Legal Team/Templatizing/ReviewXML

Plan for review of XML license file

The files can be found here: https://github.com/spdx/license-list-XML

You will need to have a Github account to participate in the review. Let Jilayne know your Github account ID to be added to the repository team.

Key things to review before reviewing the XML files:

• SPDX License List Matching Guidelines: http://spdx.org/spdx-license-list/license-list-overview
• Explanation of the SPDX License List fields: http://spdx.org/spdx-license-list/license-list-overview (at bottom of page)
• Description of current proposal and XML tags: http://wiki.spdx.org/view/Legal_Team/Templatizing/tags-matching
• Video of review process demonstrated: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_VoRQbDyEc

You may also want to watch:

• Using Git (on Windows): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsSjT4cmVEc

Key things to look at during review:

1. identify which parts of the license template are important or unimportant for purposes of matching (as per the Matching Guidelines), e.g., is optional tag in the right place, etc.
2. structural components - ensuring we have groups of clauses correctly identified (automated process takes care of most of this, but sanity check). Note that if a license does not have info for certain tags (e.g., Notes or a Standard Header) these tags won't appear in the XML
3. look at the labels created for other things to note whilst reviewing the licenses
4. consider any changes that need to be made to the Matching Guidelines or License List Overview/description of fields as you go along

Note:

• nested lists should begin with the nested <list> tag within the last list item (before the </li>) for which the nested list is a sub-item (like HTML)
• if you find licenses that did not render this correctly, you can either edit them or tag them with the bug label
• Kris made a viewing tool to be able to see what the license will look like: http://krisreeves.com/xmledit/
  • You can paste whatever XML you want in the left and use the excellent Ace editor to manipulate it. It's transformed into an HTML fragment via an XSLT stylesheet, though browser support may not be robust and the resulting html isn't fantastic yet. It highlights replaceable text and makes optional text gray, formats lists, and exposes some basic information. There's lots that could be improved but I figure it might at least be enough to help in the short term.
  • One thing that jumps out at me is that styling the lists with CSS isn't quite as useful as I had hoped it would be. Initially I had wanted to essentially put a "negative indent" on the bullets and treat the rest of the content like normal. I've done this to an extent here, but wide bullets will still break things and other quirks still exist, such as multiple paragraph tags not lining up with each other.
  • The Ace editor should issue warnings about malformatted XML. As an example I load up the Apache 2.0 license, which suffered from a case mismatch in the open and close SPDX tags (I've committed a fix to the repo).

Process for Review

1. go to https://github.com/spdx/license-list-XML (you need a Github account)
2. go to pull requests (this represents all the licenses that need to be reviewed)
3. to ensure you are working on licenses that have not been reviewed or are not being reviewed by others:
   1. filter the list using the facets on the right side by: Labels = unlabeled; and then Assignee = Assigned to nobody
   2. check off a handful of licenses you are going to work on and then Assign to yourself
4. pick a license to review ; go to "Files changed" to view the actual file (in diff format)
   1. use http://krisreeves.com/xmledit/ for split view of what you are editing
5. if everything looks good, then go back to "conversation" tab and you can either:
   1. merge the pull request if you feel confidant to do so; or
   2. leave a comment that you reviewed it and label this as "approved" - labels are found in the right side (see below for more on labels)
6. if you see something you have a question about or think needs editing, then you can:
   1. if you want to actually edit the content, click on the pencil icon in the top right corner (you will need access to Kris' fork of this account); or
   2. comment in-line

Labels created in Github

See: https://github.com/spdx/license-list-XML/labels

• approved = someone looked at it, thinks it's good to go, there is nothing to review, but didn't merge it
• requires acknowledgement = if you find a license that requires the reproduction of specific acknowledgment text, then label it with "has acknowledgement" - for example see: https://github.com/spdx/license-list-XML/pull/279/files (if it's otherwise approved, then label with both, but do not merge it)
• need legal discussion = there is a question that is legal/interpretation related that you want to discuss on the next call. leave a comment, so members of legal team review and comment in b/w calls - if 3 people agree with assessment, then no need to discuss
• bug = if the text and substance looks good, but there is an issue with the tags only, e.g., list tags are not properly nested or some other such issue that Kris specifically needs to look at. If otherwise good to go, also add "approved" label
• question = use if you have a question that does not fit into one of the other categories or cuts across other categories
• help wanted = try not to use and put under one of other categories
• has self-referring numbering = no longer in use