The Path to IPM 1.0

[kuszewski]

InterSystems is excited to start using IPM in a big and serious way. And with that in mind, I've recently started working on IPM with one goal - Get to IPM 1.0. Which leads us to…

What is IPM 1.0?

This is the question I’ve been asking teams in InterSystems. And I’ve included their list below. But I’m really interested in what you – the IPM community – envision for the 1.0 milestone. Please comment below!

Here’s what I’ve heard so far:

• Officially Supported by InterSystems: Customers should be able to call the WRC and get assistance in with creating packages, installing IPM, and the basics of running IPM. The author of the packages, as is today, would support the code in the package itself.
• Merge with the (Internal to InterSystems) HealthShare IPM tool: In order to really adopt IPM, there needs to be only one IPM codebase. Importantly, the one IPM codebase needs to be here in GitHub. The HS IPM tool is functionally very similar to this repo, but it’s renamed all the classes to IPM instead of %ZPM and taken the opportunity to reorganize the code. (I’ll create a separate discussion on this topic. It’s big!)
• Secure Internet-based Package Distribution: We’re offering to contribute a number of additional security features to IPM. The two that are top-of-mind at the moment are signed packages and (perhaps) adding support for another type of repository that uses a commercially available protocol.
• Pre-Installed with InterSystems IRIS: Obviously, this is a big milestone for InterSystems and it makes the use of IPM far easier. Down the line, it’ll allow us to make some older components into packages that can be optionally installed.
• Improvements to the IPM Audit Trail: Additional information in the IPM Audit Trail

Got other ideas? Concerns, let me know!