Development of MediaPortal has never been so fast and furious! Maybe it is due to the long feature freeze of 1.1.0, maybe it is the many new Team developers, maybe it is the excitement of gearing up for MediaPortal 2. Whatever the reason, Team spirit is at an all time high, and so is the speed of development! New video features, music features, camera videos in pictures, radio features, tons of skin enhancements, and best of all mega performance improvements!  If you have trouble keeping track, then read on for the Inside Scoop on Tracking MP Development.

MediaPortal Development - Summary by Version

First, a word about statistics. They are rarely ever 100% accurate, and this is certainly true of the statistics presented here.  However, they do accurately show trends, and that is the point here.  The following table provides a summary of the number of issues resolved in each major version of MediaPortal.  Keep in mind this does not show how much work was involved in each issue, or whether it developed a new feature, fixed a bug, or enhanced performance.

Essentially what this table shows is the total time required and number of issues resolved, to develop each version of MediaPortal to the final stable release. Version 0.2.3 is shown mainly for comparison.

Final Release	Start Date	Release Date	Mantis Issues	Duration/ Months	Avg / Month
0.2.3	2005-10-06	2006-10-14	100	12	8
1.0.x	2006-10-14	2009-04-16	847	31	27
1.1.x	2008-12-20	2010-11-26	735	23	31
1.2.0	2010-07-23	2010-12-15	228	5	45

Note:  The latest release of Version 1.2.0 is alpha, however the statistics shown reflect the development of 1.2.0 alpha and beta changes recorded on our Roadmaps and Changelogs as of 15 December, 2010.  Many skin changes which were merged from a separate branch, are not included.

• Final Release:  The final release of the version of MediaPortal. (1.2.0 is alpha and beta changes to 15 December, 2010)
• Start Date:       The date the previous version was released, and feature freeze was lifted.
• Release Date:  The date the final stable version was released.(1.2.0 is alpha and beta changes to 15 December, 2010)
• Issues:             The total number of Mantis issues shown in our Changelog for Installer, MediaPortal and TV-Server.
• Duration:         The total number of months of the complete release cycle.
• Average:          The number of Mantis issues divided by the number of months or duration of the release cycle.

The bottom line is that development has been speeding up.  I am sure you did not need the above statistics to tell you that, but they do show just how much it has increased.  The goal for 1.2.0 is to shorten release cycles even more through release planning - by adding fewer new features to each release, and offering new releases more frequently. This should avoid long feature freezes, such as occurred with 1.1.0. Thus, community developers who submit patches will not have to wait so long to get their patch included, while skins and plugins can implement stable new features more quickly. Of course this applies not only to any possible future releases of MediaPortal 1.x but to MediaPortal 2.0 as well.

Tracking MediaPortal Development

So, with development speeding up, how do you manage to keep track of it all?  Well, the Team has been asking the same question!  At present, there are well over 400 threads and almost 7,000 posts in the Team forum for version 1.2.0 alone.  Trying to keep on top of it all, and manage and coordinate all the development, is a full time job in itself. 

Mantis Changelog, Roadmap, and Issues

If you track MediaPortal development, you have probably already viewed our Changelog and Roadmap.  There are three main projects: Installer, MediaPortal and TV-Server, so to see all the changes, make sure to set  the Project field to the project you wish, or All to view changes to all projects.

You may press the issue number link to view the details about any issue that interests you.

We have added a new field - Docs Req'd - to our Mantis issues as part of our new Documentation Policy.  This is now a mandatory field.  Each person who submits an issue must indicate if Documentation is required. If the change, even a bug fix, alters the user interface, or affects skins or plugin development, or even adds new strings to our Language strings files, then documentation is required before the new version is released.

As a result, each issue will now provide you with a link in the Notes field to any related Wiki page(s) where you can see all the details of how the change affects skins or plugins, or the MediaPortal user interface. It's an additional level of support, so now you can track the development from the initial issue right through to a screenshot of how it looks and works.

Of course you can sign up for RSS feeds of changes to Mantis, specific projects or even specific issues.

Better yet, get the news hot off the press by following MediaPortal on Twitter or Facebook.

  

What's New?

Documentation is now entered in the Wiki as soon as the issue is resolved in Mantis.  You may use the links to the Wiki page(s) in the Mantis Issue, or you may view all the documented changes on the What's New in 1.2.0 Wiki page.

Tracking Skin and Plugin related Changes

Skin and Plugin related changes are entered on a separate Wiki page for each change. A template ensures that data is consistent and complete in every case.  In addition, an index of all the changes is provided, as well as a changelog on each skin or plugin control in the Skin or Plugin Architecture pages of the Wiki.

The index pages for Skin and Plugin related changes now display a sortable table so you may view all the changes that affect skins and plugins. See the Skin Related Changes for 1.2.0 page for an example. You may select which items to display in the Show box, or sort by any of the columns.

Furthermore, each change is also indexed as a changelog on the related Skin or Plugin controls page.  See the Skin Architecture > Image page for an example of how the changelog displays each change made to the image control, by version.

Documentation of New Releases

Our new Wiki now includes documentation of the latest changes to assist you in using and testing alpha, beta and RC releases. We hope that you will test and provide feedback on the documentation, as well as the release of MediaPortal, to ensure it is complete and accurate by the time the final stable version is released.

As you browse through the Wiki, or view the pages indexed on the What's New page, you will see content that is marked as 1.2.0 alpha or 1.2.0 beta. The documentation for the latest stable version will not be removed, rather the new content will be added and clearly indicated that it applies to a test or development release.  Such as:

Where there are many changes to a feature, or a new feature has been added, you may find a totally separate page for the 1.2.0 feature.  The Video Database Configuration in 1.2.0 is a good example.

Tracking Changes to Documentation

Our new Wiki offers several new options to help you track changes, depending on your needs or preferences.  However, before you can receive any notifications you must log in with your forum username and password, and add your email address under Tools > My Preferences  in the Wiki.

1. Page Notifications - Probably the easiest way to track changes to a page or group of pages, is to use the Page Notifications button at the top right of the Wiki Menu.  For example, if you wish to be notified of any changes to the Skin Related Changes pages for 1.2.0
   1. Go to the main Index page for Skin Related Changes for 1.2.0
   2. Select Page Notifications
   3. Select this page and all sub pages.
2. RSS Feeds - You can always sign up for RSS feeds of any changes to the Wiki, or changes by specific contributors
   1. Select Tools > RSS Feeds from the Wiki Menu,
   2. Select the What's New Feed for all changes, or a feed for specific contributor(s)
3. Watch Lists - you can create personalized 'watch lists' of all your favorite pages. Then you can easily access pages you need most frequently, and you can choose to receive an RSS Feed of changes to just your Watched Pages:
   1. Add a page, or pages, to your Watch List - just select More on the Wiki Menu, then Watch Page
      
   2. View your Watched Pages anytime via Tools > Watched pages
   3. Then, use Tools > RSS Feeds to sign up for a RSS feed for your Watch List

That's it! For further information, or reference, you can consult the Wiki Help > Notifications page any time you are using the Wiki.

Future Development

You may ask, why are we doing all this for MediaPortal 1? What about MediaPortal 2?  The answer is, that the processes we are developing will apply to MediaPortal 2 as well, and will assist us in speeding up its development.  In fact, it is one of the main purposes of our Documentation policy and process.

We even plan to go one step further, and begin by documenting the requirements for all feature plugins for MP 2,  before coding begins.  The intent is to have an overview of all features and ensure consistency throughout all the feature plugins, so we do not end up with duplicate code as we have in MediaPortal 1.  That may seem like a big leap, but some Team members are already working on it.