Community call meeting notes

Community Organising
1

2025-07-24

Paricipants: Leo, Flo, Steffen

Agenda

  • Roadmap
    • Next release when Ruby/Rails upgrade and remaining article unit issues are done
    • Then work on new frontend
    • Funded project prolongued until May 2026
  • Legal implication of group order invoices (#1200)
    • robwa is working on a feature similar to Feature/tw automatic group order invoice generation by Viehlieb · Pull Request #907 · foodcoops/foodsoft · GitHub
    • Some foodcoops don’t want to act as a trader/ retailer for legal reasons - therefore they could not create invoices for their members
    • “receipt” vs “invoice”?
    • invoice creation should be optional
    • What about additional (nation-specific) information like “Kleintunernehmerregelung”?
      • Possible solution: configurable text field to add this information
    • deviating billing address for specific group orders?
    • Steffen will talk with robwa about implementing this as a plugin
  • Better tests for frontend?
  • Next meeting: 21.08.2025, 17:00 CEST

2025-06-26

Paricipants: Leo, Flip, Steffen

Agenda

  • Discussion about technology of upcoming frontend
    • thx for the feedback
    • there is a tendency to option c) build a new frontend besides the old one. C1 or C2 both would be possible
    • option b) would be to much effort
    • option d) micro-frontends, could replace plugin - deface mechanism
      • frontend has some sort of api for plugins to put content into a shadow-dom
      • could be framework-agnostic
    • whatabout pwa / local-first
      • requires datasynchronisation
      • is it worth the effort?
      • is a js-framework slower than a js native on slow-conenctions?
        • the difference should be minimal
        • browser would cache this
      • ionic is framework for mobile and web
    • next step: planning phase
      • scope of the new frontend, feedback welcome
      • where is the biggest pain atm.
      • what userflows should be in the new ui
        • order flow
        • stock article
          • might require some more changes on the backend
          • a refactoring might make sense
          • leos coop uses a paper list instead because its so broken
            • leo has a idea on how it could look like
  • How to handle open and upcoming review requests
    *
  • Discussion Maintenance of Plugins
    • Proposal:
      • For each Non-Default Plugins is a contact person in Readme.md listed
      • Default plugins should be maintained by the core-developer team
    • No objections
  • Discussion on Decision Making
    • when propsocals are decided, the discussion will be closed
    • medium-sized: at least 1 upvote
    • tag gh-discussions with #decision
  • Next Meeting 24.07 17:00
  • Copy this agenda to the forum to persist it

2025-05-22

Participants:

Agenda

  • Support review processes
  • Review MR for Ruby/Rails update
  • Proceed with Frontend update
    • Uni:code is about to start with the frontend update
    • The current frontend is very complex (a lot of views, complicated tables,…)
    • They will focus on the most used features
    • Idea is to create some personas to understand which views the need most
    • Based on this personas they will start to work on the frontend
    • Feedback to the person will be welcomed

2025-04-03

leo, steffen

Agenda

  • Mirror the git repository on openCode
    • the funding provider asks to publish the Foodsoft code at opencode.de
    • it requires a publiccode.yml to be present in the repository, this file contains structured information about the Foodsoft project
  • status of funded developement
    • upgrade to ruby 3 in progress (Henning)
  • staging deployment
    • It would be nice to have a staging deployment with the latest changes
    • maybe uni:code can provide something

2025-03-06

flo, flip, steffen, leo, ray

Agenda

  • Starting points on a testing workflow
  • Release v4.9.1
    • small release with fixes before the big merge
    • @steffen takes care of it
  • There is a new Board “Foodsoft 2025” that has all the issues that are part of the funded development work
  • finally merge #1073 (article unit fork)
    • Proposal: Create new branch (Release 5.0), merge into that branch, make it default branch
    • This way we can still release bug fixes for 4.9
    • we could also make it master and have 4.9 bugfixes in a branch
      • add a warning note
  • fix sqlite
    • shall we keep support?
    • requires just 2 (small) fixes in the new migrations
  • fix database inconsitency
    • adding foreignkey constraints could help
    • could result in problems for existing foodcoops database
    • → might be good for the next release
  • what needs to be done before a release?
    • communicate changes
    • documentation feature screenshots
    • should be done after agreeing on terminology
  • → Let’s merge it in main
    • Prioritise tickets in roadmap
    • assign tickets to Milestone
  • User documentation: Do we have an official documentation?

