ECF API Additions and Changes

New Extension Point: sharedObjectFactory

There is now a new ECF extension point: sharedObjectFactory. This extension point allows plugins to define extensions to the SharedObjectFactory. Here's an example extension definition for this extension point:

   <extension
         point="org.eclipse.ecf.sharedObjectFactory">
      <sharedObjectFactory
            class="org.eclipse.ecf.test.provider.TestSharedObjectInstantiator"
            name="ecf.test.sharedobjectfactory"/>
   </extension>
      

Factory method name changes

For consistency with Eclipse Platform conventions, all ECF factory method names previously of the form 'makeX' have been changed to to 'createX'. So, for example, in the IContainerFactory the makeContainer methods have been changed to createContainer. In the IIDFactory makeID has been changed to createID.

ContainerDescription class renamed to ContainerTypeDescription

The ContainerDescription class has been renamed to ContainerTypeDescription to be more descriptive of the description's function.

SharedObjectDescription class refactored

The SharedObjectDescription class has been refactored into three (super and sub) classes: SharedObjectTypeDescription for describing the type of a given shared object, SharedObjectDescription for describing shared object instances, and ReplicaSharedObjectDescription. SharedObjectDescription instances are used (e.g.) for creating instances within a container, as in ISharedObjectManager.createSharedObject(). ReplicaSharedObjectDescription instances are used to send messages to remote containers for creating replicas of a given shared object...as in ISharedObjectContext.sendCreate().

Generic Server Changes

The ECF 'generic' server available in the org.eclipse.ecf.provider plugin has a number of changes, which make it incompatible with clients previous to 0.6.0. Users of the ecftcp://ecf.eclipse.org:3282/server collaboration group will need to upgrade to 0.6.0 version of clients. See here to get the 0.6.0 code.

JmDNS Discovery Provider Implementation

The JmDNS discovery provider plugin is now available as the primary implementation of the org.eclipse.ecf.discovery API. Several bugs in the underlying Zeroconf/Bonjour protocol implementation were fixed for the 0.6.0 release, including a bug that would cause the plugin to hang on shutdown.