Re: [platform-debug-dev] Proposal: Project filtering in the launch confi

[Jared Burns <jared-eclipse@xxxxxxxxx>]

Vadim, we currently do not provide a way to group launch configuration types. 
You make a very good point, though, so I've opened a bug report about this 
problem <http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=22398>.

Below is the full text of that report for interested parties.

- Jared

The launching platform does not provide a way to group launch configuration
types. There is no way to specify "These 10 config types belong to 
Provider A's tool and these 5 belong to Provider B's tool."

This is a problem for a number of reasons:
1. The number of launch config types quickly becomes too large to quickly
navigate. We've seen plugins that provide a dozen launch config types.
We're going to see more. If we allow the user to view only launch config
types in a particular group, the list becomes much more managable.

2. The namespace for launch config types is too small. As an example, the
Eclipse SDK provides a "Remote Java Application" launch config type and
someone else provides a "Connect to Running Process" launch config type.
When the user wants to debug a remote application, they have no clue which
type they should select. Launch config type grouping would provide the
necessary context for similarly named types, allowing the user to do the
right thing.

What we have today:
Connect to Running Process
Connect to Running Server
Debug a Compiled Application
Debug Running Server
E-Business Server
Java Application
Java Bean
Java Program
Java Test
JUnit Test
Remote Java Application
Web Server

What grouping would give us:
Eclipse JDT
-- Java Application
-- JUnit Test
-- Remote Java Application
My Web Tooling
-- Connect to Running Process
-- Connect to Running Server
-- Debug a Compiled Application
-- E-business Server
-- Web Server
My J2EE Tooling
-- Java Bean
-- Java Program
-- Java Test

The ideal solution to this problem would probably require an API change.

That's not possible for the 2.1 stream, but I believe we could circumvent the
API issue by providing the functionality on the launch configuration manager
(or some other publicly accessible, non-implemented utility point). We could
allow 3rd parties to register launch configuration groupings with us
optionally.




<snip>
> Since we talk about launch configuration filtering, I have another request,
> or maybe I need to be pointed to
> an existing API :-)
> I am wondering, if we can define some kind of hierarchy of launch
> configuration types in the launch configuration
> tree. That is if I have a few launch configuration types related to say
> iSeries, whether I can create a single
> 'iSeries' node in the tree and put all iSeries related launch configuration
> types under that node. I suppose we
> should be able to specify this somehow in our plugin.xml. Such enhancement
> should also cleanup the launch
> configuration tree for products that support more then just Java...
> Any thoughts?
>
> Thanks,
> Vadim Berestetsky
> Distributed Debugger Development
> Internet:  berestet@xxxxxxxxxx
<snip>