Re: [ecf-dev] ECF 3.5 top-level features...for target platform usage

[Scott Lewis <slewis@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Folks,

Although there are admittedly a number of things remaining to be done 
WRT ECF features refactoring (e.g. the previously-expressed 
rerquirements [1] and [2] pointed to by Markus), I'm not aware of 
resources to work on these refactorings in the short-term, and so I 
don't think we are going to be able to address them for ECF 3.5.

I suggest that we defer these additional requirements for ECF 3.5 
(review materials due March 2, review on March 9, and release on ~March 
14) and focus on one further change:  Create a top-level feature 
category for 'ECF Remote Services Target Components'.

So first a little background

Currently, if the user adds the ECF repo to the Install Manager, and the 
'Group items by category' check box is selected, the ECF repo looks like 
this:

Eclipse Communication Framework (ECF)
    ECF 3.5 Patch for Eclipse
    Eclipse Communication Framework Target Components
    Source for ECF 3.5 Patch for Eclipse
    Source for Eclipse Communication Framework Target Components

First, I suggest that we change the working of these to read:

Eclipse Communication Framework (ECF)
    Core Patch for Eclipse
    Target Components for Eclipse
    Source for Core Patch for Eclipse
    Source for Target Components for Eclipse

Further, I suggest that we (somehow) create a new category (and their 
two Source feature categories)

    Remote Services Target Components
    Source for Remote Services Target Components

So the whole thing (at the top-level category on) would look something 
like this:

Eclipse Communication Framework (ECF)

    Core Patch for Eclipse
    Target Components for Eclipse
    Remote Services Target Components
    Source for Core Patch for Eclipse
    Source for Target Components for Eclipse
    Source for Remote Services Target Components

The idea being that the (new) Remote Services Target Components would 
not necessarily be for Eclipse (i.e. using the Equinox SDK)...and that 
if loaded into a PDE Target Platform (rather than installing into 
Eclipse), the Remote Services Target Components would be

1) Installable into a target platform that did not already have all of 
Eclipse (i.e. just required the Equinox SDK)
2) Would complete the addition to a target platform even if 'Include 
required software' is selected (this is the default in the PDE target 
platform 'Add Content' wizard for adding from 'Software Sites').

The idea here is that if someone wanted to add ECF remote services to 
their target platform (not necessarily install it into Eclipse), that 
all they would have to do is to add the ECF repo as a software site, 
select the Remote Services Target Components (with 'Group by Category' 
and 'Include required software' check boxes selected by default), click 
'Finish', and all the bundles in the Remote Services SDK (already a 
feature that we have) would be installed into the target 
platform...along with their requirements (as per 'Include required 
software').

Now I know that this interacts with the issue of the 'feature version 
exact match issue', but I'm not clear on what we can do about that (i.e. 
can we turn the relaxed matching in our own build back on?).

So, what else do people think?  The idea here is to make it as simple as 
possible to use the existing Remote Services SDK feature (or a new one 
if necessary), to install into a target platform, with 'Include required 
software' checked...and not have p2 complain about install dependencies, 
etc.

Any thoughts/comments appreciated.  Contributions for implementation 
appreciated highly :).

Scott

[1] https://bugs.eclipse.org/330517
[2] https://bugs.eclipse.org/302108#c2