Re: [platform-help-dev] embedded help for web applications for InfoCente

[birsan@xxxxxxxxxx]

Hi Erik,

Thanks for the proposal! I didn't have a chance to understand all the
details of your proposal, but, on a first read, it looks very interesting.
Many features seem to rely on the ability to extend the current help system
webapp. As it is currently done, this is a bit harder to do following the
eclipse plugin mechanisms. Currently, the infocenter is implemented as a
web app that launches the eclipse platform from a servlet, in the same VM
as the servlet (i.e. the app server VM). With the exception of some
customization settings, it is hard to extend the webapp with a plugin, the
only viable solution is to change the existing jsp's/servlets/etc.
To overcome this limitation, one possible solution is to run eclipse as a
separate process (eg. Window service or Unix daemon, or just a regular user
process), and have a dispatcher type of webapp installed on the web/app
server to delegate all the requests to the help webapp running in the
eclipse instance. The main web/app server would communicate with the local
help server (tomcat) running in that eclipse process. This way, all the
help webapp code would run as plugins, and extending the help application
can be done via plugins.
We prototyped the redirection from an app server to a running eclipse
instance (it was a very easy thing to do), but we are just begining to
think about ways to extend the help webapp via plugins.
Another benefit of running eclipse as a separate process is avoiding all
the installations and runtime issues caused by the XML parsers and URL
Stream Hanlders (eclipse has its own, app server has its own).
The drawback is the need to run/manage another process on the host machine
and security implications of having another port open, but, in theory, this
should not be a major issue when proper firewall rules are in place.
What do you think, would such a solution for infocenter work for you?

-Dorian




|---------+----------------------------------->
|         |           Erik                    |
|         |           Hennum/Oakland/IBM@IBMUS|
|         |           Sent by:                |
|         |           platform-help-dev-admin@|
|         |           eclipse.org             |
|         |                                   |
|         |                                   |
|         |           09/11/2002 07:11 PM     |
|         |           Please respond to       |
|         |           platform-help-dev       |
|         |                                   |
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  |       To:       platform-help-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx                                                               |
  |       cc:                                                                                                   |
  |       Subject:  [platform-help-dev] embedded help for web applications for InfoCenter Eclipse               |
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Hi, Eclipse Help Gurus:

We're contemplating embedding help topics within a web application window.
We'd like to pursue a strategy that will not only be valid for Eclipse
2.0.1 but also Eclipse 2.1 and (one hopes) beyond.

For InfoCenter Eclipse 2.0.1, the best approach seems to be to extend the
Eclipse help web application.  Here is a more detailed explanation of that
approach:

    (See attached file: HelpEmbedded.zip)

Will this strategy work with the design planned for 2.1?

We also have a working prototype that can be installed on Tomcat +
InfoCenter Eclipse 2.0.1, if that would clarify our approach.


Thanks in advance,


Erik Hennum
ehennum@xxxxxxxxxx





#### HelpEmbedded.zip has been removed from this note on September 12 2002
by Dorian Birsan