Do you want to make a set of features so that end-users can
cherry-pick the components they want. Like we currently have @ http://download.ecf-project.org/repo
No, I think the basic structure of these component features are
fine/ok. They possibly could use some tweaking, and if others have
suggestions about changes then we can change them.
What I was suggesting was another/new feature (that was also a
top-level category) that was something like a
'Remote services target components'
...that would provide the moral equivalent of the ECF remote
services SDK...but not assuming Eclipse as the target platform
(which the current top-level Target Components feature does). The
intention would be to allow easier ECF remote services installation
into non-Eclipse target platforms...and more visibility by being a
category (which appears when they have the category check box
selected).
Currently ECF has essentially 1 top-level feature: Eclipse
Communication Framework Target Components (formerly called
the ECF SDK). This has traditionally had almost all of ECF
from Eclipse Foundation...i.e. all the various APIs (remote
services, discovery, call api, sync, shared object,
presence, etc), as well as almost all the providers, the
documentation, as well as the example apps (both
Eclipse-based UI and no-ui examples).
Although convenient for usage for Eclipse installation (i.e.
install everything into Eclipse), this feature is not at all
convenient for people that want to add ECF to the target
platform...e.g. for OSGi server-side remote services
development...because it includes a lot of code that depends
upon Eclipse UI and other things). One reason it's not
convenient is that the target platform resolution (by
default) has the 'Include required software' check box
selected, and the current ECF Target Components requires
parts of Eclipse. If the user de-selects 'Include required
software' all the non-Eclipse parts of ECF (e.g. remote
services) will be used/usable just fine once installed...but
it would be much more convenient if the user could have
'Include required software' checked, and still easily
install ECF/OSGi remote services for use in their target
platform.
This is the use case I would like to simplify: Using ECF in
non-Eclipse target platforms
I think we need a top-level feature (or features) to make it
easier to add the non-Eclipse parts of ECF...specifically
OSGi remote services...to a target platform that is not
Eclipse (e.g. OSGi servers). I propose that we do this for
ECF 3.5 release, as it would/will make consuming ECF/OSGi
remote services (and remote services admin newly introduced)
*much* easier for people using ECF for non-Eclipse target
platforms.
Comments? I think we should discuss this some on the
mailing list over the next few days...and at the next ECF
conf call [1] we can discuss and decide.