2025-02-06

ray, leo, henning, steffen, flo, flip

intros

ray:

  • converting from adams to upstream, like to help push things also
  • ruby experience, new to rails
  • another person might join in the next few months
  • likes to pick up little things like testing

flip (yksflip):

  • lübeck
  • atm not so active, quite busy with daywork atm.

steffen: rostock, rokoli, uni:code, got funding for foodsoft development, likes to speak about working together

henning:

  • rails developer uni:code
  • knows a little bit of the structure already
  • more from the technical point of view
  • experience in bbb rails

leo:

  • graz, IG foodcoops
  • article unit fork
  • working on designing a complete new system, not yet started

flo (lentschi):

  • article unit fork
  • rails developer for long time
  • how to get the fork done somehow?
  • it’s okay that it might take a while

agenda:

  • foodsoft funding
    • quick recap:
      • uni:code together with wandelgut from schleswig-holstein federal state funding
      • 4 main points
        1. update ruby on rails versions
          2. ruby 3
        2. new frontend
        3. invoice generation pull-request
        4. automatically send orders to supplieres
    • merge everything to upstream, no fork
    • how to do this?
      • reviews would be good
      • flo no capacities
      • flip only few capacities
      • who’s the offical maintainers who need to approve?
        • flo, few time
        • yksflip, few time
        • d1c, not active atm
        • willem, active but not part of a foodcoop atm
        • patrick, not active
      • there will be large pull-requests for ruby upgrade
      • test coverage is low
      • if we know the internal process (of unicode), we might not need a full review
        • there is no fixed idea yet 2 possibilities:
          • a) develop directly upstream together with community
          • b) use issues, but first develop on a branch internally and review and then hand it in (2 steps)
        • how to make sure that the work is acutally helpful and get merged?
      • ray favors a) to see small increments and easier to follw
    • did you already start implement?
      • not yet, it’s not just developing also community work, project management etc., product owner work. want to start soon
    • coordinate stuff, have calls
    • yksflip a) would be nice to also see more activity in the project
    • flo did a pr because there was so much discussion to have their own issue, that doesn’t affect the upstream and makes it hard to distinguish. if it’s not that huge it would be good to make it upstream
    • need people for review, maintainers work
    • start with smth small, see how it goes.
      then meet again, and iterate
    • all issues in one project, use labels to filter
    • ray likes to jump in, better testing helps move forward
    • have regular meetings
    • steffen already has write access, can do also work on issue labeling etc.
    • there is a time schedule for the funding, can be streched: end of 2025 + 6month maybe; need to communicate
    • let’s work together
    • github projects might be a better solution
      • let’s try it out
    • contracted stuff isn’t small unfortunaltey
    • ruby upgrade first maybe?
      • quite critical
      • there’ll be many steps to take
  • article unit fork
    • ray had contact to willem, he’s still have it on his agenda
    • but in general, willem still want’s to step out
    • even after merge there are many issues open
    • would be important to adress these too
    • ruby upgrade sounds big
    • yksflip proposes to make article-fork to a dev/beta branch and have the blocker out of the room
    • flo lets have at least some review
    • quick recap
      • article versioning
      • article synchronisation (former sharedlist)
        • could be made compatible, don’t have 2 applications
      • article units
      • architecture notes are a good start for a brief first review
    • very meaningful change still the goal to merge it, funding project has ressources allocated to help with the review. steffen asked a colleague to look into
    • leo: should we set a deadline for it? just merge it to master? archive current state in a branch
      • not getting any review and blocking development is even worse if no review; therell be bugs
      • flo disagrees, if we don’t have caps we shoudlnt merge
    • ray: merging doesnt mean we go to production
      • a lot of possible issues will find a resolution with the work of unicode
    • flo: not a in depth review is needed, rather a understanding of the new architecture for everyone involved
      • please have a look into the architecture docs, thats a good starting point for all the big changes.
        if thats okay, let’s make it main
    • already offered willen and phil money for review, response from willem, he’d take a look
    • whatabout mortbauer? doesn’t have the ressources
    • ray: will do a test, would be a waste to throw it away, will ask willem
    • deadline: end of march. see what we got then
      • flo: not so confident without a review
      • steffen: there’ll be at leat a rough review!
    • important to see the changes for everyone working
    • in case of explanation needed, text flo via matrix
    • there is a video, but might be deprecated already
  • next meeting
    • 06.03.25 17:00 CEST
  • testing workflow
    • how are things handled? lot’s of things lacking and issues → there is no fixed process except the ci and pull-requests
    • needs some work!
  • github ci pipeline

2024-08-02

Steffen, Flo, Leo

  • article-units-fork
    • still a few issues left until a PR can be done
    • translations (locales, units): Due to lacking contributions from native speakers, Flo will try to auto-generate them for now
  • funding
    • still no time constraints
    • responsible people from the funding agency are on holiday
    • some resources reserved to finish article units project

