Important Changes - Action Required
CIP4 wishes to announce a comprehensive upgrade to its infrastructure. The reasons for this migration and further technical details can be found below in this article.
It is important for CIP4 members to be aware that the migration to new platforms will require them to have an account to be able to access the new platforms and that existing accounts will not work.
All active users received an email from "Atlassian" with the subject "Shwetha Suvarna has invited you to join them" inviting you to the new site. It will guide you through the process of registering with the new platform. If you did not receive this mail you can use this link in order to create an account with the same email address as your current account.
In the meantime all members are urged to report any problems they encounter by contacting the migration principles at infrastructure@cip4.org.
It is recommended that members retain their existing account details until the full migration is completed. CIP4 will make a suitable announcement at that time.
Migration Schedule
The migration is intended to take place in a number of phases.
Build Servers - Completed
The build of software libraries, examples and documentations has already been migrated. This is largely transparent to members unless they have been involved in the production of those products.
Issue Tracker / JIRA
Migration switch date was 27th May 2021.
The migration is to a cloud solution hosted by Atlassian. As stated above a suitable account for access to these new systems will be required.
After the migration the 'old' system will be partially retired - it will remain available as a read-only system and fully retired when appropriate.
Note: CIP4 has considered 'migrating' existing accounts, but a combination of security reasons and technical issues with password management has meant that this is not possible.
Documentation / Confluence
The planned migration switch date is yet to be announced. CIP4 will continue to inform members of changes.
In the meantime, members should continue to use their existing accounts for access to Confluence.
Details and tracking for this migration is being recorded in the JIRA issue
Background
CIP4's primary objective is to provide high quality documentation, libraries/tooling and JDF, XJDF & PrintTalk specifications. To deliver this effectively requires an efficient and well-connected infrastructure.
In the recent past a review of this infrastructure was undertaken to address a number of issues in order to improve the workflow. In part, this was prompted by a number of issues logged against infrastructure which had become difficult to fully resolve.
Perhaps the final catalyst was the announcement of the withdrawal of support and maintenance for the existing infrastructure systems.
A list of the issues addressed by the migration includes:
- Self-Registration of users
- Allow users to reset their own password
- Frequent updates of the software
While these issues were the primary driver, consideration was also given to 'modernize' the systems and to make them more flexible. In the past, CIP4 has struggled to maintain the level of service it desires due to the nature of the relationship it has with the infrastructure suppliers. Changes could not be made directly but had to be done via requests to the supplier - this was both a costly and lengthy process.
Active members of the committees and work groups have also had to spend valuable time maintaining these services. A primary objective was to reduce this burden to allow the time members voluntarily contribute to CIP4 to be focused on constructive business.