data on your entity

c) Annotations, which are pieces of data attached to your  entity that allow users to leave comments, ratings, or other relevant feedback.

d) Relationships

e) Access controls , where you define the accessibility of annotations, entities and metadata.

f) Database schema

Plugin structure

Event calendar plugins structure is simple. Let’s have a look inside :

Actions – Where the actions of event calndar are stored into files (add_to_group , add_to_calendar, killrequest , manage , remove_from_group , request_personal_calendar, toggle_personal_calendar)

Images – Where images used by the plugin are stored here

Languages – All the available languages for the plugin

Models – Where is stored the Elgg event model

Pages – Where review_request.php file is placed.

Views – Where the views are divided into two categories , “rss” and “default”.

In “default” folder appear the “widgets” , “objects” , “input” , “settings” folders and others as well. This view contains many folders and files , so as to be editable .

Many of us we use rss , so as to be up to date . openSUSE Connect and Event calendar. provides “rss” view which is also can be configured.

Furthermore there are some other files , which are very important. These files are “start.php” , “show_event.php” , “show_events.php”. I have to mention that the “model.php” file (from models  folder) is being called on those 3 files above.

My first hacks and feelings

Begin hacking is very interesting. In other words start writing source code and make the first “hacks” , is the first step for the contribution. First you plan the process and then you begin to implement your thoughts and your plan. Moreover “hacking” for an open source project means that all your “hacks” will interact  with the community. So my first hacks for Google Summer of Code are more than interesting for me.

So focusing more on the hacks , my first hack was to read the start.php file of the plugin and understand how it works. For that reason i add comments on how functions and the source code works.

Furthermore i followed all the changes shown on event_calendar_submenu_css.patch file.

Making hacks means that you have also fix the bugs on the source code. After creating a new event , and try to show it you see like this [1]. So you can see that the bullet point which calendar plugin adds to the navigation box  (“View all events”) miss the css layout. In order to solve it and be like this [2] , i had to search for the appropiate css file. After searching and making some test commits , the final commit which solves the problem is this one.

What i am going to do

This week i will focus more on searching which features can be added during creating a new event. Furthermore i will try to add a map locator for each event. This will make the events more attractive to the users.

My name is Athanasios-Ilias Rousinopoulos. I am an openSUSE Ambassador and an active member of openSUSE Community. This year i participate in Google Summer of Code with openSUSE .[0]. My project is called “Ambassador/Event plugin for openSUSE Connect”.

Introduce my project

As an openSUSE  Ambassador  [1] i participate in conferences , make presentations and promote openSUSE to the people. openSUSE Connect is the social network of openSUSE Project (based on Elgg ). In my opinion openSUSE Connect  it is more than a useful tool. Ambassadors , members of openSUSE community do use it in order to communicate , form groups , follow other people, create events ,create polls  etc. Although it is a useful tool , it does suffer from some deficiencies. As an ambassador i found using the wiki in order to manage the community events not a good idea at all. As mentioned before openSUSE Connect is based on Elgg. Elgg is an  open source social networking engine that provides a robust framework on which to build all kinds of social environments. [2]. Elgg provides well-organized documentation [3] for developers. Furthermore Bug tracker is also available [4] . Besides Elgg has its own API Reference [5] which developers can use it. Finally he goal of my project is to create a plugin (developed in Elgg) which allows the users planning of events in openSUSE Connect , instead of using the wiki pages so as to create an event. Using this plugin by the community can be more beneficial

Progress

Event #1 (23/04-07/05) [Community Bonding period begins]

What did i do

Until  now i did made my “Contact first steps” [6] which means i talked with my mentor , informed him about my plan. Furthermore i started using Trello as a project management tool. Focusing more on the project i read openSUSE connect’s main features and Installed it as well [7] , [8] , [9]. openSUSE Connect allows create and develop new widgets , plugins and new themes by using the Elgg platform. During installing openSUSE Connect i did face some problems , so i edited the documentation [10] in order to make the installation process easier and more successful. After the installation process i read Elgg’s Wiki Main page [11] , how Elgg’s Engine works , and made my firsts steps with  Elgg Plugin Development. [12] ,[13], [14]. Elgg’s offers some introduction tutorials so as to begin developing your plugin. In addition Elgg offers about 1500 plugins which you can download them and  install them as well. Finally i installed PHP plugin for Eclipse and started using it.

What i am going to do

This week i will focus more on Elgg’s Plugin Development and try to implement the first tutorials [15] . Furthermore i am going to focus on Elgg Plugin Development and read upon the current used event plugin.

Problems &  Solutions

After the installation process i wasn’t able to access Elgg due to an Error message. Also while configuring “System settings” i had to add a folder which is not placed in Connect’s installation folder. These problems are already solved and descibed more detailed here [16]

Conclusion

These are my first 14 days in the project. I feel very happy about participating in Google Summer of Code with openSUSE Project. In my opinion this project would be beneficial for members of openSUSE Community and Open Source community as well. Finally my reports about my progress will be posted in weekly basis and will be called “Event # “.

