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Project Management Infrastructure/Project Metadata

What is Project Meta-Data?

  1. Relatively static structural information such as the names of the project's mailing lists and newsgroups, the bugzilla products and CVS repository, etc.
  2. Historical information such as previous release downloads, release review slides and IP logs, etc.
  3. Status and future looking information such as the project and milestone plans, the features scheduled for the current release, release dates, etc.

Who maintains it?

Eclipse committers and project leads are responsible for maintaining their project's meta-data. This information is an important part of being an Eclipse project.

How do I maintain my meta-data?

Use the portal. Look in Eclipse Projects > [view] > [maintain] Project meta-data.

What Meta-Data Do you Need to Provide?

In this section, we describe the many fields that you'll find in the portal.

Basic Information

You should minimally provide the following information for your project.

Name Field Description
Paragraph paragraphurl This is a single URL for an HTML file in your project's web directory that contains a concise (e.g., 50 word) description of your project. The content of this file is intended to be aggregated with other project paragraphs in lists (e.g., release train projects, top-level project summary lists, ...). Keep the content as simple as possible (i.e. avoid left- or right-aligned images, div tags, etc.). The goal is to motivate readers to identify your project as interesting, not convey deep technical content. You may specify the URL as absolute (e.g. http://www.eclipse.org/woolsey/description.html) or relative to the web root (e.g. /woolsey/description.html). Note that however you choose to specify this value, the resulting URL must be relative to http://www.eclipse.org/.
Description descriptionurl This is a single URL for an HTML file in your project's web directory that contains a short (e.g. 2-3 paragraph) description of your project. The content of this file is used, for example, in on the project summary page for your project. Keep the content as simple as possible (i.e. avoid left- or right-aligned images, div tags, etc.). The goal is to motivate readers to identify your project as interesting, not convey deep technical content. You may specify the URL as absolute (e.g. http://www.eclipse.org/woolsey/description.html) or relative to the web root (e.g. /woolsey/description.html). Note that however you choose to specify this value, the resulting URL must be relative to http://www.eclipse.org/.
Short name projectshortname This is the short name (aka nickname) for your project. For example, the projectname for ECF might be Eclipse Communications Framework whereas the shortname would be ECF.
Homepage projecturl This is a single URL that points to your project's main page. The link can be to any eclipse.org property. Links can be absolute (e.g. http://www.eclipse.org/woolsey, http://eclipse.org/woolsey, or http://wiki.eclipse.org/Woolsey) or relative (e.g. /woolsey). Relative links are assumed to be relative to http://www.eclipse.org.
Download downloadsurl This is a single URL that points to the project's downloads. The link can be to any eclipse.org property. Relative links are assumed to be relative to http://www.eclipse.org.

Community Contact Information

Be sure to provide information about your project's newsgroups, mailing lists, and more so that your community will know where to find you.

Newsgroups newsgroup You can specify multiple newsgroups. This information is used to inform your community of the newsgroups and forums available for your project (the same information is used to render links to both newsgroups and forums). For each newsgroup/forum, you specify the name, optional description, and type. The name is as it appears on the news server (e.g. eclipse.woolsey). A short description will help visitors decide which newsgroup or forum to visit and so it is highly recommended that you provide a value here. Generally a project will have a single "main" newsgroup/forum. This information is used when rendering newsgroups (in cases where there is only room to list one, the main newsgroup/forum is listed).
Mailing Lists mailinglist You can specify multiple mailing lists. This information is used to inform your community of the mailing lists available for your project. For each mailing list, you specify the name, optional description, and type. The name is specified without the domain (e.g. woolsey-dev). A short description will help visitors decide which mailing list to use and so it is highly recommended that you provide a value here. Generally a project will have a single "main" mailing list. This information is used when rendering mailing lists (in cases where there is only room to list one, the main mailing list is listed).
Wiki wikiurl This is a link to the project's landing page in the wiki. You may specify the URL as absolute (e.g. http://wiki.eclipse.org/Woolsey) or relative to the wiki root (e.g. /Woolsey). Note that however you choose to specify this value, the resulting URL must be relative to http://wiki.eclipse.org/.
Docs documentationurl This is a single URL that points to the project's documentation. Typically this is a link into http://help.eclipse.org</wiki> (e.g. <nowiki>http://help.eclipse.org/helios/index.jsp?topic=/org.eclipse.egit.doc/help/EGit/User_Guide/User-Guide.html, but the link can be to any eclipse.org property. Relative links are assumed to be relative to http://www.eclipse.org.

