[p2-dev] ProvisioningHelper, ProvisioningUtil, etc

[Scott Lewis <slewis@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Folks,

I've been creating some Equinox+p2-enabled server platforms, and am 
beginning some work on remote management of these environments.

One thing I've been looking at is the existing 'high-level' uses of p2 
APIs...specifically ProvisioningHelper class (which is used by the 
director app  and the p2 console) and ProvisioningUtil (which is used by 
the ui).  Also, I've been looking at the installer's 
InstallUpdateProductOperation, which performs operations (using the 
IDirector, IProfileRegistry, etc) that are similar to some of the things 
done by the ProvisioningHelper and ProvisioningUtil facades....but 
implemented separately.

So after looking at these...is it reasonable to say that these 
could/should be consolidated?  I know there are some deeper issues 
raised by this (e.g. consistent/flexible initialization and 
configuration of multiple osgi services behind these facades, setup 
(exemplary or otherwise) of the services in various environments, etc).  
Is there any desire/plan to concentrate on these issues for 3.5? 

The reason this matters for me (working on p2-enabled remote 
management), is that it would be nice to have a consistent local 
high-level management/provisioning API (perhaps as a single osgi 
service?) which could then be made available remotely (possibly as 
remote OSGi services), published for network discovery, etc. 

Thoughts welcome. 

Thanks,

Scott