[p2-dev] Using the new "sofware site" target provisioner

[Darin Wright <Darin_Wright@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Pascal asked me to send a note to the list describing how to use the 
"Software Site" target provisioner for the upcoming test pass. It's is 
designed to share target definitions with team members based on 
IU's/repositories. Here are a few notes on using it:

Software Site Target Provisioner 
* Open the Target Platform preference pave via Window > Preferences... > 
Plug-in Development > Target Platform from the top level menu. 
* Press "Add...", ensure the "empty" target is selected, and press "Next". 

* Enter a name for the target definition - something like "Sofware Site 
Test". 
* Press "Add...", select "Software Site" and press "Next". 
* Use the "Add Software Site" page to select some IUs from a repository. 
You can select/add repositories just like you would from the "Install New 
Software" dialog.
* Pressing "Finish" will cause the required bundles to be downloaded and 
stored locally (when using the wizard, you will be blocked during download 
- if you use the target definition editor, you will not be blocked while 
the download occurs).
* The "Plug-ins" tab will display all the bundles once they have been 
downloaded.

Notes:
* The "Software Site" provisioner allows specific versions of IUs to be 
selected. 
* You can add multiple sites to a target. This allows content to be 
derived from different sites (for example, the SDK from eclipse.org, and 
EMF from somewhere else). 
* You can add/remove sites/IUs from a target definition incrementally. 
* All target definitions share a local bundle pool (repository) in the 
org.eclipse.pde.core metadata area (.bundle_pool directory), and this 
respository is garbage collected as definitions are deleted. 
* All "software sites" contained in each target definition are managed by 
a p2 profile - but other locations (bundles sources) are not currently 
managed by the profile (for example, directories or installs). For this 
reason, it does not make a lot of sense to mix software sites with other 
types of locations (for example, adding an "install" to a target, and then 
adding from a site, will duplicate bundles in the target, as the the 
implementation does not currently manage the install as part of the 
profile).


Darin Wright