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52 lines
3.1 KiB
Markdown
52 lines
3.1 KiB
Markdown
# 4. Code sharing between Vector and Minerva Skins
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Date: 2024-03-07
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Updated: 2024-03-19
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## Status
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Accepted.
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## Context
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Exploring effective strategies for code sharing between Vector and Minerva Skins to reduce duplication and improve maintenance. Key options considered include creating a Composer library for shared functionalities, duplicating code in both skins, and moving shared code to the MediaWiki core.
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On the short term this relates to solving the problem at T359606 and on the long term this might apply to things like the feature management system.
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## Decision
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After thorough consideration, the following options are under evaluation for code sharing between Vector and Minerva Skins:
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- **Creating a Composer Library**: Centralizing shared functionalities to reduce duplication and improve update management.
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- **Duplicating Code**: Implementing similar functionalities independently in both skins, prioritizing flexibility and skin-specific optimizations.
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- **Moving Shared Code to MediaWiki Core**: Leveraging the core platform to provide shared functionalities, enhancing accessibility and consistency across skins.
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After some more discussion some other options emerged:
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- **A git submodule** that is initialized inside Minerva and Vector.
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- **A shell script** that copies the files from Vector to Minerva.
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- **Making Minerva depend on Vector** add a soft dependency on Vector from Minerva.
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We assessed each option on development efficiency, maintenance, and the ability to support future enhancements. After discussion there was agreement among the team about the following:
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- Composer libraries should not depend on MediaWiki in any way.
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- Ideally shared skin code should live in MediaWiki core
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- Code in core should not be specific to Minerva and Vector and should be generally useful and should not be rushed.
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We recognized the fact that often the web team needs to balance shipping products and agreed on the following:
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**On the short term we would make Minerva depend on Vector**
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Reasoning:
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- This minimizes disruption to third parties. If we were to use a submodule, this would alter how people upgrade/install Vector.
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- We think that there are few installs where Minerva is installed but Vector isn't. In Minerva we can use a soft dependency to avoid breaking changes.
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- It would avoid issues relating to ensure Minerva and Vector's submodules are in sync and using the same version. For example, it would be possible
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with the submodule approach that Vector and Minerva use different versions of the shared skin.
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- Minerva would automatically benefit from updates to Vevtor.
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- Since Minerva and Vector are in the CI pipeline, our integration tests should protect against making breaking changes.
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## Consequences
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The shared repository is intended as a way to manage code shared between Vector and Minerva more efficiently. However the expectation is that when
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code is shared it should eventually be upstreamed to core and a Phabricator ticket should document that.
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For example, T360452 has been created for the long term solution for our immediate need.
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The sharing of code, means we must consider the Vector code a stable interface for Minerva to use.
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