Chart 7.x-3.x Release [#2376179]

This issue was created as suggested in the last paragraph of comment #14 in issue #2371075: Chart 7.x-2.x Release. It will be used as the issue ID in the warning message that will be shown in any site that upgraded to the release related to #2371075: Chart 7.x-2.x Release.

At this time various options are being considered regarding future versions of the chart module, including the possibilities detailed in #2371075-14: Chart 7.x-2.x Release.

Another option being considered is related to 2 specific chart issues, which might be a valid starting point to help existing chart users to address the imposed deadline of April 2015:

provide a migration path from chart to charts, starting from #1196712: New Interactive Google Charts API?.
provide an upgrade path from chart 7.x-1.x (maybe also 6.x-1.x if possible ...) to chart 7.x-2.x (maybe also 6.x-1.x if possible ...), starting from #1305976: Initial interactive/JS Google Chart Tools implementation.

Obviously this issue is related to Drupal 7. Continued support for Drupal 6 seems appropriate, because of what's written in bullet 3 of #2371567-2: Chart 6.x-2.x Release. Support for Drupal 8 is currently considered as "lower priority" (because of the April 2015 deadline).

This issue will be used as the parent issue to track progress towards the release of a 7.x-3.x version of chart. To mark an issue for being considered for inclusion in this release, select this issue as the parent issue in such issue. Current child issues of #2371075: Chart 7.x-2.x Release that don't make it in that release, will be updated to use this issue instead. Using such parent links seems to be the easiest way to get the data entry done also. Moreover, it'll automatically also make it clear what in the end the release blockers might be (i.e. any issues with a status different from fixed or closed).

Note: anything related to this issue, is based on contributions from people who for whatever reason decided to do so. Additional contributions from others would be really appreciated, priority 1 = addressing the April 2015 deadline. Here are a few suggestions about how to contribute:

Modules depending on the chart module. Does anybody know a way to identify them? If you've done something already to address this deadline, share your experience (what you did, etc).
Sites just using the chart module directly, so not because of some dependency in another module. If you've done something already to address this deadline, share your experience (what you did, etc).
If you're a maintainer of another module related to charting and interested in "joining forces": please speak up, and consider becoming a co-maintainer of chart also.
Anybody interested in sponsoring this effort: contact the current module maintainers for details about available options.

Comments

Comment #1

Pierre.Vriens CreditAttribution: Pierre.Vriens commented 16 November 2014 at 17:49

Title:	Chart 7.x-1.3	» Chart 7.x-1.3 Release
Issue summary:	View changes

Comment #2

Pierre.Vriens CreditAttribution: Pierre.Vriens commented 17 November 2014 at 10:23

Title:	Chart 7.x-1.3 Release	» Chart 7.x-2.x Release
Issue summary:	View changes
Related issues:		+#2368793: Chart 2.0

Comment #3

Pierre.Vriens CreditAttribution: Pierre.Vriens commented 8 December 2014 at 12:17

Title:	Chart 7.x-2.x Release	» Chart 7.x-3.x Release
Issue summary:	View changes

Updating this issue as per #2371075-20: Chart 7.x-2.x Release.

Comment #4

Pierre.Vriens CreditAttribution: Pierre.Vriens commented 21 December 2014 at 09:10

Issue summary:

View changes

Comment #5

13rac1 CreditAttribution: 13rac1 commented 23 March 2015 at 22:25

Status:

Active

» Closed (won't fix)

I've set the 6.x/7.x releases for this module to unsupported so users will be notified of Google's deprecation of the Google Chart Tools: Image Charts.

Websites using the module will continue to function until Google shuts the API down.

Google's current stance on this matter is:

Important: While the dynamic and interactive Google Charts are actively maintained, we officially deprecated the static Google Image Charts way back in 2012. This gives us the right to turn it off without notice, although we have no plans to do so.

Consider this the "Google is serious; they've done it before and will do it again" warning. :)

Maintainers: Please do not change the status of the releases unless an upgrade path is available in the module. "Unsupported" is the only way we can notify the 26,471 sites using this module that the required API may be shutdown at any time.

Comment #6

Pierre.Vriens CreditAttribution: Pierre.Vriens commented 23 March 2015 at 22:30

Status:

Closed (won't fix)

» Active

@eorei: I disagree with your status change in this issue. Please undo your intervention on the project page.

Also, are you aware of my comment in #2368793-32: Chart 2.0? If so, can you think of a way to get an answer to my question there?

