Equinox p2 UI Plan

This page describes the work planned for the next release (3.5) of the p2 UI. This includes improvements for the p2 UI in the Eclipse SDK, as well as issues that have to be addressed for alternate UIs (such as RCP app requirements).

Important fixes will be examined for inclusion/backport to 3.4.1.

The milestone plans for 3.4 have moved to Equinox p2 UI Eclipse 3.4 Plan

Issues for 3.4.1

• Improved progress reporting and honoring cancellation requests
• Improved presentation of errors
• UM Regressions with low risk fixes
  • Fix confusing restart language
• Investigate less eager loading of repos by the UI Bug 236485

Issues for 3.5

UI/Usability

• Usability review of general strategy (modality, overall organization, etc.)
  • Initial walkthrough by Eclipse UIWG scheduled for 6/25/2008
• Improved implementation of installed view
  • Ability to view different levels of detail Bug 224472
  • Separation of product base vs. "add-ons" Bug 215398
• better affordances in available view to show already installed, available updates, etc. Bug 216032
  • this detail should be shown also in install/update dialog
• handling and presentation of repos
  • Need to do a better job of deciding which repos to look up against Bug 234213
  • better organization for known/discovered/disabled repos and discovery mechanisms Bug 218534
• streamlined license UI Bug 217944
• user repo naming (regression of UM function) Bug 194224
• improved revert view with annotations for snapshots Bug 216031

Performance/Stability

• revisit checkbox/filter/deferred fetch strategy Bug 233269
• resolution in the background Bug 236495

API

• Level of detail provided by API (listed from most general to most granular)
  • Separation of contributions from the rest of the code Bug 221760
  • One callable, preconfigured UI with pluggable policy (query providers, policies, etc.)
  • Ability to place basic UI in different containers (dialog vs. pref page)
  • Ability to reassemble groups (available, installed, history) into new UI
  • Expose all building blocks for RCP apps
    • Individual wizards, dialogs, actions
    • Content and label providers
• Moving UI code to the core
  • should UI be the one coordinating provisioning operations vs. having scheduling rules Bug 236493
  • event batching when multiple changes are made Bug 234489 and/or Bug 236498
  • improved error reporting and explanation of problems between the planner and the UI Bug 233105
• Ensure code is structured for managed scenarios (minimal UI that is required)
  • Silent/automatic updating, user never sees the update UI, it just happens (but may need confirmation, restart dialog, etc.)
  • User's environment is defined explicitly by someone external (administrator)
    • Upgrade or install to a new specification
    • Compare current installation to required one