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Add the ability to write plugins using jruby or groovy.

Revision as of 19:23, 8 July 2007 by Ant.arhipov.gmail.com (Talk | contribs) (Deliverables)

This project is part of Google Summer of Code 2007, project link is here.

Student: Anton Arhipov

Blog: http://arhipov.blogspot.com

test

SVN repo at SF.net: at eclipse-incub

About

Scripting language like Groovy (or JRuby) is an ideal choice for Java developer to do quick prototyping. The biggest benefit of Eclipse support for Groovy plug-in development is that while changing the plug-in on-the-fly there's no need to start a separate Eclipse instance or restart the IDE when something was changed in the code. This would rapidly improve the speed of lightweight plug-in development.

This project aims to add ability to write plugins in JVM-based scripting language, like Groovy and JRuby. But it could be a starting point for any other JVM scripting language, like BeanShell or Jython.

Legend

Glass.gif Needs some investigation
Progress.gif Patch in progress
Ok green.gif Bug fixed / Feature added


Repository

SVN repo at SF.net at eclipse-incub contains two plug-ins:

  • yummy-plugin - this is the plug-in that should provide the ability to write the new plug-ins in a scripting language, e.g. Groovy.
  • yummy-script-contributor - a demonstration plug-in that contributes the components written in a scripting language.

I will also provide a set of unit tests as a separate plug-in and feature/site projects for the installation.

Status/Timeline

Ok green.gif Implementation of runtime engine to run the scripts. javax.scripting API is in use for this purpose: org.eclipse.soc.yummy.core.ScriptExecutor does the job.


Ok green.gif How to attach an action, that is implemented using a scripting language (Groovy or JRuby), to an eclipse button or menu. All the extensions will be described just if it would be a normal eclipse plug-in, instead, the implementing class will be specified using using custom syntax line referring to a script location.


Progress.gif Implementing a set of facades to the scripting objects that should implement extensions.


Ok green.gif Referencing to the script item in plugin.xml.

A reference to a script file is done using a syntax hack that is provided by the org.eclipse.core.runtime.IExecutableExtension interface. Script file name is referenced in the same text value where the class name is specified, delimited with ':' character:

 org.eclipse.soc.yummy.facade.views.ScriptView:view.groovy

See the demostration plug-in for more: plugin.xml


Progress.gifGlass.gif Exposing the workbench to the script. This should be very much like in Eclipse Monkey. For smooth scripting there should be a set of predefined variables that a script contributor could use out of the box: e.g a reference to workbench, windows, views, etc.


Ok green.gif The dependencies for any specific language PDE implementation are:

  • <language>.jar, e.g. groovy-all.jar
  • <language>-engine.jar, e.g. groovy-engine.jar
  • yummy-plugin.jar, i.e. the plug-in for any specific language will use the engine to run the scripts executed by <language>-engine.jar at the end. The brand new scripted plug-in will have to use yummy to enable scripting support.
  • Glass.gif Licencing issues for 3rd-party libraries.


Glass.gif Executing the new script plug-in in the same workbench.

Options:

  • Plug-In Architecture Notes. When starting the "scriptable" plug-in, the extensions defined in plugin.xml should be processed by a custom handler, that will override the standardized extension processing.
  • Create a a bundle programmaticaly and register it via Equinox.

Deliverables

The main results to be reached:

Major

- An Eclipse extension/plug-in to provide the ability to write the new plug-ins in a scripting language, e.g. Groovy


Minor

- An Eclipse extension/plug-in to (re)load (Groovy/JRuby) scripts on the fly.

- Command line console support to modify and change the program behavior interactively. Probably this could look like in case Apache Derby ij plug-in

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