Comment #7

13rac1 CreditAttribution: 13rac1 commented 23 March 2015 at 22:44

I'm attempting to wind down usage of this module cleanly. I cannot, in good conscience, allow 25k websites to suddenly stop working without the owners being notified. Setting the releases to unsupported is the only way to do it.

Comment #8

Pierre.Vriens CreditAttribution: Pierre.Vriens commented 30 March 2015 at 17:54

Thank you Brad (@eosrei) for the undo of your actions in #5. And yes I fully agree with the spirit of your #5.

Regarding #7: I believe that is not the right approach. Instead an approach as we agreed (I think) around [2371075-10] looks more appropriate.

Also, if you haven't done so yet, you may want to look at:

#2371075-22: Chart 7.x-2.x Release - my attempt to provoke something to happen.
#2377647-8: Offering to maintain Charts - my proposal for what IMHO looks like the best possible alternative.

Note that nobody ever provided any feedback about either of both comments. Therefor I'm assuming that, implicitly, everybody agrees to my plan-b approach.

Comment #9

PhobosK CreditAttribution: PhobosK commented 26 March 2015 at 06:32

I've set the 6.x/7.x releases for this module to unsupported so users will be notified of Google's deprecation of the Google Chart Tools: Image Charts.....

....Maintainers: Please do not change the status of the releases unless an upgrade path is available in the module. "Unsupported" is the only way we can notify the 26,471 sites using this module that the required API may be shutdown at any time.

I strongly disagree with your decision to set the module to unsupported to "notify" the users.... This is a very ugly "resolution" of the problem you are describing above.....

This way you are messing up the whole updates/upgrades notification system of Drupal... I (and maybe most of the 26,471 users of this module) use the Drupal's email notify about updates/upgrades system to keep track of their Drupal's health and get notifications and update the Drupal when needed..... With your change now I get notification about such an upgrade(unsupported module) everyday now, rendering the notification system totally useless, 'cause I need to go and check manually what is going on (on #overlay=admin/reports/updates/update )......

Please consider bringing back the latest working version and releasing a new version containing some small code changes that will warn the user properly when using the module (or seeing its results). This way Drupal's notification functionality will be kept....

Comment #10

iainH CreditAttribution: iainH commented 26 March 2015 at 20:20

I have to agree with PhobosK; generating these warnings every day is inappropriate as it devalues the whole (security) updates notification system.

Moreover, there is no clear recommendation of what action to take to remedy the situation.

I imagine that a large proportion users of chart will be those with Google Analytics Reporting's dependency. Does this mean that we should tell our users that they will no longer be able to see Google Analytics Reports on their websites and that we'll have to give them access to a Google Analytics account instead? This will be a lot of work by a lot of people.

Comment #11

Pierre.Vriens CreditAttribution: Pierre.Vriens commented 27 March 2015 at 15:59

@PhobosK and @iainH: I fully agree with both your viewpoints. Which is also why "for now" I have re-activated the D6/D7 releases. Please confirm that with that you have a temporary solution (if not let me know what else is needed) to not get those msgs daily.

I do realize that by this temporary fix (undo), I take a huge risk that Brad (eosrei) is not going to agree with me (for the reasons he mentioned before). If that's the case I'm open for discussion with the stakeholders involved, i.e. eosrei, boombatower (!!!) and me, a discussion that I do not want to have in public, preferably with somebody like @dddave involved also. If Brad or boombatower want to undo my re-activation of D6/D7 again, please do so. In that case I will respect your decission, given your status as the module owners, etc (and sorry then for all those impacted chart users).

Be aware: if I am allowed to continue my "plans" for chart, then soon there will be a new release for chart, which no longer depends on the unsupported google library. Just in case anybody asks "How soon?" ... here is my answer: simply ASAP, but not before ... Unless somebody "sponsors" me to move faster ...

Comment #12

PhobosK CreditAttribution: PhobosK commented 27 March 2015 at 17:08

@Pierre.Vriens,
Thanks for your attitude and efforts to fix this (and the module as a whole)....

The problem is not in if the releases are shown or not. The "Development status" of "No further development" should be changed appropriately in order the notification mess-up to be fixed :)

As a side note... I do not see why you should be so worried about the possible disagreeable reaction by Brad (eosrei) or anyone else (no matter if project's owner or not)... This is an open source project and one of its main objectives (including its authors/owners) should be to get better by taking into consideration the users' ideas, propositions, bug reports etc. And what was done in this particular case may seem a proper solution, but it is just a plain and easy "resolution"... There is a better one anyway... Besides the Google API is still working OK (as the module does) and you are after some real resolution of the whole problem... so no reason to "fix" the things by setting to "No further development"

Anyway... I think there is no need in discussing this further...

