brian.fitzpatrick@xxxxxxxxxx schrieb:
Hi again!
Thanks Scott!
Sorry Eike! (Cowering in
embarassment)
Thank you Scott for the clarification and don't worry, Brian ;-)
For those who don't know me:
Cheers
/Eike
All of what you said sounds fine
Scott...
The extra use cases are great and should definitely be considered.
As far as UI... I see your point,
and
think we should definitely focus on the framework/API side long before
talking about UI (and it should most likely be a separate framework,
since
we definitely want to keep UI/non-UI code as separate as possible). But
I don't want it to fall off the table as a talking point.
And we should look at ECF as a
potential
(especially as it is used in P2 already and been through the wringer!).
We just have to be careful to make sure we keep a compatibility layer
in
mind for any existing frameworks that eventually move this way
(including
DTP, which has a lot of commercial code at Sybase and IBM already
written
against it).
--Fitz
Brian Fitzpatrick
Eclipse Data Tools Platform PMC Chair
Eclipse Data Tools Platform Connectivity Team Lead
Staff Software Engineer, Sybase, Inc.
Hi Brian/all,
brian.fitzpatrick@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:
>
> <stuff deleted>
>
> Though we didn't come to any solid conclusions, it seemed very
evident
> that there's definitely a need for some sort of cross-project
> connection management framework in the E4 timeframe.
Agreed.
>
>
> Since the meeting, I was contacted by Eike Stepper from the CDO
Model
> Repository and Net4j Signalling Platform projects. She would like
to
> contribute to the conversation and at least keep informed of our
> progress, so it's good to know that outside of the immediate E4
group
> we have interested parties. Not sure if she'd like to demo their
> current frameworks or not. (Eike, do you want to chime in here?)
FWIW, there's an enhancement request to create an ECF provider using
Net4j:
https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=203406
...so that Net4j capabilities can/could be accessed via ECF-exposed
common APIs (e.g. for connection management).
Just FYI...last I checked, Eike was male. Hi Eike.
>
> =High Level Goals=
>
> At a minimum, it would be helpful to come up with a common API for
> connection management and persistence.
>
> Some simple use cases might include:
>
> * Connecting to a unique connection object (database, system, etc.)
> * Disconnecting from a unique connection object
> * Retrieving the raw connection class from the managed connection
object
> * Managing connection properties (such as connect/disconnect state
and
> any custom properties for the connection type)
> * Managing a list of connections, both connected and disconnected
>
> More complicated use cases might include:
>
> * Connection timeout
> * Backward compatibility
I don't have any criticism of use these use cases, although we might
want to amend with:
* Representing different types of connections (i.e. for different
protocols) and extensibly accessing protocol-specific capabilities
* Extensibly representing addresses in a common way across different
addressing systems (e.g. ID/URI, etc)
* Authentication security with different protocols/authentication
schemes
* Supporting other environments (e.g. Equinox-based servers)
>
> I think some level of UI consistency is still an important factor
> also. Maybe if we don't all have the same UI components, we could
all
> agree on a consistent set of UI-based connection management tasks?
Or
> a consistent look and feel even if we're not all exactly the same?
Thoughts?
Although I agree that UI consistency is important, I hesitate to
consider it part of a connection/connection management API. Why?
Because several of the things we seem to be looking for in a connection
framework (connection management, transport independence) are logically
separate from a user interface for creating/configuring connections
(i.e. stuff needed so connection to externaprocess can be
established). I say this because there are plenty of use cases (i.e.
those Brian lists above) that involve connection management that
can/could have no user interface at all for some applications (e.g.
client apps that automatically connect to a number of IM accounts upon
app startup or server-based apps that create connections for
server/services, etc).
I do think that there can/should be work on UI for connection
configuration and usage, and we (ECF) have done some small amount of
work in this area. We've created some common/reusable user interface
components (e.g. connection dialogs and wizards), and we have some ui
extension points (configurationWizards and connectWizards) that make it
easier for new provider/protocol impls to introduce their own UI for
connection creation/configuration. And I'm in favor of the notion
that
EMF models could be created/used to construct config/connect UIs...we
just haven't done that ourselves so far.
But I'm not in favor of pulling in UI dependencies specifically for a
'connection framework'...at least partially because a connection
framework (like ECF's IContainer APIs) can/is being used in entirely
different environments...like Equinox-based server applications. I
know
that this group is not focused on Equinox-based server applications,
but
I do think considering the use of connection frameworks in those
environments will result in better separation of concerns at the
bundle/api level for a connection framework.
Also, I would request that any effort to define a new connection API
first take a look at and try out ECF's IContainer API for satisfying
these use cases. I think it can/could meet all the use cases I've
seen
so far on this list, and I think it would be a terrible shame to spend
significant effort redoing much of what we've done (and is available as
part of p2-based Equinox). Also, if there are use cases that we've
not
addressed (so to speak :), then of course the API can/will be migrated
forward as needed.
Scott
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