A second JHOVE release candidate is available today, 2 April 2019. It contains fixes for the following bugs found in the first test phase.

Please download the new release candidate and report any issues by 9 April.

While refactoring the repetition in the module checksumming, a bug was introduced in the XML module. This prevented it from validating files unless checksumming was enabled. Unfortunately the JHOVE tests employ checksums to ensure the test data hasn’t been corrupted and failed to detect the issue. This was fixed along with a small defensive improvement to the install scripts in [#427].

While testing the XML module problem new issues were detected with JHOVE’s command line parameter handling: [#412] & [#413]. These are long standing bugs which require a little thought before fixing. As such they aren’t addressed in this release.

A problem with the PDF module error messages was reported, [#414]. This was simply a formatting issue due to a mistake in the Java message formatting syntax. Only a change in the error message constant was required with no code changes, [#428]. A search of the code for any other occurrences didn’t yield anything.

I’ve taken the opportunity to merge a couple of external pull requests from OPF members:

• a fix for MIX image metadata, [#429]; and
• some fixes an improvements for JHOVE’s audit handler, [#411].

We’re now busy preparing for JHOVE Hack Week that begins on Monday 8th April. We’ve already prepared a set of issues to work on. These will be curated further to identify a sub-section of issues suitable for less experienced Java developers. We’ve included some clean up tasks implementing some suggestions from Codacy’s static analysis reports. Some of these are also suitable for developers with basic Java skills, particularly if you have experience of other languages.

Although the event lasts a week any amount of time volunteered would help. We’re not expecting anyone to contribute five days of effort. The duration is intended to allow more people to contribute rather than exclude those who can’t make a particular day. Please register so we can keep you information about the check in calls and connect you with other participants. There’s more information in the FAQ PDF, I look forward to seeing some of you there.