Tracking support timeframes

support-timeframe.md

Tracking support timeframes

Goals

• Provide a way for the sitesummariser SilverStripe module to query the support timeframes of SilverStripe packages

Stretch goals

• Get the rest of the SilverStripe ecosystem using this
• Get the rest of the packagist ecosystem using this

Package format

Bundle a .support-timeframe.json into packages that provides support timeframe metadata.

Sample

{
  "^4": {
    "description": "SilverStripe 4 is LTS until 2022ish",
    "url": "https://www.silverstripe.org/roadmap",
    "support-periods": [
        { "level": "full", "description": "Full support", "until": "2021-06-06" }
        { "level": "partial", "description": "Security/critical fixes only", "until": "2022-06-06" }
     ]
  },
  "~4.1.0": {
    "description": "SilverStripe 4.1 is supported for 6 months. For longer support we recommend ^4",
    "url": "https://www.silverstripe.org/roadmap",
    "support-periods": [
        { "level": "partial", "description": "Security/critical fixes", "until": "2018-21-31" }
     ]
  },
}

Spec:

• Top level keys are composer version strings. Each entry describes support for 1 period:
  • "support-periods": an array of 1 or more support periods.
    • "level": "full" or "partial". Can be used to show support in green or yellow, for example. More than 1 of each can be supplied, with different descriptions.
    • "description": Project-specific identifier of this level of support.
    • "until": End-date of the support.
  • "description": A summary statement about support.
  • "url": An url to find out more details.

Server to support this

Addons.SilverStripe.org is already downloading and scanning all the SilverStripe modules. A step can be added to this to cache .support-timeframe.json files.

A simple API for getting support details of 1 package:

GET /api/support-timeframe/(vendor)/(package).json HTTP/1.1
Host: addons.silverstripe.org
Accept: application/json

Or fetch many:

GET /api/support-timeframe/packages.json HTTP/1.1
Host: addons.silverstripe.org
Accept: application/json
Content-type: application.json

[
  "(vendor)/(package)",
  "(vendor)/(package)",
  "(vendor)/(package)"
]

Or look up the support coverge for the version you have specified in your composer.json.

GET /api/support-timeframe/assess-packages.json HTTP/1.1
Host: addons.silverstripe.org
Accept: application/json
Content-type: application.json

{
  "(vendor)/(package)": "version-string",
  "(vendor)/(package)": "version-string",
  "(vendor)/(package)": "version-string"
}

Sitesummariser updates

• Call /api/support-timeframe/assess-packages.json
• Get the result
• Add into the UI. Green for full support, yellow for partial support, red for no support. Show the support message, provide links where appropriate.

Logic of assess-packages

• TBC. Need a way of calculating the "overlap" of version strings.

I'd probably leave out the description field, since that'd be duplicated across a gazillion composer.json files. Just link to the roadmap, and have a simple lookup for our particular keys relevant to our release process within addons somewhere.