We have published the 2010 Launchpad release calendar. You’ll see that there is a new Launchpad release naming scheme as well. We have moved to a YY.MM naming, which matches the Ubuntu model. You’ll find the calendar on the Launchpad development wiki, as:
Having a public release calendar is particularly useful for anyone wanting to contribute to our open source project. It is also helpful for users to know when we’re likely to have down-time or read-only time.
The calendar doesn’t cover maintenance or system status. To keep up on that, please subscribe to:
The Launchpad team is proud to announce the release of Launchpad 3.0!
Highlights in this release include:
a new clearer web interface with in-line editing
personal translation dashboards: see what needs your attention
automatically updated diffs during code reviews.
Let’s take a look at these, and more, in closer detail.
New user interface, with in-line editing
Visit Launchpad to see our new web interface. You can now view more information on many pages without scrolling, particularly on people and project profile pages.
And the web interface is now faster: you can update more data, including almost everything on bug report pages, without reloading the page.
Take a look at our screencast for more on the new interface:
Automatically updated code diffs during code reviews
When you’re going through a code review, you’re likely to make changes to your code based on your reviewer’s comments.
Now, when you push your changes up to Launchpad in the middle of a code review, Launchpad updates the diff shown on the review page. So now it’s easier for your reviewers to see your proposed changes even as you update them.
Launchpad now using Bazaar 2.0
We’re now running Bazaar 2.0. This means that all new code imports — from git, Subersion and CVS sources — are in Bazaar’s new more efficient 2a format. We’re also starting to upgrade existing imported branches to the new format.
The Launchpad team is proud to announce the release of Launchpad 2.2.3!
Here are the highlights of what’s new in this release:
Additional Personal Package Archives for yourself and your teams
Translation template imports directly from your project’s Bazaar branches
Read on for more!
Additional Personal Package Archives
You can now create multiple PPAs both for yourself and your teams.
This is ideal if you’re publishing different versions of the same application to different audiences. For example: you may have one archive for alpha versions and another that’s used by your beta testers.
Visit your profile page — or that of one of your teams — to add more PPAs.
Host your project’s code using Launchpad and Bazaar? Also translate your software using Launchpad?
Launchpad can now automatically find and import your translation templates from your project’s Bazaar branches.
Once you’ve activated automatic imports, Launchpad will monitor the official branch for each of your series and pull in any new template versions that you commit.
The Launchpad team is proud to announce the release of Launchpad 2.2.2! Let’s look at what’s new this month.
Now easier to add upstream links to bug reports
If you’re using Launchpad to track a bug that you think may also be reported elsewhere — such as in a project’s Bugzilla — it’s now easier to find that bug report.
Launchpad will now give you direct links to the bug search and filing forms in a project’s external tracker, so long as Launchpad knows the tracker’s location.
To find the links, all you have to do is click “Also affects project” on the bug report and select the project you want to link to.
The Launchpad team are proud to announce Launchpad 2.2.1, our first release of 2009!
In 2.2.1 we’ve introduced:
a unique signature for each Personal Package Archive
a way to introduce new translators to your team’s way of working
an easier way for projects to export translations made in Launchpad.
Read on for details of what’s new!
Signed PPAs
If you’ve recently installed software from a Personal Package Archive, your package manager may have told you it doesn’t recognise the PPA’s public key.
That’s because we’ve added a key to each PPA in Launchpad, allowing you to verify you’re downloading from the archive you expect.
The ease with which newcomers can make translations is one of the reasons many projects choose Launchpad.
If you’re in a translation team, you can help new translators pick up the style and rules of the project(s) you’re working on by linking to your translation style guide directly from the relevant translation pages.
Upstream projects: easily integrate translations made in Launchpad
Thousands of people use Launchpad to help translate Ubuntu. Many projects whose software is in Ubuntu also have their own translation efforts outside Launchpad.
In the past, translations made in Launchpad weren’t always easy for upstream projects to integrate back into their own translations.
We’ve added a new translation export option that provides only those strings that have changed since we last imported the project’s own translations. This should make it much easier for projects to take and use translations made in Launchpad.
We’re proud to announce the release of Launchpad 2.1.12 and two exciting new ways for other services to use data in Launchpad.
Create a Launchpad plugin for your bug tracker
Launchpad can already import the status of a bug report that’s in another tracker, such as Debian’s BTS or Sourceforge.
Recently, we also announced two plugins — for Bugzilla and Trac — that enable two-way communication, starting off with sharing a bug’s comment history between those trackers and Launchpad.
We’ve published our bug plugin API on the help wiki, so now anyone can create their own plugins to enable other bug trackers to communicate directly with Launchpad.
The Launchpad team is proud to announce the release of Launchpad 2.1.11, which includes two major new features!
OpenID: log into other websites using your Launchpad identity
How many website usernames and passwords do you juggle each day? Your Launchpad account now includes an OpenID identity, meaning you may be able to reduce the number of website login details you need to remember.
OpenID is an open standard that lets you use one online identity to access many different websites, such as SourceForge, Blogger, LiveJournal and thousands of others. Look out for the OpenID logo next time you log into or register for a website.
Ever wanted to contact someone you’ve come across in Launchpad only to find they’ve hidden their email address?
