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The EPP packages offer a nice initial product aimed at solving a specific use case. However we need to recognize that for most users this is not enough and more plug-ins developed at the foundation or externally are required for the user to be fully functional. One way to help solve this problem is by taking the user through a set of questions that will let him/her install additional plug-ins. For example here is a list of questions that could be asked to Java developers - Which SCM do you use? * Git * SVN * CVS - Which bug tracking system to you use? * Bugzilla * JIRA * .. - Which Java framework do you use? * Spring * Hibernate * ... - Which build system do you use? * Maven * Gradle * Ant
Note that at this point such questions could be asked both during an oomph installation and in Eclipse itself. Once the answers have been provided, they could be persisted on the foundation server and could provide the base of an oomph user profile. Finally to complete the loop, when a user uses oomph or downloads a new Eclipse install, he/she could be prompted to use the persisted plug-ins as a starting point. Note that this could be done in the course of multiple contracts.
Another, less intrusive way (no popups/dialogs where you *must* decide *before* you can start IDE) to do so would be to offer "Extend your Eclipse" preference page where one could see "SCM", "Build", "J2EE" etc tabs with the list of "known good" plugins. The user would only need to toggle some checkboxes there and OOMPF (or whoever else) would do the rest. Or it could be just a "better" Marketplace client which can use not only 3rd party plugin catalog but all of Eclipse (bug 480546).
(In reply to Andrey Loskutov from comment #2) > Another, less intrusive way (no popups/dialogs where you *must* decide > *before* you can start IDE) to do so would be to offer "Extend your Eclipse" > preference page where one could see "SCM", "Build", "J2EE" etc tabs with the > list of "known good" plugins. Intellij uses the wizard on startup approach and I find it nice because the first time I start I can immediately start configuring the IDE. I think having the same categorization driving the content of the marketplace would also be nice/necessary.
I've opened bug #481072 to discuss potential improvements to the marketplace
A short-term step toward this might be to add some text to the "Product" page (first page) of the Oomph installer, like: "To add more tools to your Eclipse platform after download, launch the Eclipse IDE and go to Help > Install New Software..." (That could be put near the top of the window, between the filter text-field & the treeview. If it is just added to the banner "Select the product...", users might be more likely to ignore it.) I agree with the first paragraph of this bug report: "The EPP packages...". I have a slightly different view to add: Currently, the offered packages are specific to certain development processes, but e.g. a user who wants to develop in Java and C++ is left to think that 2 separate Eclipse downloads are needed. The current layout of the download webpages contrasts with the way Linux package managers present Eclipse: as a core package with dozens of optional tool packages. That latter download interface makes it easier for a prospective user to understand, e.g., how to install both Java & C++ tools. Re https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=480547#c1 I think that "persisting the answers on the Foundation server" should be on an opt-in basis, if I am understanding correctly and the "server" is www.eclipse.org or some related webserver. I think that saving the answers in a local config-file would be just as functional for many users.
This bug hasn't had any activity in quite some time. Maybe the problem got resolved, was a duplicate of something else, or became less pressing for some reason - or maybe it's still relevant but just hasn't been looked at yet. If you have further information on the current state of the bug, please add it. The information can be, for example, that the problem still occurs, that you still want the feature, that more information is needed, or that the bug is (for whatever reason) no longer relevant. -- The automated Eclipse Genie.
This issue has been migrated to https://gitlab.eclipse.org/eclipsefdn/helpdesk/-/issues/217.
