Potential move towards Editions
Hi everyone
Over the past couple of years we've noticed a trend towards requests for Edition packages containing multiple combined modules, rather than individual extensions/derivatives that are dependent upon other packages.
In addition, some of our Managed Service work (in particular wrt the Common French + Common German content) is driving us in this direction as a natural part of the products' evolution.
We'd therefore like to open the discussion on whether or not we should start moving towards producing more Editions, with an eventual aim of publishing most of our products in Edition format.
Would this make things easier for yourselves as consumers?
Would it make things easier/more difficult for smaller users such as affiliates and licensees?
What are the benefits / drawbacks of such a move?
Thanks very much
Andrew
Comments
Certainly our previous overwhelming feedback publishing the Australian Edition was that implementers wanted a ready to use package, not parts and assembly instructions.
The main issue with extension packages is that they still leave you with some work to do prior to being able to use them, and that work needs to be done consistently by all implementers to get the same result. The main steps are
finding and getting the correct base edition to apply the extension package to
correctly applying the extension package and calculating the correct resultant snapshot state - they
Edition packages main advantage is they take this work away by including the base edition content and pre-applying the extension content into a ready to use artefact which is less work for implementation.
But removing this work also reduces the risk that these steps will be incorrectly performed, which increases when every implementer is performing those steps rather than those being performed centrally and provided in a precalculated edition package. For example if the extension is applied to the wrong base edition (or version of that edition), or the snapshot resolution isn't correctly calculated then the resultant states may be different - depending on the size and complexity of the extension. This is probably the bigger issue.
Edition packages also remove the ambiguity around modules that have been included in a package that aren't part of the MDRS - composition versus dependency. This happens all the time, but the rules and data for reproducing this aren't consistent. For example, if an extension package is created relative to a base edition, and that base edition contains a module that isn't represented in the base edition or extension packages MDRS, should that module be present in the calculated extension edition after it is applied to the base edition? Edition packages resolve those questions by precalculating.
Derivatives (maps and reference sets, even language translations) don't typically the same level of problem because they don't modify components declared in upstream modules. This simplifies the snapshot state calculation issues to the point where the derivatives can be simply appended, and they are more easily appended to different editions if they are published as extension packages. Publishing a small derivative (such as a single map) as an edition package would also be fairly onerous and large for the content present.
So for those reasons I think
derivatives make most sense as extension packages
extensions make most sense as edition packages
I like the idea, but I still would like to also have the national releases as extension packages, so it for example would be possible to create an installation with both the Swedish and Finnish translations.
I very much like the idea of editions for at least national releases. I think publishing Extensions, just creates another obstacle (combining extension+core to make get something useable) for a lot of users.
For the international derivatives, that are mostly refsets (with the necessary metadata)
Would the be an edition per package? - e.g. GP/FP edition, General Dentisry edition, Odontogram edition...
How to I combine packages if I want "two editions" - e.g. General Dentisry edition, Odontogram edition..
Does SI just produce a single "super edition" with all these derivatives? - If so why use core? or What if I don't want everything?
I think leaving them as extensions is preferable. (Even pulling some of the non-essential derivatives that currently included in core out might be nice )
Alternatively/Additionally - A tool (webservice) where I could select the components for a custom edition would be very cool.
Though what is the edition URI for these custom editions? We'd probably need some rules to help work out what is interoperable between editions. That gets messy...