2024-07-05

steffen, leo, flo, philipp

  • sara account balance issue?
    • unclear what version they are on, maybe on the global hosting
    • probably global hosting support issue
  • funding
    • contract partners: https://unicode-it.de/ , https://tantewandel.de
    • what’s funded
      • ruby3 upgrade
      • frontend development
      • integrating stale pr
        • invoice feature
      • article images
    • no time constraints, estimates given but no fixed plan yet
    • waiting for details from the funder
    • 116_000€
    • next steps
      • contract details
      • roadmap
      • coordination phase
        • finish article fork, then start upgrade, decide on architecture
      • main goal is to bring everything into main branch
  • article-units-fork
    • close to make a pr
    • some issues should be discussed with some more folks
      but it makes sense to get stuff upstream first and then adress the issues
      before release
    • how to pr technically
    • for ux/ui questions gather feedback from users with a demo instance
    • pain points:
      • sharedlists → get’s integrated into foodsoft as a share supplier function
        some follow up details (weird article validation checks)
      • translation in other languages than ger, eng
        • is this a blocker?
        • no more responses from the community
        • dutch most important
        • → try to make a deepl/chatgpt/… translation
          • maybe only the most important ones
  • creating a release with the latest changes before the fork get’s merged
    • global hosting can upgrade to 4.8 next week and then to onlinepaymentprovider plugin
  • maximum-order-quantity
    • as a feature branch on hackathon fork, oostervold can try it out in the demo then
      and use it once everything is merged.
  • coverage testing broken?!
    • → create issue
  • seeds only in english

2024-05-03

2024-04-05

leo’s working on these

2024-03-08

11:00CET - 12:00

  • working on Dev seed (small.en) leads to error · Issue #1049 · foodcoops/foodsoft · GitHub
  • at-fork
    • bugs noch fixen, features noch anpassen die sonst keinen Sinn ergeben
    • alles andere auf den rebase warten / im upstream bringen
    • leo hat zeit und lust an ein paar features zu arbeiten
    • flo sieht keine großen todos mehr vor dem Rebase
  • release 4.8.1
    • there are some problems with the foodsoft messages mentioned in the at forum, leo pings mortbauer to ask for logs / more informations to reproduce the error
    • philipp creates another RC and wait’s for a bit if more bugs appear
  • look at roadmap

2024-02-02

11:00 - 12:00

Agenda:

  • flo wip foodsoft-at fork, supplier article migration
  • leo did a review of the at fork and posted the feedback in the at-github
  • forum thread regarding the article translations
  • philipp is working on the upcoming 4.8.1 release
  • next meetup: 08.03 11:00cet

2024-01-05

10:00 - 11:00
Flo, Steffen (kidhab), Philipp

  • bootstrap5 tryout
    spike to see if it’s a feasible way. next trying turbo/stimulusjs
  • sharedlist
    foodsoft-at fork has a proposal for a new api approach
    sharedlist imports articles via smtp and updates the db
    currently no maintainer feels responsible
    steffen did a upgrade because it was needed for deployment
  • Units fork
    feature complete (almost) - yuhu!!!
    unit tests fixen help!
    flo sends a link to demo server
    current state
    fix performance issue in unit migration (edit all form cannot handle so much) - should we copy the supplier instead?
  • maximum article to be sold
    • makes sense to wait for the fork / build it up from the fork
  • Point Release?
    • some changes since 4.8, would be nice to have a minor release 4.8.1
    • steffen can give it a go
  • Ruby 3 #1002
    • ruby 2.7 is eol
    • a) bootstrap upgrade (lots of work / conflicts at-fork)
    • b) look into, if there is a way to make the ruby upgrade and keep bootstrap2.7 less css stuff
    • c) kill bootstrap, api-backend only, build a new seperate frontend (probably only in combination with b) as it might take long until feature complete)
    • philipp would have ressources from march on to do paid work on that
  • next meetup

2023-12-01 10:00

Agenda:

  • State of the AT Fork
    • new article unit page for managing a selection of used article units
    • old article units can be migrated per supplier
      • try out different article sets to find custom units that should be added to the migration path
    • still some feature work todo
  • Future of the UI Discussion - Can we make a decision?
    • lentschi prefers frontend + api design
      • one frontend loads a defined set of micro frontends
      • very loosely couples
        • finding bugs might be harder
      • will other devs jump on?
    • yksflip likes the pure rails approach, fe + api also fine,
    • waiting for more feedback for a while

2023-11-03

lentschi, leo, phlipp

Foodsoft AT Fork

lentschi und leo
still working on the translation of units

how should the migration of the old plaintext article units go?
Supplier field gets a “migrate articles” button, so foodcoop admins can do it conciously
what about imperial system? Searching for existing units like pfund, lbs etc. and then add imperial units to the config
adding a Unit missing modal to administer units

frontend?

