[dna-dev] Time to begin the rebranding (and SVN is locked down)

[Randall Hauch]

The 0.7 release is out the door, so now it is time to rebrand as ModeShape.  This won't be an easy few days, but it's better in the long run.

Why are we rebranding? Basically, we need our own brand that we control and that is about what we do.  Having "JBoss" in the name comes with a lot of benefit, but there are some disadvantages. For a lot of people, "JBoss" means "Application Server", and though we hope to play a role with AS in the future, right now our JCR implementation is completely independent of AS.  For other people, "JBoss" means products (a la subscriptions and support), and ours is an open-source project that, at this point in time, is not included in any of the current JBoss platforms.  So, if we lose the "JBoss" part of "JBoss DNA", we're left with "DNA", and unfortunately that's just not sufficient for a project name from a trademark or legal perspective.

So, we've chosen to rebrand our project as "ModeShape".  In structural dynamics, the term "mode shape" is used to help describe and understand how a structure responds dynamically to some force or input.  And it seemed to fit a project with goals of making it possible to understand the shape and structure of information and content. (Okay, maybe that's a stretch. But you get the idea.)

We already have acquired all the resources for the new name:
we have a Magnolia project for the ModeShape JBoss.org site (http://www.jboss.org/modeshape), though it's not yet active as I haven't published it yet
we own the 'modeshape.org' domain is ours, and http://www.modeshape.org will soon redirect to http://www.jboss.org/modeshape, and we'll be able to use 'org.modeshape' for our package names.
we have a new JIRA, and I will be moving all of the DNA issues into the ModeShape JIRA.  Our issues will be of the form "MODE-XYZ"
plus a new SVN repository, new mailing lists, new blog site, new Twitter account, and new Ohloh project.
we have a new logo design and should soon have the images we need

Here are the first steps:

The JBoss DNA SVN has already been locked down, and no more changes can be made to it.  DONE!
All of the history from the DNA SVN has already been loaded into the ModeShape SVN.  Basically, it looks exactly like the DNA repository did right after the 0.7 release. But at the moment, it is locked down as well, pending the next step.  DONE!
I will move all DNA JIRAs (all of them, including those that are complete or incomplete) to the ModeShape JIRA. Any links to DNA issues will automatically redirect to the corresponding issue in the ModeShape JIRA. The numbers won't match, but JIRA has it's own way of doing things.
I've started renaming the projects, packages and classes.  The projects will go from 'dna-...' to 'modeshape-...", and our package structure will go from "org.jboss.dna..." to "org.modeshape...".  And any class that has "DNA" in the name will be renamed. I will then commit these changes to the ModeShape SVN.  I will also move all of the JIRA issues from DNA to 
I will then open up the ModeShape SVN, and you could switch your development environments over to use https://svn.jboss.org/repos/modeshape/trunk . But at this point, we still only want to change JavaDoc, comments, and the documents.

After this is done, we'll release ModeShape 1.0.0.Beta1, which will essentially be the same thing as DNA 0.7 except with the new brand, new module names, and updated documentation.  We'll publish the http://jboss.org/modeshape project, and we'll start publicizing everywhere we can. And, the code in SVN will be changed to be 1.0.0.GA-SNAPSHOT, and we can continue fixing issues, completing any part of the rebranding, and working towards 100% TCK runs and 1.0.0.GA!

What can you do now?  
Sign up for the new mailing lists at https://lists.jboss.org/mailman/listinfo/.  As usual, we have modeshape-announce at ..., modeshape-commits at ..., modeshape-dev at ..., modeshape-issues at ..., and modeshape-users at ....
If you're on Twitter, follow @modeshape and retweet when the time comes
If you use an RSS reader, add our new blog at http://modeshape.wordpress.com/.  No need to do anything if you're already subscribed to the JBoss Feed. 
If you have any local changes, create some patches and edit them so that they'll work with the new project names and package structure
Relax for a few days while I do my magic with JIRA and SVN

As always, ask if you have questions.

Best regards,

Randall
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