1. Simplifying Update and Extension Install for RCP applications Susan McCourt (IBM Rational), Steffen Pingel (Tasktop Technologies)

2. Simplifying RCP Update and Install

What (and why) do we need to simplify?

3. What are we doing about it? 4. How do p2 and p2/Mylyn Discovery fit together? 5. Examples and Demos 6. RCP Install/Update in 3.5

p2 UI class library structured with RCP in mind

Separate the building blocks from UI contributions

7. Configurable policy to control aspects of UI 8. Building blocks (wizards, pages, viewers, etc.) to customize the experience SDK UI must support a diverse set of users

Continuous balancing of concerns

9. Plug-in developers, update site producers, end users 10. Product branding has not been critical path RCP users not served well out of the box 11. RCP Developers' Reaction to 3.5

Customization of UI is too hard

Don't want to write Java code

12. p2 API is too complex 13. Critical pieces (branding) are missing 14. Customization examples aren't enough/aren't hitting the right use cases We need a bolt-on self update feature that can handle the 80% case without writing Java code 15. When a product supports add-ons, our users expect the Firefox Install experience 16. Deliverables in 3.6

Declare API

p2 Operations API

Simple things should be simple

17. Refactor the 80% case out of the UI code Metadata enhancements to support branding Enhance the story for RCP self-update 18. Move Mylyn Discovery to p2

Discovery is the recommended install for branded, filtered installs

19. 'Install New Software...' is still the default to support plug-in developer use cases 20. API:R3.5 Headless Update 21. API:R3.6 Headless Update 22. API:Branding Metadata

Branding begins at discovery

23. Discovery can happen in different ways

Users read blogs, email, announcements (drag the URL into Eclipse)

24. Aggregators design catalogs (rankings, search, tags, ...) 25. Different restrictions in different deployments Once an item has been installed, we need to retain its branding identity

Installed software list

26. Update notifications 27. RCP Mail Update Example Snapshot of demo, give demo 28. RCP Example: Good ol' RCP Code Snapshot of demo, give demo Need a status line and progress indicator public void preWindowOpen() { IWorkbenchWindowConfigurer configurer = getWindowConfigurer(); configurer.setInitialSize(new Point(600, 400)); configurer.setShowCoolBar(true); configurer.setShowStatusLine(true); configurer.setShowProgressIndicator(true); } Define menus and locations for additions protected void fillMenuBar(IMenuManager menuBar) { ... MenuManager toolsMenu = new MenuManager("&Tools", M_TOOLS);toolsMenu.add(preferencesAction); toolsMenu.add(new Separator()); toolsMenu.add(new GroupMarker(IWorkbenchActionConstants.MB_ADDITIONS)); } 29. RCP Example: Menu Snapshot of demo, give demo Contribute the menu 30. RCP Example: Update Command Snapshot of demo, give demo Contribute the command and handler 31. RCP Self-Update in 3.5

What's wrong with thispicture?

32. RCP Example: Update Code Snapshot of demo, give demo The update code // create the update operation.The defaults are fine. UpdateOperation operation =getProvisioningUI().getUpdateOperation( null ,null ); // check for updatesoperation.resolveModal( null ); if (UpdateSingleIUWizard. validFor (operation)) { // Special case for only updating a single root UpdateSingleIUWizard wizard = new UpdateSingleIUWizard(getProvisioningUI(), operation); WizardDialog dialog =newWizardDialog(getShell(), wizard); dialog.create(); dialog.open(); } else { // Open the normal version of the update wizardgetProvisioningUI().openUpdateWizard( false , operation, null); } 33. RCP Example: Branding Metadata Snapshot of demo, give demo Define a document suitable for displaying in a browser that describes your update.Refer to it in the metadata. 34. RCP Self-Update in 3.6

Better?

35. RCP Install

One size does not fit all

Support, enable, and encourage UI for more targeted groups of users

Move Mylyn Discovery to p2

Branded, configurable catalogs, Firefox-like simplicity

Look for integration but avoid temptation

As p2 catalog and branding metadata evolves, will Mylyn/p2 Discovery replace 'Install New Software...'?

36. Fight complexity

Installation conflicts

37. User configurability 38. Extension Install 39. Motivation

Mylyn has a broad ecosystem of Agile and ALM integrations

40. Users had trouble getting connectors

Most connectors are maintained and hosted outside of Eclipse

41. The default p2 installer is geared towards advanced users 42. Extension Install in 2008 43. How can we improve?

Simple install

44. Install embedded into regular workflow 45. Support for product information 46. Extension Install Today 47. Using p2 Discovery in Your App

Code moved to Equinox p2

Feature available in Helios repository since M6

How can I use this?

Simple front-end for existing p2 repositories

48. Front-end for branded extension catalogs 49. Simplified p2 Front-end

Enables browsing of p2 repositories

Meta-data provided by the repository

50. Catalog-based Discovery

Enables browsing of extension catalogs

Catalog items point to a feature and p2 repository

51. PDE tooling is used for editing Existing Implementations

Mylyn connector discovery

52. Subversive connector installer 53. SpringSource Tool Suite extensions page 54. Integrating p2 Discovery 55. Remote Catalogs http://.../directory.xml http://eclipse.../catalog.jar http://tasktop.../catalog.jar 56. Catalog Tooling 57. Catalog Item Descriptor 58.

UI components were designed with extensibility in mind

Pluggable discovery strategy

59. Extensible data model 60. Viewer based UI Existing Implementations

Eclipse Marketplace Client

Build Your Own p2 UI 61. Outlook

Streamline install experience

Do not require restart

62. Integrate discovery with P2 license and install wizard 63. P2 Project http://wiki.eclipse.org/Equinox_p2_User_Interface http://wiki.eclipse.org/Equinox/p2/Discovery Mylyn Discovery http://wiki.eclipse.org/Mylyn/Discovery Marketplace Client http://eclipse.org/mpc Questions?