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Equinox/p2/Power User p2 Views

< Equinox‎ | p2
Revision as of 11:14, 8 April 2010 by Isudana.gmail.com (Talk | contribs)

Summary

P2 is the new provisioning system for eclipse. P2 replaces the Update Manager which is used for provisioning in earlier eclipse releases. P2 has two User Interfaces called Update UI and Admin UI which are for different types of users. This project “P2 Power-User Views” is about developing a new User Interface for p2 targeting the power users.


Problem Overview

Two existing p2 user interfaces are used by two different user groups.

P2 Update UI – This is the most frequently used interface, used by eclipse SDK users and end-users. Update UI is implemented targeting the end-users rather than targeting the Eclipse SDK users. Since this is more biased towards the end-users, the current update UI is a wizard-style interface which has a task-based approach.

P2 Admin UI – Admin UI is targeted towards the p2 developers. It is a bit complex view which displays every detail of p2 model objects.

For Advanced Eclipse SDK users or power users experienced both of these interfaces are not suits their needs. So there is a requirement for a new UI for these users. It is the P2 Power User UI.

Solution Overview

P2 power-user UI

Most of the power users prefer a dashboard style User interface rather than a wizard style UI. Power-user UI is a modeless dashboard style UI which enables power users to quickly achieve their expectations.


Design and Features

Design of power-users UI will be something similar to the design of the Ubuntu Snaptic Package Manager. Synaptic Package Manager has a dashboard style UI.

Following features are included in the new UI

  • Installation procedure is done through a dashboard style modeless view.
  • Power-user UI contains two view angles. One is to view all Installable Units in a particular repository (which is there in the Admin UI). And the other one shows only the groups of installable units. It is what we have in the p2 Update view.
  • Advanced Filters – User will be provided set of filters to manage their installations. Installable Units will be displayed in categories or groups, according to the filter. This is something similar to the feature available in synaptic package manager.

(List of features will be updated during the progress of the project)


Project Implementation/ Scope

This project has following stages

1.Research about power user requirements

2.Learning p2 technology and provisioning API

3.Designing the User Interface View

4.Integrating implemented View with underlining p2 model using provisioning API


Research about power user requirements

The identified requirements of power users are listed above as features of the UI. There may be many requirements will be found during the implementation of the UI. So it is good to do a research on these requirements with the help of the community. It will definitely help future improvement of the User Interface.


Learning p2 technology

To implement the UI it is required have a very good understanding of the p2 technology. Following tasks is being done in order to archive this.

  • Referring online resources like blogs, wiki pages on p2 technology.
  • Gain knowledge by interacting with the community


Designing the User Interface View

This involves the pure UI design. Initially this will be implemented as Eclipse 3.6 View. Later with the progress of the project this will be incorporated with e4 technology.

Integrating implemented View with underlining p2 model using provisioning API :

This is a major area where I have to do some initial learning stuff. Codebase of existing UI are good materials to gain knowledge.

(These stages may overlap or iterate during the project implementation.)


Deliverables

1.A document on set of requirements of p2 power users

2.P2 power-user UI (View only)

3.Complete power-user UI

4.Documentations and User guides


References

Retrieved from "https://wiki.eclipse.org/index.php?title=Equinox/p2/Power_User_p2_Views&oldid=195607"

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