Many Lightweight Views into Complex Repository Content: Enabling Rapid Application Development for Fedora Repositories

Abstract

In the repository world, there is an increasingly popular vision for creating a multitude of user-driven interfaces that act as windows into complex, long lived content. We want to build these applications around our users' real needs. We want to build them quickly, and we want to refine them over time as we and our users gain increasing insight into the possibilities that lie before us. The techniques and technologies of Rapid Application Development (RAD), along with Agile process, are extremely well suited for pursuing this vision. Until recently, a number of factors have prevented us from using RAD with repositories.

This session will look at how techniques of Rapid Application Development (RAD) have changed the landscape around Fedora repositories. After looking at some lightweight applications developed for Fedora projects, we will cover an introduction to the idea of RAD, an analysis of the obstacles to using RAD with repositories, and a discussion of the current developments occurring around Fedora now that RAD is an option in this sphere.