Eclipse Test & Performance Tools Platform (TPTP) Project
Approved 4.2 Plan

Last revised 00:35 PDT 28 June 2006 ( marks interesting changes since 4.1 Release)

    Please send comments about this plan to the tptp-pmc@eclipse.org PMC mailing list.

This document lays out the feature and API set for the TPTP 4.2 release.

• Release Deliverables
• Release Milestones
• Target Operating Environments
• Compatibility with Previous Releases
• Themes
• Projects
• Features
• Defects

The first part of this plan deals with the important matters of release deliverables, release milestones, target operating environments, and release-to-release compatibility.  These are all things that need to be clear for any release, even if no features were to change. 

The remainder of the plan consists of plan items for the four projects under the TPTP Top-Level Project.  Each plan item covers a feature or API that is to be added to TPTP, or some aspect of TPTP that is to be improved.  Each plan item has its own entry in the TPTP bugzilla database, with a title and a concise summary (usually a single paragraph) that explains the work item at a suitably high enough level so that everyone can readily understand what the work item is without having to understand the nitty-gritty detail.

Not all plan items represent the same amount of work; some may be quite large, others, quite small. Some plan items may involve work that is localized to a single component; others may involve coordinated changes to several components; other may pervade the entire project.

With the previous release as the starting point, this is the plan for how we will enhance and improve it.  Fixing bugs, improving test coverage, documentation, examples, performance tuning, usability, etc. are considered routine ongoing maintenance activities and are not included in this plan unless they would also involve a significant change to the API or feature set, or involve a significant amount of work. The intent of the plan is to account for all interesting feature work.

Release Deliverables

The following release deliverables are provided:

• Runtime
• Source
• Examples
• Component Test
• Data Collection Engine for Windows (NT, 2000, XP) x86 Runtime
• Data Collection Engine for Windows (XP, Server 2003) x86/64-bit Runtime
• Data Collection Engine for Windows Server 2003 Itanium Runtime
• Data Collection Engine for Linux x86 Runtime
• Data Collection Engine for Linux zSeries Runtime
• Data Collection Engine for zSeries Runtime
• Data Collection Engine for iSeries Runtime
• Data Collection Engine for Solaris Sparc Runtime
• Data Collection Engine for AIX PPC Runtime
• Data Collection Engine for Linux PPC/64-bit
• Data Collection Engine for HP-UX Runtime
• Native Logging Implementation (All platforms)
• Plugin Translatability Log

Release Milestones

The TPTP 4.2 release is targeted for general availability on 30-Jun-2006.  All release deliverables will be available for download as soon as the release has been tested and validated in the target operating configurations.  Interim release milestone are planned at roughly 6 week intervals to facilitate coarse-grained planning and staging. TPTP is participating in Callisto Simultaneous Release of Eclipse projects. The list of milestones below includes all Callisto milestones of TPTP. 

For a detailed development schedule of TPTP 4.2 release, click here.

Target Operating Environments

In order to remain current, each TPTP release targets reasonably current versions of the underlying operating environments.

• Java runtime (JRE) or Java development kit (JDK) 1.4
• Eclipse SDK 3.2 for Linux (GTK) , Linux (Motif), or Windows ( prior TPTP releases dependent on Eclipse SDK 3.1.0)
• Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF) SDK 2.2
• XML Schema Infoset Model (XSD) SDK 2.2

Most of the TPTP SDK is "pure" Java™ code and has no direct dependence on the underlying operating system.  The chief dependence is therefore on the Java 2 Platform itself.  The TPTP 4.2 release is written and compiled against version 1.4 of the Java 2 Platform APIs, and targeted to run on version 1.4 of the Java 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition.

There are many different implementations of the Java 2 Platform running atop a variety of operating systems. We focus TPTP testing on a handful of popular combinations of operating system and Java 2 Platform; these are our reference platforms.  TPTP undoubtedly runs fine in many operating environments beyond the reference platforms we test.  However, since we do not systematically test them we cannot vouch for them.  Problems encountered when running TPTP on non-reference platforms that cannot be recreated on any reference platform will be given lower priority than problems with running TPTP on a reference platform.

