Project Title: Further Improvements to Addons
- Primary mentor: @darius
- Backup mentor: @ruhanga
- Student: @reubenv
- Project Wiki page
Overview
The OpenMRS platform can be extended via two kinds of add-ons: (1) Modules, and (2) Open Web Apps.
Originally we built an “OpenMRS Module Repository” where people could upload their modules, but now days there are lots of other repositories where people can publish the code they build, and we want to support a distributed ecosystem that allows people in the community to publish their OpenMRS add-ons wherever they want, as GitHub Releases, to Bintray, to Maven, etc. So the Module Repository has been replaced with an “Add-On Index.”
The goal of this project is to make various enhancements to OpenMRS Addons like improving the search functionality, fixing the cache issues or maybe even adding a recent releases page.
Objectives
The objectives for this project were basically a set of features that could be added that ultimately enhances the user experience. Here is a list of objectives that were decided initially.
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Ensure that a page refresh loads the latest webpage (Status: Completed)
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Improve searching algorithm(Status: Completed)
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Include ability to search using advanced syntax(Approved. Pending merge)
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Improve Highlighted pages(Approved. Pending merge) : So this task was partially completed as in, we created a recent releases page but the ultimate decision of what shows up on the highlighted page is yet to be finalized.
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Add support for Github Releases(Dropped. It was decided that this feature did not add a lot of value): Here is a link to the discussion on talk regarding the same.
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Improve the process of adding a new module to AddOns(Status: In progress. Pending)
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Adding the ability to subscribe to a module(Status: Work yet to begin)
So, as it can be seen, most of our objectives were met, one was dropped from the plan and two are yet to be implemented. Out of the two that are pending, work on one of them has already begun and work on the other one is yet to start. I am hoping to complete both of them before the GSoC results are declared but even if that is not possible, I will make sure I implement them.
Contributions
Pull Requests
Weekly Blog Posts
Resources
Future Works
We have two important features that are pending. So, those two features are surely to be included in this section. Apart from that, maybe we could improve the code coverage for the UI since UI testing is something we started just recently and hence there are not many tests that exist at this moment.
Thoughts on GSoC
Firstly, I want to thank both my mentors @darius and @ruhanga for their immense patience, support and commitment. Had it not been for their support, I would have dropped out of this GSoC long back because of how tough it was getting to manage everything. GSoC 2019 has been just as challenging an experience as it was back in 2017. This year though, the challenges were totally different from those faced back in Gsoc 2017. In 2017, my main challenge was figuring everything out! I was overwhelmed with the amount of new tech I had to learn. This year was more about managing GSoC among the rest of my commitments, while I was ill and while I was travelling 
. That being said, GSoC still has been a life changing experience and contributing to OpenMRS and being a part of this amazing community has surely been one of the better decisions I have made in my life. And just like GSoC 2017, I end this blog post saying that the end of this GSoC period does not mark the end of my contributions and work with OpenMRS!