Today, we updated rBuilder Online with a non-service-interrupting update that improves a number of features.

RESTful API Improvements

As part of the process toward improved API access, we have added HTTP Basic Authentication support to the REST API. (It was already available for the XML-RPC API.) This allows authenticated access to privileged API functions without requiring client cookie suport.

We have not at this time published API documentation for rBuilder Online and have not committed to maintaining a stable API, but calling the API is acceptable use. We are currently developing some initial documentation for getting started using the REST API.

Appliance Content Editing

Unfortunately, our last update broke the appliance editing interface for newly-created appliances. This affected only appliances created after the update. We have now fixed this for all new appliances.

Finding things

The Find feature has been improved somewhat with better search response times once your search has narrowed to less than 100 items. However, there are still further improvements we need to make here to better support find-by-title and find-by-description.

Scrolling

Scrolling behavior in the various list views has been improved.

Thank you!

As always, we welcome your feedback. Please click the "Provide Feedback" link at the top of your rBuilder pages for the quickest route to ensuring that we hear you! Alternatively, you are still welcome, as always, to tell us about bugs by filing issues in our issue tracking system.

Today, we updated rBuilder Online with a non-service-interrupting update that fixes an important bug. Previously, using the new flex-based UI, if you had defined your own group manually by editing a group recipe and then tried to use the web interface to manage the contents of your appliance, rBuilder would overwrite your group recipe file with an essentially blank template, and then you could use the UI to re-populate the group. Now, instead of overwriting the group recipe, rBuilder will disable the UI components for adding packages to the group.

If the flex UI does not allow you to add packages, and you have an older group built with the group-appliance superclass and implementing the addPackages() method, you can enable adding packages in the flex UI with the following steps. (Note that these steps are specific to the rPath Linux 2 platform; if you need to apply these steps on another platform and are unsure how, please feel free to file an issue in the Bugs component.)

1. If the file appliance-manifest.xml does not exist, create and add it with the contents (modified for your appliance):
   

   <?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
   <manifest xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.rpath.org/permanent/appmanifest-1.0.xsd appmanifest-1.0.xsd">
     <troveName>group-YOURAPPLIANCENAMEHERE-appliance</troveName>
     <troveVersion>1</troveVersion>
     <searchPaths>
       <searchPath>group-os=conary.rpath.com@rpl:2</searchPath>
       <searchPath>group-rapa=raa.rpath.org@rpath:rapa-3</searchPath>
     </searchPaths>
     <explicitTroves/>
     <implicitTroves/>
   </manifest>
   

2. Change your recipe to derive from FactoryRecipeClass if it does not do so already.
3. Change any definition of the addPackages() method to addRecipePackages()
4. Run the command cvc factory factory-group-base=conary.rpath.com@rpl:2 if the recipe did not already derive from FactoryRecipeClass.
5. Check in your changes with cvc commit

If you have a group that rBuilder Online replaced with an empty group in the past few weeks before we fixed this issue, it is possible to merge the contents of your pre-existing group by checking out the previous version of your group and copying the group recipe to a current checkout, and then following the simple conversion steps above. This will work only if you were already using the group-appliance superclass and defining the addPackages() method. If you instead define the setup()> method, conversion requires more work; please see the migration guide for more detailed information on the process. (Be aware that the migration guide was written for rBuilder Appliance rather than rBuilder Online, so some of the description involves a local installation of rBuilder Appliance. This is not important to the migration process.)

rBuild 1.1 is a maintenance release.

