You can download it from google code.

Inside the archive there are 2 files:

• the meeting configuration file (eConference_configuration.ecx), that contains some editable settings;
• a sample list of user stories (SampleBacklog.xml) that the moderator can load after the starting of meeting.

There is a default jabber account (participant1) that you can use to do some test.

You can invite your gtalk friend to the meeting adding a new expert element as child of participants element like following:

<role:participants>
...
<role:expert>
<role:fullname>Fabio Calefato</role:fullname>
<role:email>calefato@di.uniba.it</role:email>
<role:organization>Uniba</role:organization>
<role:id>calefato.uniba@gmail.com</role:id>
</role:expert>
...
</role:participants>

1. I coded Story#4

2. I coded Story#19,

3. I coded Story#20. The Backlog is saved in the AgilePlanner XML format that is a user stories representation format. In this way the user could edit user stories graphically using Agile Planner.

4. I have created an XMPP extension to notify a new participant estimation:

<card-selection xmlns="http://cdg.di.uniba.it/xcore/jabber">
<who>alessandro@jabber.org</who>
<storyId>2</storyId>
<cardValue>1</cardValue>
</card-selection>

5. I coded the Story#13 and I completed the Estimates View adding two buttons: one to allow moderator to set the final estimate and one to allow moderator to repeat the estimation.

Estimates View

When the Accept button was pressed, a new xmpp extension was sent to other participants:

<estimate-assigned xmlns="http://cdg.di.uniba.it/xcore/jabber">
 <storyId>2</storyId>
 <estimate>1</estimate>
</estimate-assigned>

6. I added the special privileges images. Following image show how scribes and voters appears in the “who’s on”.

Special Privileges usage

7. I coded Story#16. Now moderator can easily add/remove cards from deck of all participants using the following dialog.

Deck Editor

8. I added some system notification messages to notify some important events to participants. This messages that appear in the message board and are used in following situations:

• when card deck is enable/disable, so participant can/can’t select a card;
• when all participants(voters) have selected their card, so all estimates are visible in the Estimates View;
• when  moderator assign the final estimate to the story;
• when moderator estabilish the need of restimate the story;

What will I do?

With the previous changes I have completed the basic features of my plug-in. We have done a few test and application seems work right.

There are many other things to do but now…I’ll write my thesis!!!

• Story#16
• Story#17
• Story#18

What did I do?

1. For the Story#13, I created a new object Estimates that represents an estimate session with the start date and the id of the estimated User Story.

This object is a list in which each item contains the Id of a participant and the string value of his selected card. Everytime that moderator select a new card to estimate, a new estimates session is created.  When all participants have selected their card, estimates are shown in the estimate view like in the figure:

2. I coded the Story#18. Now in eConference it is possible to add more than one special role/privileges to a participant. I replaced the SpecialRoleNotificationPacket with the new SpecialPrivilegeNotificationPacket, that has the following structures:

<special-privilege>
<who></who>
<specialPrivilege></specialPrivilege>
<action></action>
</special-privilege>

where the:

• tag specialPrivilege contains the String that identify the privilege (SCRIBE, VOTER);
• tag action contains the action type (GRANT, REVOKE)
• tag who contains the id of the target participant to whom the action is addressed.

3. I added the support for read the personal status message of a participant (as you can read in gtalk). Since changes made in the previous Story, the personal status message appears in the place of the special role, i.e. near the participant’s nickname.

4. I coded the Story#17. The realization of this apparently simple Story, was a bit complicated.

The first part was easy: I added another text box to the dialog that appears to join the Planning Poker session, and in which a participant can select his own nickname.

My initial intention was to use the personal status message of a Buddy to contains chosen role (for this reason I did what I decribed in point 3. ).

The problem was born when I tried to get the personal status of a participant from the chat room. The object that represents the information about an occupant in a given room is the Occupant Object. This object does not allow to get the status of the occupant.

So, in the end I created a new Packet Extension called MUCPersonalStatusChangedPacket that allow to set and change a new personal status in a chat room.

The personal status appears near the participant nickname (as for personal message status) in the who’s on view, so that other participant can see it in a room.

What will I do?

See previous post.

I don’t think mind what I have done on holiday, so let me speak about my past week of code.  Yes, I coded a lot of beautiful things: the views.

1. Backlog View

What did I do?

Probably I have completed the BacklogView. This is how it appears at this point:

The Backlog View

There are:

• the button to start and stop the eConference in the Backlog view
• the list of the User Stories
• the current User Story to estimate, that  is boldfaced
• the context menu for add, edit, delete and estimate a single story (enable for moderator only)

Actually, application use a default representation of the User Stories (Name, Priority, Description and Estimate), but with the Abstract Factory design patter should be easier to add support for other representations.

Our idea is to define a standard XML representation of a User Story and use this one in the application. In fact, in the bottom left of the view, there is a button to load the list of User Stories from a file. This feature will not be implemented until the definition of standard representation is ready.

2. The Deck View

What did I do?

I’m quite finishing coding Deck View. In the realization of the objects model of this view I have pointed out 3 needs:

• isolate the representation of the card deck: deck can consists of a different number of cards, and can be modified dinamically by adding or removing cards;
• isolate the representation of cards: cards could contain different information besides the Story Points (card value). In the research part of my thesis (described in this post) it could be necessary to enrich cards with information such as:  level of confidence, text, and so on.
• isolate the graphical representation of the cards: the cards can be designed as button, as list item, as images depeding of different factors, for example the representation format of a single card.

So, even in this situation I have used the Abstract Factory design pattern to met previous points.

Actually, story cards are represented just by the card value, and are painted as toggle button with associated image.

I implemented the Story #11:  when user select a card, the beckend send a message like the follow one:

<card-selection xmlns="http://cdg.di.uniba.it/xcore/jabber">
<who>test-pp@conference.ugres.di.uniba.it/alessandro.brucoli</who>
<card>2</card>
</card-selection>

What will I do?

Depending on the information stored in a deck card, previous message has to be modified.

So another need is:

• isolate the representation of the CardSelection Packet Extension, adapting its content to the information stored in the cards.

For example we should send a message like this:

<card-selection xmlns="http://cdg.di.uniba.it/xcore/jabber">
<who>test-pp@conference.ugres.di.uniba.it/alessandro.brucoli</who>
<card>2</card>
<confidence-level>1</confidence-level>
<reason>I'm an expert</reason>
</card-selection>

To do this, it might be useful create a factory that creates the relative Packet Extension Product. This extension, like the Backlog Packet Extension, should provides the method to create the xml message format and to parse it.

3. The Estimate View

What did I do?

I have created the PlanningPokerModelListener class that listen when participants select a card.

What will I do?

Next step is to implement a method that register participant’s vote, and display the result in the view (Story #13).

Another idea, is to store the estimates assigned to a Story in the previous estimations, in order to know how many re-estimation have been made for a single story and which are the differences beetwen the various estimation (Story #15). This could help moderator deciding when stop the estimation activity (in the case of many re-estimation with similar values) or to change the User Story (in the case of big differences beetween values).

That’s all.

Next post after the 25 August!