2024-05-09 Frontend Working Group Meeting Notes: Plugin Slots

 Date, time, location

• Date:Feb 29, 2024 at 15:00 UTC (timezone converter)

• Location: https://meet.google.com/cxz-yjwi-gvi

 Discussion topic(s)

Standardizing plugin slots.

🎥Recording

• Video: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1vLYtwsPQrzNhN4TsxxWEwuveM9nq8Zzp&usp=drive_copy

• Chat: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1avl4wzlxxXz8YoE6lf407iVmKcWwzRad&usp=drive_copy

• Transcript: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1tS-IrrQvvoAuM2LkyE5qzoVzNhX_9JFietDOiGgN0cg&usp=drive_copy

 Participants

Adolfo Brandes, Brayan Cerón, Brian Smith, Fox Piacenti, Glib Glugovskiy, Hina Khadim, Jason Wesson, Jesper Hodge, Marlon Keating, Max Frank, Mohamed Rafeeh Ibrahim, Zameel Hassan

🤖 Summary

1. Redwood Cutoff and Milestones:

   • Upcoming Redwood cutoff in two hours.

   • Review of tasks and milestones, including the standardization of plugin slots and conversion to the frontend component header.

   • A PR related to the header replacement is pending review.

   • Additional tasks include addressing an agenda mail block variance and minor fixes for string replacements and plugin work.

2. Header and Learner Dashboard Update:

   • Ongoing efforts to replace the header with the Open edX version.

   • Some tasks still pending and need follow-up from specific teams.

3. Brian Smith’s Update on Standardizing Plugin Slots:

   • Introduction of a standardized approach for plugin slots across MFEs.

   • Detailed documentation and example codes for each slot.

   • Discussion on how to handle dependencies and updates without breaking existing implementations.

   • Future goals include having reusable slots across all MFEs.

4. Discussion on Implementation and Usage:

   • Questions about the adoption and implementation of new slots.

   • Clarification on the impact of the new implementation on existing codebases and future projects.

5. Tutor Users and Plugin Slots:

   • Exploration of how tutor users can utilize plugin slots, considering current limitations.

   • Possible solutions include forking MFEs or mounting directories at build time.

6. Runtime Theming and Design Tokens:

   • Max Frank inquired about the support for external CSS themes using Paragon.

   • Brian Smith confirmed this aligns with ongoing design tokens efforts and provided a Slack channel for further discussions.

7. Frontend Study Group:

   • Max Frank shared a document to track topics for the Frontend Study Group.

   • Encouragement for community contributions and participation.

   • Plans to organize and schedule future study group meetings and topics.

8. Finalizing Modular MFEs:

   • Discussion on the potential of using Vite over Webpack for better performance.

   • Consideration of implementation details and the impact on the current workflow.

9. Repository Management:

   • Addressing the challenge of maintaining numerous repositories.

   • Discussion on the feasibility of mono repos versus the current setup.

Next Steps:

• Final Redwood planning session to assess the release status and address any last-minute issues.

• Continued efforts on plugin slot standardization and runtime theming.

• Follow-up on pending PRs and tasks related to the frontend component header and learner dashboard.

 Action items

 Decisions