TPTP SDK 4.2 is tested and validated on the following target reference platforms (this list may be updated over the course of the release cycle):

Although untested, TPTP should work fine on other OSes that support the same operating system kernel and version.

Internationalization

TPTP is designed as the basis for internationalized products. The user interface elements provided by the TPTP SDK components, including dialogs and error messages, are externalized. The English strings are provided as the default resource bundles.

Latin-1 locales are supported by the TPTP SDK on all of the above operating environments; DBCS locales are supported by the TPTP SDK on the Windows, GTK, and Motif window systems; BIDI locales are supported by the TPTP SDK only on Windows operating environments.

The TPTP SDK supports GB 18030, the new Chinese code page standard, on Windows XP and 2000, and Linux.

TPTP supports ICU4J starting in 4.2 release. This will significantly increase the number of supportable locales. Products needing to localize to newer locales are enabled. German, Traditional Chinese, and Arabic are tested. 

Compatibility with Previous Releases

TPTP 4.2 will be compatible with TPTP 4.1.  The following specifies details of the various aspects of release compatibility.

• API Contract Compatibility: TPTP SDK 4.2 will be upwards contract-compatible with TPTP SDK 4.1. Downward contract compatibility is not supported. There is no guarantee that compliance with TPTP SDK 4.2 APIs would ensure compliance with TPTP SDK 4.0 APIs. Refer to Evolving Java-based APIs for a discussion of the kinds of API changes that maintain contract compatibility.

• Binary (plug-in) Compatibility: TPTP SDK 4.2 will be upwards binary-compatible with TPTP SDK 4.1. Downward plug-in compatibility is not supported. Plug-ins for TPTP SDK 4.2 will not be usable in TPTP SDK 4.1. Refer to Evolving Java-based APIs for a discussion of the kinds of API changes that maintain binary compatibility.

• Source Compatibility: TPTP SDK 4.2 will be upwards source-compatible with TPTP SDK 4.1. This means that source files written to use TPTP SDK 4.1 APIs might successfully compile and run against TPTP SDK 4.2 APIs, although this is not guaranteed. Downward source compatibility is not supported. If source files use new TPTP SDK APIs, they will not be usable with an earlier version of the TPTP SDK.

• Workspace Compatibility: TPTP SDK 4.2 will be upwards workspace-compatible with TPTP SDK 4.1 unless noted. This means that workspaces and projects created with TPTP SDK 4.1 can be successfully opened by TPTP SDK 4.2 and upgraded to a 4.2 workspace. This includes both hidden metadata, which is localized to a particular workspace, as well as metadata files found within a workspace project (e.g., the .project file), which may propagate between workspaces via file copying or team repositories. Downward workspace compatibility is not supported. A workspace created (or opened) by a product based on TPTP 4.2 will be unusable with a product based an earlier version of TPTP. Visible metadata files created (or overwritten) by TPTP 4.2 will generally be unusable with earlier versions of TPTP.

• Non-compliant usage of API's: All non-API methods and classes, and certainly everything in a package with "internal" in its name, are considered implementation details which may vary between operating environment and are subject to change without notice. Client plug-ins that directly depend on anything other than what is specified in the TPTP SDK API are inherently unsupportable and receive no guarantees about compatibility within a single release much less with an earlier releases. Refer to How to Use the Eclipse API for information about how to write compliant plug-ins.

Themes

The TPTP PMC adopted and specialized the following Eclipse themes which represent the key focus areas for TPTP enhancements in the year ahead.

• Scaling Up - TPTP will work to enhance the support of large data volumes and processing rates in areas such as data collection, user interface and in the persistence of trace, log and statistical models and execution histories.

• Enterprise Ready - Hooks will be provided within the TPTP infrastructure to link testing tools to requirements tracking tools and defect tracking tools, thus embedding them effectively in enterprise development cycles. Changes to the data collection layers will increase interoperability with enterprise security infrastructure. In addition, there will be progressive adoption of the TPTP tools and infrastructure as a test platform for the project itself, which is in turn likely to drive refinements into the tools. An increased focus on whole-project integration testing will ensure effective interoperability amongst all TPTP components and the rest of the Eclipse environment.