• The "rbuild config --ask" command now writes Conary and rMake configuration files, making it easier to use Conary and rMake when necessary for complex operations or workarounds for rBuild bugs. The "--conaryrc" and "--rmakerc" arguments write the respective configuration files. The "rbuild init" command now creates "conaryrc" files in each stage directory to further facilitate using Conary commands. (RBLD-54, RBLD-223)
• Unless the "--quiet" option is used, rBuild now prints several URLs, including download URLs for built files, as well as IDs that are used for scripting integration. The output format of this data is subject to change in order to improve integration; such changes will be noted in this NEWS file. (RBLD-220)
• The "rbuild build release" command has been added. (RBLD-220, RBLD-227)
• The "rbuild publish" command now takes an optional list of release IDs to publish. (RBLD-228)

• The "rbuild checkout --shadow" command now handles explicitly naming the source component on the command line. (RBLD-191)
• The "rbuild checkout --derive" command now removes factories so that the derived package can be built. (RBLD-217)

• The Config plugin now exports the writeConaryConfiguration() and writeRmakeConfiguration() methods. (RBLD-54)
• The facade.conary.getConaryConfig method now takes an optional keyword argument useCache. (RBLD-54)
• The facade.conary._getBaseConaryConfig() method now takes an optional keyword argument readConfigFiles. (RBLD-54)
• The facade.rmake._getBaseRmakeConfig() method now takes an optional keyword argument readConfigFiles. (RBLD-54)
• The facade.rmake._getRmakeConfig() method now takes an optional keyword argument includeContext. (RBLD-54)
• The facade.rbuilder.getBuildFiles() method now returns structured information instead of printing it. (RBLD-220)
• The facade.rbuilder.watchImages() method now uses the ui object to print update status.
• The BuildRelease plugin has been added, and the buildRelease() method has been moved from the BuildImages plugin to the BuildRelease plugin. The printImageUrlsForJob() and printImageUrlsForBuild() methods have been added to the BuildImages plugin. (RBLD-220)

rbuilder-client 1.1 is a maintenance release.

• Adjusted the build-url command to match an API change in rBuild to accommodate printing URLs usefully for build automation with rBuild (RBLD-220)

At the post office, I found myself writing a bit of a pastiche of an old classic:

Passport Hours: 10:30-4:30

Nice work hours if you can get 'em

NOTICE: TO SERVE YOU BETTER, PASSPORT SERVICE IS NOW BY APPOINTMENT ONLY

And you can work less, if you try!

1:40 PM:

Applicant has been waiting since around 1:30 PM, occasionally ringing doorbell.

Postal Service Employee (annoyed, poking head around door she is holding mostly closed): When's your appointment?

Applicant: My appointment was at 1:30, Ma'am

Postal Service Employee (even more annoyed): Can't be at this post office. You must be at the wrong post office. I have lunch from 1 to 2.

...

Suddenly, I find myself thinking that privatizing postal service might be a good idea after all. Also, putting the phrase "to serve you better" on a sign or form should be a federal offense, publishable by standing in line at a post office for 10 years.

The rBuilder Online scheduled maintenance is complete. rBuilder Online is now synchronized with rBuilder Appliance 5.2.

The new flash-based UI, which requires Adobe Flash 10, is now the default; the old HTML UI will still be available for a limited time, as a fall back. The old HTML UI is no longer actively maintained and will eventually be decommissioned. If you find areas in which the new UI does not work for you, please file an issue or talk to us on irc.freenode.net in the #conary channel.

The new UI is designed to streamline rPath's best practices for using our tools. We have written a migration guide to help existing rBuilder Appliance customers migrate to using the new UI to take advantage of the improvements it offers; this document also applies to using rBuilder Online.

Thank you for your interest in rBuilder Online. As usual, if you find additional bugs, please tell us about them by filing issues in our issue tracking system.

rBuilder Online will undergo scheduled maintenance starting Thursday June 11 at 21:00 EDT (-0400) and ending at 23:00. During this time, rBuilder Online and all rpath.org repositories will not be available. A message will be posted when the scheduled maintenance period has been completed.

This maintenance window will bring rBuilder Online into parity with rBuilder Appliance 5.2. This includes many updates to the new, flash-based UI, adding new features and fixing bugs. Thank you for your feedback, which has helped us improve the new UI, bringing it out of beta test and into general availability!

With this update, the new UI will be the default; the old HTML UI will still be available for a limited time, as a fall back. The old HTML UI is no longer actively maintained and will eventually be decommissioned. If you find areas in which the new UI does not work for you, please file an issue or talk to us on irc.freenode.net in the #conary channel.

Thank you for your interest in rBuilder Online.