Thanks again for your desire to work on this specific resolution and to find out a way out in the development of this module :)

Comment #13

Pierre.Vriens CreditAttribution: Pierre.Vriens commented 28 March 2015 at 00:40

Thank you PhobosK for your support and kudos. I would "love" to change the Development Status as you suggested. However who am I at this very moment as compared to the various contributions (commits!) from Brad (eosrei) or Boombatower. So out of respect for their work before, I think it's best for me to wait for either one of them to change the status as you suggested.

However, the day I "release" my very first chart commits (for testing by the community, etc), I hope nobody will then have any reasons left why I should not change the status to "active development". Give me some more time to also publish my "roadmap" (long term strategy), which for short can be summarized as follows:

No more support for GIC (obvious, that's what the famous deadine is all about).
Use either of the charting engines supported by charts (with s), but with as minimal impact as possible for existing chart users (that resolves the issue that there seems to be no documented "upgrade" path from chart to charts).
Add support for other charting engines (libraries), especially open source libraries like pChart, and probably also d3.js and Svg Graph (for cases where you don't have an internet connection, or where you're looking for an alternative for the commercial license of Highcharts).
Consolidate other charting modules by merging them into the chart module (compliant with my chart 2.0 ambition).

Note that anybody who decides to change from chart to charts (as suggested for such a long time now), will not depend on the timing/completion of various steps in the roadmap above. I'd hope that my community documentation efforts from the recent past, for both chart and charts, will help those who want to change to charts.

A pitty though that nobody from those 26K sites seems to be willing to somehow step in (contribute) to help me achiieve my goal. And my "sponsor" that was mentioned on the (updated) project page got removed again (because it was considered as advertising, which I believe is not the case).

Comment #14

PhobosK CreditAttribution: PhobosK commented 28 March 2015 at 06:19

Seems like the releases problem fixed the notification issue and I was wrong about the needed development status change...

Thanks for the fix...

And I would say quite a good roadmap you have...

Comment #15

13rac1 CreditAttribution: 13rac1 commented 31 March 2015 at 19:25

I did not make this decision lightly. I checked with five other members of the Drupal community beforehand, then confirmed with an additional six this last weekend at the New Orleans DrupalCamp. Everyone recommended disabling releases.

@PhobosK and @iainH: I did not disable releases to inconvenience you. I did it so that the 100s of new installs of this module every week would stop. Hundreds of developer hours are being wasted on new implementations as I write this. A warning message for administrative users and a daily email is a far better option than the complete failure of newly built website.

Disable the module. It is an evolutionary dead-end. The solution is to replace this module with any of the existing Drupal charting modules. An upgrade path would be nice, but no one has created it. Pierre.Vriens put a lot of time in creating the https://www.drupal.org/node/2363985 which shows there are already enough competing Drupal charting modules. We don't need additional fragmentation in the Drupal contrib module ecosystem.

@Pierre.Vriens You have been a co-maintainer of this project for nearly six months. boombatower added you with the understanding you would be creating an upgrade path for the existing user base before Google's unspecified deadline ran out. Please do it soon.

Comment #16

Pierre.Vriens CreditAttribution: Pierre.Vriens at In Petto commented 31 March 2015 at 21:39

Brad (aka @eosrei): thank you for this additional update in the previous comment. Just 1 thought about it: and why was "I" not informed or contacted before your intervention? I was even around ... in Washington ... (compared to where I'm now I was close ...).

Anyway, I want to move on from here and consider "this" the point of no return for chart 2.0.

PS: Tomorrow I have a "special" meeting (conference call). Depending on how it turns out I might add another update here.

Comment #17

13rac1 CreditAttribution: 13rac1 commented 31 March 2015 at 22:49

@Pierre.Vriens: Yes, I could have discussed this further. I apologize for not informing you beforehand. Disabling this module in late Match 2015 has been an event scheduled on my calendar since 2013. There was no progress on an upgrade path in the repository(http://cgit.drupalcode.org/chart), the unknown deadline changed to: any time, yet installs continued (as you've mentioned in other issues), so I disabled downloads.

FWIW if this module is set back to unsupported again: Anyone who wishes to use this soon-to-break module anyway can download/install the 7.x-1.x development version via git or drush, then disable the unsupported notification using https://www.drupal.org/project/update_advanced or drush:
drush pm-updatecode --lock=chart

Comment #18

iainH CreditAttribution: iainH commented 31 March 2015 at 23:10

A bit confused by the conversation so far.
Google Analytics Reports has chart as a dependency. Are you saying there is another module that provides to google_analytics_reports the same API as chart that can be used instead?