SUNScholar/Software Release Cadence

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Introduction

This wiki page is related to a posting on the DSpace general mailing list, see link below.

http://sourceforge.net/p/dspace/mailman/message/31894819/

The Problem

We run one of the larger repositories with 55,000 records and about 10,000 full text items. We also have a large admin and normal user base after two years operation. So although the demo DSpace website may work, things change radically in production environments, when doing version upgrades, not fresh installs, and having many records and users.

The Solution

Some very large production institutions who have the full technology support stack available can be the "official new release testers" for new features for a certain amount of time, before a "stable" release is issued. This is if they are willing to do it to help the Duraspace community.

The issue is to test new features in large production environments with all types of reference architecture before a stable release is announced.

This could suit DSpace very well. Those institutions that do not employ a full technology support stack, could then safely run the stable version of DSpace. Those institutions that have a full technology support stack could then run testing and help to get new software into unstable.

This would also help libraries in developing nations that do not normally have a full technology stack of expertise at their disposal to run the latest "stable" version of DSpace.