More

Logo logourl A single URL that points to a file containing the logo for your project.
Source Repository sourcerepository Multiple entries can be provided for the source repository. As the name suggests, this field lists the locations of the repositories that hold the source for your project. This information is used to inform your community of the location of these resources, but also to feed the Dash tools concerned with gathering commit statistics. CVS locations are e.g. /cvsroot/technology/org.eclipse.buckminster. SVN locations are e.g. /technology/org.eclipse.buckminster. Git repositories are specified using any valid Git URL (Git URLs must be relative to git.eclipse.org).
Update site updatesiteurl This value is a single URL that points to your project's main update site. The URL must be relative to http://download.eclipse.org/.
Releases release Projects are required to make an entry for each release. Valid release status includes: scheduled, completed, tentative.
Bugs bugzilla Specify a Product Name, Component Name and URL for your project's bugs.
Articles articleurl Specify multiple URLs to articles and other interesting links that reference your project. URLs are not restricted (i.e. you can link to articles posted outside of eclipse.org). Relative URLs are assumed to be relative to http://eclipse.org/
Project Plan projectplanurl This is a single URL that points to an XML file containing your project plan in the standard format.

Inheritence

Currently sub-projects/components can inherit from their parent project by setting the "Inherit" key in the meta-data editor. This special key will cause web pages and other places where the meta-data is used, to override all values other than the projectname key. This is typically used for very small projects or components which do not need to maintain much information.

Where is Project Metadata used?

/projects/ page

WhatData Storage w/ Link to How to Update
Project Name projectname in the project meta data. Use the portal.
Info PageStandard format page for all projects
Phase Foundation internal database. Email emo@
Home Page projecturl in the project meta data. Use the portal.
Newsgroup newsgroup.name in the project meta data. Use the portal.
Mailing List mailinglist.name in the project meta data. Use the portal.
Wiki wikiurl in the project meta data. Use the portal.
IP Log iplogurl in the project meta data. Use the portal.

Standard project information page

E.g., Project Dash's standard information page

For those more visual people, there's also an annotated screenshot of a standard information page.

Name Foundation internal database. Email emo@
Download downloadsurl in the project meta data. Use the portal.
Description descriptionurl in the project meta data. Use the portal.

This is a single URL for an HTML file in your project's web directory that contains a description of the project, its goals and

perhaps its status. If the url points to an eclipse.org website page, we attempt to extract the midcolumn contents as the paragraph.
Logo logourl in the project meta data. Use the portal.
Commits Activity sourcerepository in the project meta data. Use the portal.
Newsgroups newsgroup.* in the project meta data. Use the portal.
Mailing Lists mailinglist.* in the project meta data. Use the portal.
Source Repository sourcerepository.* in the project meta data. Use the portal.
Committers Foundation internal database. Email emo@.

Activity is taken from the commits explorer driven by sourcerepository in the project meta data. Use the portal. Active is any commit activity in the last three months, participating is any in the last nine months. Company logos are shows for member companies

of active committers.
Leaders Foundation internal database. Email emo@
Update site updatesiteurl in the project meta data. Use the portal.
Releases release.* in the project meta data. Use the portal. Valid release status includes: scheduled, completed, tentative.
Bugs bugzilla in the project meta data. Use the portal.
Website Foundation internal database. Email emo@
Wiki wikiurl in the project meta data. Use the portal.
Documentation documentationurl in the project meta data. Use the portal.
Articles articleurl in the project meta data. Use the portal.
Project Plan projectplanurl in the project meta data. Use the portal.
Mentors Set by Architecture Council members using the portal.

Project Plan Page

Project Plan projectplanurl in the project meta data. Use the portal. Also see the documentation.

Mailing Lists Page

The eclipse.org list of mailing lists.

Mailing List mailinglist.* in the project meta data. Use the portal.
Topics Foundation internal database. Email emo@

Newsgroups Page

The eclipse.org list of newsgroups.

Newsgroup newsgroup.* in the project meta data. Use the portal.
Topics Foundation internal database. Email emo@

Timeline

The eclipse.org timeline page.

Releases release.* in the project meta data. Use the portal. Valid release status includes: scheduled, completed, tentative.


When is project status information considered out-of-date?

Different kinds of information go out of date at different rates and times, but here's an easy checklist:

  • All structural status information is out-of-date if it does not match the infrastructure. For example, if the project has added a new project-announce@ mailing list, but the project status files do not list that mailing list, then they are out of date.
  • Status summaries must be updated at least once a quarter. It's better to update them once a month.
  • Historical information (downloads, release information, and so on) and status summaries need updating with each release (obviously).

Why is project status information important?

Eclipse projects belong to a larger community - Eclipse - which is comprised of not only the committers and developers on the project, but also the developers on other projects, plug-in developers outside the Eclipse projects, and the entire ecosystem surrounding Eclipse. In order to keep all these people up-to-date on the direction and status of the Eclipse projects, each project needs to provide timely and accurate descriptive and status information. (See "2.4 Eclipse Ecosystem" in the Eclipse Development Process.)

The project status information drives a number of the eclipse.org web pages including the categories on the home page, the dashboard, the timeline, lists of projects, lists of mailing lists and newsgroups, status pages, and more.

Using the Infrastructure

RAll projects are required to use the standard left menu on the project home page. See the detailed, but easy, instructions for how to make that left menu appear.

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