= Policy Draft Webapps =
Note that there is [[http://webapps-common.alioth.debian.org/draft/html/|an existing webapp packaging policy draft]].

There is also the [[webapppolicy]] topic with ideas about webapp packaging policies.

Ubuntu also attempted to write a [[https://wiki.ubuntu.com/WebAppsPackaging|webapps policy]]

== Problem: ==
Webapplications usually suffer from a big volatily which often make those applications incompatible with the Debian stable release cycle. Its often needed to upgrade to newer upstream versions in order to benefit from bugfixes and to get upstream support.

StableUpdates is not an option, because it only contains changes to stable programs that are necessary to keep them functional.

This is questionable: https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2011/03/msg00010.html states that: 
  The criteria used to add packages to "stable-updates" will be:
  [..]
    * Packages that need to be current to be useful (e.g. clamav).

[[http://backports.org|backports.org]] also cannot be used (yet), because the [[http://backports.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=contribute|Basic Packaging Rules]] deny the upload of packages which can be installed "directly from testing without any recompilation and handled via [[http://wiki.debian.org/AptPinning|pinning]]". This normally this is the case for Webapplications, cause they are most Architecture "all". Pinning may just be okay for developers, but pinning for end users most likely ends up in an unusable system, also in large environments it doesn't scale well.

== Idea: ==
The idea to help our users is to setup a service similar to backports.org, which can host newer versions of webapp packages.

== Policy: ==
 * Package Version has to be in Debian Testing, exceptions: Security updates
 * Package has to be in Section "web" or must be a Depend for such a package
 * Package is Architecture "all"
 * There may some packages, which are not Section "web" and/or Architecture "all", but may be a Webapplication, if so, ask for an exception