[Opensource] Call For Volunteers - DB Testing! :)

[Michael Rimov]

Hey All,

One of Expresso's big claim to fame right now is it's database 
independence.  Of course that isn't an easy thing to do given the wide 
variety of database implementations and bugs in JDBC drivers, etc.

What I'd REALLY love to see is have a set of volunteers that are willing to 
test Expresso early access releases so we can be sure that everybody's 
database is supported.  I'd like to propose the following groundwork for 
this volunteer work:

1 - Don't worry about volunteering for a database that you don't use in 
your own production work and you aren't familiar with already. I'm not 
interested in dumping large loads on people for databases they don't even use.

2 - Test reports should be submitted once per ea release after basic 
stability is reached.  What this would mean is that for each ea that is 
available, you download it and give it a spin.  However, I think it unfair 
to make you spend testing time for the less stable ea's.  So I'd like to 
make it so that I would call for reports when I think things are stable 
enough to start putting Expresso to the test.  For example, I think ea-3 is 
pretty much ready for such testing, and ea-4 will DEFINITELY be ready in my 
mind for such compatibility testing.

3 - You would be responsible for maintaining the config file information 
for your database in the Expresso docs while you are registered as a volunteer.

4 - We'd all agree on some sort 'test suite' to run.  A good example would be:

-Run the DBCreate servlet on your database for the ExpressoSchema

-Set up a test context and run the ExpressoTestSuite unit test suite 
against your database

[Of course, I'd be happy to help you guys set yourselves up for such unit 
testing]

5 - We've have a way to go through the report, fill in the blanks and 
submit it to us.

6 - There is no long term obligation.  If, for any reason, you can't keep 
up, then let me know and you'll be free from all such duties.  If, at a 
later time, you think you can spend some time, then great, sign up 
again!  However, I would expect you to keep your word in that while you are 
on the 'volunteer list', that you make an effort to keep up to date with 
the ea releases.

7 - You are also volunteering to test any patches we send to remedy any 
compatibility problems.

Anyway, so here's a list of databases out there that would be great to say 
we support and the ones I'm currently doing most development testing 
against.  There are a few that are *'ed for the volunteer, and that means 
that I can test it, but time constraints are preventing me from testing it 
as thoroughly as I'd like.  So if you'd like to volunteer for a *'ed item 
it would be much appreciated!

Database					Volunteer
--------------------------------------------------------------
MySQL				|		*
PostgreSQL			|		Mike Rimov
Firebird w/Interclient		|		Mike Rimov
Firebird w/JDBC Type IV  	|
InterBase 6.5+			|				
SapDB				|		Mike Rimov
Oracle				|
DB2				|
Sybase				|
Microsoft SQL Server		|		*
Hypersonic			|		*
OpenBase			|
PointBase			|
Adabas				|

Of course, if you personally use a database that's not listed, you're 
welcome to volunteer for that one too!

Let me know if you're interested in taking on one of the configurations for 
testing!  I'm working on a more automated system for myself to allow me to 
regularly test different databases on a frequent basis, in which case, some 
of those starred items might go away.

Thanks for reading! ;)
						-Mike