Launchpad developer, Barry Warsaw, has the solution:
“You can now email up to three other Launchpad users or teams per day using the new Contact this user/team link on profile pages.
“Launchpad preserves the privacy of the recipient’s email address — unless they respond, when it becomes a normal email conversation — and you can choose which of your registered email addresses the message comes from.”
We in the Launchpad team are proud to announce the 21st August 2008 release of Launchpad 2.1.8!
This release brings two items of good news for anyone who commits code to branches registered in Launchpad:
Karma for commits: Launchpad now awards karma for code commits to project branches.
Feeds of each person’s code commits: as well as a feed that shows which branches you work on, Launchpad now gives you a feed of all the commits you’ve made to branches in Launchpad.
To subscribe to your own branch commits feed, visit your code overview page and click the feed icon in your browser’s address bar.
There’s more about karma for commits in our blog post.
Bugzilla and Trac plugin beta now open
Sharing the same bug report and comment history between communities is one of Launchpad’s most useful features.
With the beta of our new plugins for Bugzilla and Trac now open, projects who run their own external bug trackers can now also share bug comment histories with Launchpad.
If you’re following the beta of the Launchpad API, you can now get regular updates on what’s new from Leonard Richardson, one of the Launchpad team working on the API.
Leonard’s posts are in the Launchad News blog’s API category.
Full details of Launchpad 2.1.8
Full details of the features and bug fixes that went into this release are on the Launchpad 2.1.8 milestone page.
If you come across any bugs in Launchpad, please report them.
In the mean time, join us each Thursday at 18.00 UTC in #launchpad-meeting on Freenode for the Launchpad team meeting and also any time on the launchpad-users mailing list.
I’m thrilled to announce the release of Launchpad 2.0!
This brings together new features from the past nine months of Launchpad’s development and introduces two exciting beta features.
And, of course, if you’ve visited Launchpad recently you’ll have seen our new, simpler, layout and navigation.
Let’s take a look at the key new features in this release.
Restful web services API and Python library
One of our main goals for Launchpad 2.0 has been to make it easier to manipulate data in Launchpad.
With this release, we’re introducing a beta test of two things that will enable you to develop external applications that can authenticate,
query and modify data in Launchpad’s database:
a restful web services API
and a Python library to access the new API.
Initially, the API will provide access to file and search for bugs, as well as the people and teams systems.
We’ll announce full details of the API and Python library later this week; keep an eye on this blog!
Often, bugs in free software affect more than one project. Launchpad lets projects share the same bug report and comment history so they can worth together on a fix.
Up until now, that’s only been available where each project uses Launchpad as their bug tracker. With Launchpad 2.0, we’re introducing a beta test of two new GPL plugins — one for Bugzilla, one for Trac — that enable projects to share a comment history between the bug as it’s tracked in Launchpad and in external trackers.
If you would like to help beta test the new plugins, let us know.
Simpler page layout and navigation
One of the most obvious changes in Launchpad 2.0 is the web interface’s new design. Our aim has been to simplify the layout and navigation. There’s more in our blog post.
New tour
Want to show someone what Launchpad’s all about? Send them to our new tour!
Other new features that make up Launchpad 2.0
Since our 1.0 launch in April 2007, we’ve introduced many new features that make up Launchpad 2.0, including:
Code review: public discussion and voting on proposed code merges.
Atom feeds for bugs, branches and project announcements.
Plus: binary file downloads, improved universal search, translation string search and support for more external bug trackers, amongst other improvements.
As ever, we’d love to hear what you think of our new release. If you come across a problem, please file a bug. Otherwise, send us an email, in particular if there’s something you really want to see in a future Launchpad release.
The Launchpad team is proud to announce the 1st July 2008 release of Launchpad 1.2.6!
New features in this release include:
two great improvements to code review, including an email interface
a new interface for bugs, translations and distribution pages
and more control code imports!
Read on for more about what’s new and how it affects you.
Code review by email
Launchpad’s new code review system gives you a public place to discuss and vote on proposed code mergers. What’s more, you can easily access the discussion directly from both the target and source branch.
This month, we’ve added an email interface to make it easier to fit Launchpad-based code review into your workflow.
If you’re involved in a merge proposal – as the owner of either the source or target branch – you can invite someone else to give their view on the proposal.
Visit any of your merge proposals to trigger an email invitation to take part in your code review.
Bugs, translations and distribution pages now easier to use
We’ve revamped the bug view, translations and distribution pages to make them easier to use.
Launchpad’s code imports give you all the benefits of Bazaar’s distributed version control for code that’s stored in CVS and Subversion repositories.
Now you can get far more detail on the progress of individual code imports direct on that import’s overview page.
Michael Hudson, the Launchpad developer whose been working on the new code import system, explains more in our blog post.
Other changes this month
Launchpad’s now running Bazaar 1.6b3, which will pave the way for quicker uploads to projects that already have code in Launchpad. Stay up to date with the latest Bazaar release news.
For full details of the bug fixes and features that make up this release, take a look at the 1.2.6 milestone page.
Stay in touch!
Thanks for your bug reports, feature ideas and other feedback! If you come across any bugs, please report them.
If you want to get in touch for any other reason, join us in #launchpad or on launchpad-users.
July’s going to be an exciting time for Launchpad. Keep an eye on this blog!
I’m thrilled to announce the release of Launchpad 2.0!
