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[wtp-dev] API plan for M4


Team,

M4 is fast approaching (April 25). Our high priority item for this milestone is API definition. Remember, our goal is to have all our APIs designed and frozen by M4. To remind everybody what our exit critieras are for M4:

1) at least one customer has been identified and has reviewed the API. Note that 'real' customer (vendors, other projects building on top of WTP, etc) takes priority. Inter-WTP component API dependency is of lower priority.
2) all Javadoc is complete,
3) at least one JUnit test exists for each method in the API.
4) a short overview document is complete.
Note that it is enough for the JUnit to exist. It may fail if the API is not yet implemented. If these exit criteria are not met, then we either delay the milestone exit, or we pull the API.


After M4, any change to an API must be approved by the Planning Group. The input to the Planning Group is:
1) the component lead champions the change and has assessed the schedule impact,

2) the Architecture Group has reviewed the change and supports it.


Keep in mind that this is not a backdoor for us to change our APIs after M4. The expectation is that any API changes after M4 (if not all) are non-breaking additions to existing APIs, or breaking changes to APIs that are in the 'provisional' state. Therefore, we need to be very careful and conservative about what is an API.

Action items:

1) Would component leads update the M4 milestone plan with the API definition work. If you have already done so, thank you.
2) If you are nervous about this work, speak now and hopefully we can get somebody to offload the work.

We have also added a few API-related reports to the build pages. Using the N20050305 build as an example:

http://download.eclipse.org/webtools/downloads/drops/N-N20050305-200503050130/apitools/index-api-tc.html

This report tells us how many APIs each component has, and how many of them have a junit testcase and how many of them don't. Please review this report. If you find anything that is not an API, please put it into the 'internal' or 'provisional' package. If you find a bug in the report, please let me know. After M4, we will be turning on the API compatibility report:

http://download.eclipse.org/webtools/downloads/drops/N-N20050305-200503050130/apitools/index-api-compatibility.html

This allows us to keep track of any new and removed APIs. A dashboard summary of these reports will be available soon (the next build). If you have an idea for a report that you think can help you better manage your APIs, please let me know. Feel free to ping me if you have any questions.

Thanks,

Jeffrey Liu
IBM Rational Software - Performance Analyst
IBM Toronto Lab.
8200 Warden Ave. Markham, Ontario, L6G 1C7
Internal mail: D3/R8V/8200/MKM (D3-268)
T/L: 969 3531
Tel: (905) 413 3531
Fax: (905) 413 4920
jeffliu@xxxxxxxxxx

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