• Design for Extensibility: Be a Better Platform - There will be a wide range of activities within TPTP to externalize APIs and define extension points, making the infrastructure more flexible, and more generic in application. A good example of this is integration of TPTP with WTP and BIRT for web application testing, profiling and generation of customized reports of results.

• Embedded Development - TPTP target execution environment and remote data collection framework provide capabilities that are adapted for high-end embedded systems. TPTP will seek contributions to add support for embedded systems. We are promoting use of TPTP native logging capabilities on a number of embedded target systems.

• Rich Client Platform - TPTP will use RCP for building manual test client and other GUI-based clients in target environments.

• Simple to Use - The existing TPTP tools were conceived as samples, rather than as exemplary, they are deficient in many areas of usability and in some cases lacking in function. The plan is that within the domains which they target they will provide a high-quality user experience out of the box. We will focus on ease of use through enhanced user documentation, tutorials, white papers, demonstrations, and a wide range of enhancements to the user interface to streamline basic processes and clarify concepts and terminology. We are focused on improving as much as possible in Release 4.2, and expect need for continuing this focus beyond 4.2.

• Enable Consistent Multi-language Support - In TPTP a significant effort will be applied in extending coverage of the trace models to represent C/C++ programs and to handle protocol activity (specifically HTTP) consistently with program activity. There will also be C/C++ APIs provided to the data collection and control layers.

• Appealing to the Broader Community - A range of initiatives will be taken to broaden the community of potential and actual users of TPTP. Technically this will include additional integration of open source test tool technologies based on JUnit, and the various hooks to JUnit in the JDT, more data collection agents – particularly focusing on open source technologies, and additional operating system and hardware platforms from which data can be collected. There will be additional marketing and an extensive outreach program to the Eclipse community for additional contribution and adoption.

Projects

The TPTP project is is comprised of four, managed in a coordinated fashion, across which the plans items are allocated.  TPTP subprojects include:

• TPTP Platform Project - Provides common infrastructure in the areas of user interface, EMF based data models, data collection and communications control, as well as remote execution environments. Additionally, the Platform provides extension points for leveraging or extending these capabilities in solution specific tooling or runtimes. This includes Eclipse workbench plug-ins as well as runtime plug-ins on a target and optionally remote system.

• Testing Tools Project - Provides specializations of the TPTP Platform for testing (e.g. test editors, trace/test conversion support), and exemplary extensible tools for specific testing environments. Initially this includes three test environments: JUnit, manual, and URL testing. These specializations provide optimized editing and reporting experiences for these use cases. In the cases where a unique runtime or an implementation of a testability interface is required, it is also developed in the project. For example, the manual test execution environment provides a remotely managed user interface specifically for collecting manual test progress. This manual user interface is unique from the common execution environment for JUnit and URL testing. .

• Tracing & Profiling Tools Project - Extends the TPTP Platform with specific data collection for Java and distributed applications that populate the common trace model, additional language and protocol support is anticipated. There are also viewers and analysis services that draw data from the common trace model. Capabilities are provided to collect and analyze heap and stack information as well as generic toolkits for instrumenting running applications..

• Monitoring Tools Project - Extends the TPTP Platform for collecting, analyzing, aggregating, and visualizing data that can be captured in the log and statistical models. The typical examples are the collection of system or application resources such as CPU or memory utilization and support for the viewing, aggregation, and analysis of that data. Logs can also be transformed into a common format and model allowing for symptom and pattern analysis. The correlation of the data in these models is of particular interest when it is associated with other model instances of statistical or log data as well as traces and tests..

Features

Plan items targeted for this release represent the addition of new features or areas where existing features will be significantly reworked or enhanced.  Plan items are allocated to themes and projects indicated above.

Defects

In addition to the targeted features for this release, we plan to reduce the defect backlog. Defects are prioritized based on severity, age, and resource availability. We encourage users to report defects and we will do our best to fix them in priority order. We plan to reduce backlog of defects to under 350 defects (approximately 30% reduction relative to backlog at the end of  previous release).

See TPTP 4.2 Defects for a listing of already fixed defects, current defect targets and backlog.

Select "4.2 [Completed | nil| I1 | I2 | I3] bugs" tabs.