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 (resizability, formatting)
• Fix confusing restart language
• Annoying /low risk bugs
  • Refresh artifact repos when metadata repos are refreshed

Issues for 3.4.2

• Enable a site when a user adds a disabled one (workaround until core fixes in 3.5)
• NLS formatting fixes
• Layout glitches (Linux only)
• Investigate less eager loading of repos by the UI Bug 236485

3.5 Milestone Plan

M1

• UI/Usability
  • Usability review of general strategy (modality, overall organization, etc.)
    • Walkthrough with Eclipse UIWG
    • Solicit usability and user persona input from product teams
    • Write concrete user personas to guide use cases
  • Bugs
    • Bring 3.4.1 fixes into 3.5 stream

M2

• UI/Usability
  • Develop use cases based on user persona input
  • Investigate integration of installed view with about dialog
  • Develop mockups for new workflows and solicit feedback
• Performance/Stability
  • revisit checkbox/filter/deferred fetch strategy Bug 233269
  • investigate resolution in the background Bug 236495

M3

• UI/Usability
  • Complete new workflows (installed view may not yet be integrated with about dialog)
  • Improved implementation of installed view - allow drill-down into requirements that are visible as groups Bug 224472
    • this detail should be shown also in install/update dialog
• Performance/Stability
  • finalize checkbox/filter/deferred fetch strategy Bug 233269
  • resolution in the background to be provided as part of new workflows Bug 236495

M4

• UI/Usability
  • Complete integration of installed view with about dialog
  • Need to do a better job of deciding which repos to look up against Bug 234213
  • user repo naming (regression of UM function) Bug 194224
  • better affordances in available view to show already installed, available updates, etc. Bug 216032
  • Separation of product base vs. "add-ons" Bug 215398
• API
  • Complete integration of installed view with about dialog
  • Separation of contributions from the rest of the code Bug 221760
  • Ability to reassemble groups (available, installed, history, repo management) into new locations (pref page vs. wizard, etc.)

M5

• UI/Usability
  • streamlined license UI Bug 217944
  • better organization for known/discovered/disabled repos and discovery mechanisms Bug 218534
• API
  • 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 218055

M6

• API
  • javadoc, package.html, and API scrub
  • examples or work with clients to demonstrate/verify that we provide appropriate level of reuse

Items not yet assigned to milestones

UI/Usability

• ability to install/uninstall user-named groups of IU's

API

• Investigate other levels of detail provided by API (listed from most general to most granular)
  • One callable, preconfigured UI with pluggable policy (query providers, policies, etc.)
  • Expose all building blocks for RCP apps
    • Individual wizards, dialogs, actions
    • Content and label providers
• 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