yksflip want’s to open the floor for a discussion on how to proceed with the frontend on the forum and make a plan on the next community meetup

would be so great to have some more small improvements on the grouporder menu, but also very painful to develop.
lentschi gives it a try whilst working on integrating the unit stuff on the view

2023-10-06

skipped

2023-08-25 10:00

Agenda:

  • Release 4.8
  • PR’s / Roadmap

flo, leo, philipp

  • flo is quite busy right now, but plans to continue on the austrian for from october on. The article-unit fork ist feature complete and wait’s for feedback. Still a lot of work (unit tests, rebasing master)
  • philipp want’s to release 4.8, will update changelog and release notes
    • upcoming bugs will be fixed in the next minor version 4.8.1
  • a look at the 4.9 milestone
    • maximum order quantity
      • might conflict with flo’s fork
        but ok not to wait and help merging afterwards
    • ideal, mollie, onlinepaymentprovider plugin
    • article pictures
    • delete users (anonymise)
    • article import plugin (bnn support)
  • Multistage Dockerfile
    • looks good, but should ask someone who’ more involved in the hosting
  • steffen announced the end of the global hosting to the end of 2023 as it was not sustainable anymore. The cooperative roko.li offers to continue the hosting to a fair share

next meetup: 06.10 10:00

2023-06-02 10:00

2023-05-05

florian, yksflip, leo

  • Development setup with Docker: errors - #3 by twothreenine
  • railsupgrade soooon, controller tests vllt nochmal hinten anstellen
  • artikelbilder - mit lieferscraping tool bild-URL in CSV angeben & importieren?
  • userbilder
  • ausrichtung foodsoft als api-service mit neuen versch frontends?
  • wichtigsten user-storys vllt noch verbessern? (bestellansicht)

2023-04-07

meta

  • facil:
  • notes:
  • date: Friday 7th Aprile 10:00 CET
  • timeframe: 1 hr
  • call: BigBlueButton

agenda

2023-03-03

meta

  • facil: d1
  • notes: yksflip
  • date: Friday 3rd March 10:00 CET
  • timeframe: 1 hr
  • call: BigBlueButton

agenda

  • intros

    • luke, biobulbende rotterdam, foodsoft op
      chat with peop,
    • flo: austria foodcoop Rübezahl17, hacking on foodsoft
      self-service feat. austrian fork, won’t work with unit-system
      now working on that since a hackathon
    • leo: twothreenine, some pr’s, austria graz, spectator
    • martin: austria vienna, one pr, active foodcoop member, we’d like to get more involved into hosting , rather python than ruby, docker!!
    • patrick, paroga: most foodsoft dev, not in foodcoop scene anymore, passing responsibilities, busy atm. . happy to see people interested after
    • yksflip: food co-op is tante wandel, luebeck based, hacking on foodsoft / funded, software hosting for NGOs (local-it). today: happpy to meet and see people, what forks are there? who’s working on that? state of maintainership? super interested in going forward, what will we do? new funding? keep foodsoft hacking.
    • wvengen: amsterdam, experimented on a fork, still hosting it, now in norway, not able to dive into anymore. happy people contributing, let’s talk about maintainership

  • who’s hacking on foodsoft and what’s the diff of your fork?

  • maintainership status

    • paroga/wvengen have less time, forks are out there
    • long time ago benjamin handed over to wvengen, then patrick involved.
    • floor is open for new
    • do what’s best for the project
    • people hesitate to take over the role of reviewing
    • takes a lot of time to review
    • someone could take over the main steering, ask paroga wvengen for final
    • yksflip gonna think about maintainership, wanna merge stuff, new base
    • paroga open to help out reviewing, flo too, wvengen limited time
    • d1 help organizing meetings, build a roadmap, triage,
    • d1, philipp, florian, martin get invited to github org
      • no responsibility for now, give the key to nextgen
    • idea: replace sharedlist with microservice,

  • foodsoft strategy 2023 plan

    • d1: users involvement? decision making? SSO functionality
    • paroga: splitting shared lists to microservices and other stuff too (flo)
    • paroga draft roadmap for now:
      • Tests and RuR upgrade (upgrade should have less conflicts)
      • Stuff the german group did (API-tests stuff, Dockerfile stuff, other changes, yksflip)
      • foreign key constraints
    • opencollective, ask foodcoops to offer money for development
    • wvengen, paroga: if you feel confident: merge - we can correct mistakes
      if not mention and ask, small changes will respond directly
    • be friendly an welcoming to new contributors
    • setup github-project and labels, backlog
    • there’s interest for community help in theory from the foodcoops

  • photos:

    • paroga: no public, the rest are fine with it
    • ok to remove face and post