Equinox p2 UI Plan

This page describes the work planned for the next release (3.6) 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 3.5.x maintenance stream.

The overall p2 plan for 3.6 is located at Equinox_p2_Plan

The milestone plans for 3.5 have moved to Equinox p2 UI Eclipse 3.5 Plan

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

3.6 Ideas list

UI/Usability

• Ability to define/share/install/uninstall user-named groups of IU's (Susan, Ian?)
  • "My tool set"
  • Extension location use cases that don't necessarily depend on physical location
• First class support of explanations in UI (Susan?)
  • error indicators and quick fix/alternate actions Bug 248959, Bug 267464, Bug 218048, Bug 261928
  • consolidate "empty explanations" with error indicators
• Install wizard improvements (Susan?)
  • Selection indicator and popup, non-filtered selections Bug 235654, Bug 257597, Bug 278189
  • Consider modeless operation
• Transport-related issues
  • showing detailed repository status when known
  • authentication scoping
  • progress reporting improvements
• Separation of product base vs. "add-ons" Bug 215398
  • Differentiating the base product stuff from added content
  • User shouldn't be able to (unintentionally) redefine what is "the product" by installing something
• Fast-path install scenarios Bug 223264
• