Equinox/p2/Galileo/Features

This page highlights the proposed features and function to implement in p2 during the Galileo release. The general themes for this release are robustness, ease of use, more direct value-add to our users, and be a better platform. Readers interested in additional details can consult the 3.5 bug list. See also the p2 Milestone Plan

Note that this document evolved from the 3.5 contributions page as it was on September 5 2008.

User Interaction

Improve overall usability

Review the overall usability of the current UI. See also p2 UI plan. Priority: 1.

Improve the error messages provided in case of inability to install. Priority: 1. Bug 200380

Allow for selection of the optional pieces. Priority: 2.

Closer integration with the VM

Provide a way to change the VM being used by Eclipse through the UI and thus trigger the appropriate provisioning actions. Priority: 1.

Promote the usage of an installer

In order to promote bundle pooling, we need to promote the usage of an installer and make it more robust than it is today. Priority: 2.

Tighter desktop integration

Provide ways to better integrate an Eclipse based application with the desktop (e.g. desktop shortcuts, registry keys...). Priority: 2.

Better shared install

Improve the management of shared installs to allow for the end user to not lose the extensions installed. Priority: 2.

Browser-based installation

Installation of new function can be triggered by users clicking on a link in a browser. Priority: 3. Bug 246628

Ease the installation of extension and bridges plug-ins

p2 should make it easier for bridge plug-ins to be found (e.g. The Mylyn/CDT integration). Priority: 2.

p2 should make it easier for extension plug-ins to be found (e.g. Webserver adaptors for WTP). Priority: 2.

Ease the management of complementary items

Provide a way to change language in the UI (and always automatically install the language pack). Priority: 2.

Provide a way to install doc automatically when available. Priority: 2.

Provide a way to install source for the installed bundles. Priority: 2.

Installation duplication

Provide a way to create a new install from the existing one. Priority: 2.

Recovery application

Provide a recovery application allowing the user to revert to a previous well-known state in case where the installation has been left in a broken state as a result of the last installation. Priority: 3.

Profile interchange

Profiles can be manipulated and exchanged between users. This allows previous setups to be stored and recreated and for users to exchange profiles. Priority: 3

Download technology

Download integrity through MD5/SHA1 and signature verification

The integrity of downloaded artifacts can be verified using MD5/SHA1 hashing algorithms and/or signature verification. Priority: 1

Robustness / responsiveness / user friendliness

p2 needs to be robust when downloading from misbehaving servers and still provide an overall good responsiveness. Also it needs to provide more precise messages wrt download failures (e.g. distinguish between missing file, unknown host, no connectivity, etc.). Priority: 1.

Pre-download

In order to ease some configuration changes (e.g. VM, locale, etc.), p2 should allow for some artifacts to be pre-downloaded. Priority: 2.

Improve Adaptive downloads and mirror selection

p2 currently has a simple adaptive download scheme. This could be improved by taking into account aspect of the download such as artifact type available, artifact processing time, download speed, etc. Priority: 2

Restart from partial downloads

In presence of very large artifacts, p2 needs to be able to restart a download where it left off. Priority: 2.

Download time estimation

Estimation of the download time as the download progresses. Priority: 2

Media support

p2 supports and properly manages the interaction with repositories stored on removable and volume-oriented media such as CDs, DVDs. Priority: 2.

Update Manager replacement

Replace update manager

In addition of installing and configuring plug-ins, update manager constructs were being used by other components to drive certain aspects of the UI, the branding, primary plug-in, etc. p2 needs to provide a replacement for these constructs. Priority: 1. Bug 196318

Mechanism to execute arbitrary code

UM provided with install handlers a way to execute arbitrary code. p2 replaced this with the concept of touchpoints however lost some flexibility there. We need to reinstate this flexibility whether it is by automatic provisioning of touchpoints or by having an escape mechanism. Priority: 1.

Core facilities

API

p2 will graduate some of its provisional API into final APIs. Priority: 1.

Review touchpoint contribution model

The touchpoint contribution model needs to be reworked to facilitate the addition of touchpoints. Priority: 1. [ https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=203323 Bug 203323]

Reaction to configuration changes

When some configuration aspects of p2 change, we need to properly react to those. Priority: 1.

Dynamic provisioning of missing touchpoints

p2 should allow for touchpoints to be dynamically downloaded before the installation starts. Priority: 2.

Making the agent fully dynamic

The p2 code base needs to be able to react to parts of its code coming and going dynamically. Priority: 2.

UI building blocks and programmatic configurability

Reusable building blocks of UI needs to be provided to facilitate the creation of other kinds of user interface. Priority: 2.

Provide configuration option of various p2 default dialogs to limit the coding necessary when using p2 controlled environments. Priority: 2.

Improve robustness of installation

Provide infrastructure to help touchpoint author create action that will leave the system in a good state in case of installation failure. Priority: 1.

Improve the eclipse touchpoint

Add actions to the touchpoint to handle things like preferences, OSGi framework extensions, etc. Priority: 1.

Dependency model improvement

Add metadata construct to allow for separation of line-up information from grouping information. Priority: 2.

Add metadata constructs allowing the expression of negation and choice. Priority: 3.

Look at making the model of capabilities / requirements more general. Priority: 3.

Linkability in metadata

Explore the addition of more links / "bookmarks" into an IU. Priority: 2.

Garbage collection

Need a way to ensure that a bundle pool is only used by one agent to avoid problems with GC. Priority: 1.

Metadata garbage collector. Priority: 2. [ https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=218564 Bug 218564]

GC the download cache. Priority: 2.

GC the profile registry. Priority: 1.

Sequenced provisioning

Users and developers can mandate that various update and install operations must be executed prior to attempting subsequent operations. Priority: 2

Multiple processes modifying the same profile registry / profile

Lock the repo when writing from multiple profiles. Priority: 1.

Multiple process modifying the profile registry and the GC. Priority: 1.

Profile initialization

Provide the ability for profiles to be pre-populated with various capabilities and variables (e.g. VM, OS, etc.). Priority: 2.

Improve overall traceability of the install

Provide better trace of what is going on during the install (which server files have been downloaded, where we unzipped files, etc.). Priority: 1.

Improve test suites

We need to have a rich automated test suite as well as detailed smoke tests. Also we should encourage the eclipse team to use p2 for each integration build. Priority: 1.

Repository enhancements

Improve the model with which repositories are associated with each others. Priority: 1.

Ability to do composite repositories. Priority: 1.

Provide the ability for repositories announce themselves and also be discovered by p2. Priority: 3.

Tooling / plug-in developer

Repository browsers and editors

p2 tooling includes browsers and editors for the artifact and metadata repositories. Users can view, add and remove elements from local and remote p2 repositories. Priority: 2.

Repository tooling

Artifact and metadata repositories can be duplicated in whole or in part using a set of tools included in p2. Priority: 1.

Provide IU / artifact correlation tool to check if all the artifacts of an IU are available in an artifact repository, to remove all the artifacts related to an IU, etc. Priority: 2.

Metadata authoring

p2 tooling will offer the ability to author installable units. Priority:2.