Summary: | Provide a Java Packager export wizard | ||
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Product: | [Eclipse Project] JDT | Reporter: | Simon Vienot <simon.vienot> |
Component: | UI | Assignee: | JDT-UI-Inbox <jdt-ui-inbox> |
Status: | ASSIGNED --- | QA Contact: | |
Severity: | enhancement | ||
Priority: | P3 | CC: | daniel_megert, eric.le.ponner, juergen.rose, markus.kell.r |
Version: | 4.5 | ||
Target Milestone: | --- | ||
Hardware: | All | ||
OS: | All | ||
Whiteboard: | |||
Bug Depends on: | |||
Bug Blocks: | 431950 |
Description
Simon Vienot
2014-08-06 13:02:12 EDT
For WiX ther are already two CQs in IPZilla: https://dev.eclipse.org/ipzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=7693 https://dev.eclipse.org/ipzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=7712 Looks promising. A common problem with multi-page wizards that require a lot of data input is that the user usually needs multiple passes to get the desired result. To avoid repeated configuration work, the "Export > JAR file" wizard offers to create a "*.jardesc" file that stores all user input. There's a "Create JAR" action in the context menu for *.jardesc files, and the the wizard is registered as an editor for these files. This works, but the modal wizard dialog is a bit clumsy. Will the new Packager API define a storage format for packager settings? If yes, then it's probably better to avoid the wizard and create an editor for the package settings file type. Similar to how PDE provides a *.product editor. (In reply to Simon Vienot from comment #0) > Beyond that, the wizard should ideally also help the developer elaborate > automated build instructions. If we have to invent a storage format, then a solution could be to create a well-structured Ant file that could be run standalone, and that could also be used to pre-fill the wizard/editor (assuming that the critical structures have not been deleted). Thanks for the feedback, Markus. Some general thoughts about editor vs wizard. * IMHO wizards and editors are not alternative : they are complementary -> editor takes in charge the entire complexity ; everything can be done ; but very often the price is a pretty high first step -> wizard help to perform this first step by covering a limiting portion of complexity but in a more guided and didactic fashion * building an editor means specifying a cross-platform file format for packaging ; I suspect it is an uneasy task -> packaging is highly multi-form and dependent of the underlying o/s ; some concepts are similar across o/s but some others are completely specific -> unlike programming language, evolution of packaging process depends on o/s vendors ; this makes maintenance and revision of such a file format quite tough * java packaging API is not a file format -> it's an API which is pretty open-bound (there is a notion of 'Bundler' to help managing extensibility) -> it would probably be the best place to define a file format; unfortunately that's not the plan for now. * a wizard may be designed to limit the "multiple passes" effect -> by providing relevant and default values for all the parameters -> by saving some parameters in user preferences (like the last location in file chooser, the version…) -> by carefully limiting the number of exposed parameters: a wizard is not able to cover the whole complexity (only the editor is); so let's limit the parameters to 80% use case -> by providing some hints for the "next step" : for example, the wizard can provide the underlying command it has used to build the package; developer may copy and patch this command to construct its automation. In the long run, I would be glad to see/help emerging a "common packaging specification" format and develop the corresponding edtor. In the short term, a wizard looks like a good first step: -> I think it can bring a substantial value to developers -> it will help us understanding the "long run" issue -> using the java packaging api, it's a reasonable amount of effort Following our last tuesday discussions, I updated the proposal in the wiki. - Step #1 now offers ANT script generation in a prominent way (same ui design as Runnable JAR Exporter) - Step #4 now displays ANT script location as part of the summary info; "Extras" popup menu is no longer present. |