Questions

Who are you and what exactly you do for openSUSE and GNOME as well?

My name is Izabel Valverde. I’m Brazilian and work as a Development Coordi-
nator for a Brazilian IT company.
In openSUSE currently I’m part of the openSUSE Travel Support Program
as Finance Planning [1] . Since last year, I have been helping openSUSE Con-
ference [2]-committee on fund raising and sponsorship matters. Also I’m helping
to spread the word about openSUSE in Brazil attending local conferences. For
GNOME for the last 2-3 years my talks at conferences are related to GNOME
Women subjects.How to get more women involved in GNOME project, also how
the project works in simple terms.

How did you involved in openSUSE and GNOME?

Long ago I started with Mandrake and windowmaker. My father and brother
were the ones that brought Linux to me. My brother was (sometimes is!) my
personal support desk. Around 2000 he introduced me a very powerful tool
called Yast! Since then I felt smart enough to choose and use the Linux that
I wanted and I fell for SUSE!!! It was love at first sight! Back in 2003, I met
Timothy Ney. He was Executive Director at GNOME Foundation. During that
time Tim asked me to help him to organize a local GNOME Forum. I did
and after that that I joined the GNOME Foundation and still am a member.
The ”I Frum Gnome” happened in 2004 with just few people, now is a big
community. Today few people from the first Forum are still contributing to
GNOME , but to different Free Software Projects. The same happened to
me. In 2010, a friend called me to help to organize an openSUSE meeting in
Latin America Conference – Latinoware(3). Because of this organization I joined
openSUSE by IRC to understand the project and get to know people. During
Latinoware, Jos Poortvliet invited me to join openSUSE Marketing and since
then I’m supporting openSUSE in the best way I can.

Apart from these what else are you working on?

I’m studying about SCRUM and reviewing some PMI best practices. It’s very
well useful for my everyday job.

Can you tell us, which is the relationship between openSUSE and Gnome community?

In openSUSE, we are lucky to have some engineers and contributors who pro-
vide a very polished and stable GNOME release running on openSUSE. As a
community in Brazil our people are really great! Because of this, it is is easy
to have collaboration between projects. At conferences when they invite us to
talk about GNOME, we can also to present openSUSE and they welcome us.
The same happens in the opposite way I can talk about openSUSE and have
time to spread about GNOME in general. It is a amazing! In some conferences
we have the GNOME booth close to KDE booth and when I can choose I make
openSUSE in between! It is fun for all of us and we take care of each others
booth doesn’t matter the OS or desktop. We are such a rich community of
people!

Can you explain why use Gnome in openSUSE?

In the past when I was SLED user, it was a bit complicated cause the perfect
marriage was with KDE. A lot of work to update my Operation System. Now
since openSUSE releases with 4 desktop is pretty easy! I’m using GNOME for
so many years that I don’t no how or what to say about difficulties. GNOME is
pretty intuitive for end users and great for developers. You can find whatever
you need to work. What is not immediately or update Zypper can help you…
or for end users Yast! Nice and easy almost a ”click install”

Can you imagine the future of openSUSE and GNOME community as well?

GNOME is a very mature community. Very well organized and I can say today
is pretty easy to follow and understand how things happen. Many projects are
happening and many people are able to make big compromised that deliver
great results. Every year when I can go to Guadec(5) – the GNOME Users and
Developers’ European Conference – in the Foundation General Meeting we can
see how bigger and professional we have become. In openSUSE I love the way
it is. A mix of passionate and chaotic people with who look for results. Again
I love it! openSUSE is not a highly structured community, but we do have a
Board to help. We can easily reach our Board without a lots of bureaucracy.
Last year I attended openSUSE Conference in Nuremberg and the atmosphere
was fantastic! The only thing I can say is everyone in their was are amazing and I
don’t plan to leave. Of course some issues happen, fortunately – or unfortunately
- not technically related, but I’m involved in Foss for many years to know isn’t
always a paradise! But then you just need to sit, wait and issues tend to be
naturally solved… because people without the best intentions” leave or be cause
your group, team or board helped. Sometimes isn’t related to you but you, there
always a few bad apples… Nobody likes to have their project attacked. After all
isn’t it about to have lots of fun? I believe in the future of both communities.
I was a bit afraid about the future of GNOME two years ago, but now I can
see how strong GNOMEis. I believe GNOME learned not to be focused in just
one operationsystem or company. This means we are even more mature and
experienced enough to guarantee quality on what we build. openSUSE as OS is
amazing. Any project related to openSUSE is technically great. As community
we are growing quickly ”multi-culturally” and surely we are dealing pretty well
with these diverse ways of seeing things and thinking.

Thank you for the opportunity to present my GNOME and openSUSE history

References

(1) http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:TravelS upportP rogram
[Travel Committee]
”…The Travel Committee is responsible for gathering all the requests and ideas
from the community and working with them to decide what the most valuable
conferences and events are and deciding on who to support and how much...”
(2) http://conference.opensuse.org/
(3) http://www.latinoware.org/en
(4) http://guadec.org/