Re:[platform-core-dev] RFC 0002 - Importing and Exporting Projects

["Jean-Michel Lemieux/OTT/OTI" <Jean-Michel_Lemieux@xxxxxxx>]

I'm a bit late in the discussion <g>

>In summary it is unclear to me why core would want to get into creating a projectExportFile. It >seems to be just a zip that includes some metadata. 
>Why doesn't core simply add api to produce/read this metadata description? A file with this >metadata could be added to the project/read from the project, on export/import with only minor >modifications to existing File System and Zip wizards.

The VCM plugin exports/imports projects, but not into a zip/jar but into a repository. There is one main undocumented requirement that VCM has imposed on plugins that want do be VCM import/export compatible: a plugin _must_ save shared configuration information about a project into the project's file hierarchy and not in .metadata (e.g. .classpath is managed by JDT). However, the resources plugin does not play by the same rules. The VCM plugin was made responsible for persisting the shared configuration information for the resources plugin (e.g. .vcm_meta).

My questions:

1. Why should the resources plugin be special in regards to VCM import/export requirements?

2. How will the resources plugin document the requirement that for plugins to be import/export compatible they must save their shareable project config info into the file system and not in .metadata?

The resources plugin is not the only plugin interested in importing and exporting projects. Eclipse just don't have a consistent story for how plugins can identify shareable configuration information. The suggested API is, in my opinion, another way of avoiding the issue of how to handle the problem in a more general way. So how can the general import/export mechanism support both VCM's and a zip/jar tool needs?

Jean-Michel

"Greg Adams/OTT/OTI" <Greg_Adams@xxxxxxx> Sent by: platform-core-dev-admin@xxxxxxxxxxx 12/04/01 09:55 PM Please respond to platform-core-dev

To:        platform-core-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx         cc:                 Subject:        Re:[platform-core-dev] RFC 0002 - Importing and Exporting Projects

Rodrigo, 

One other quick follow up. It would be interesting if we could encourage the original upstream client of core that had requested the one file format to provide their insights/input. They might have some interesting cases that would be good to discuss. 

/Greg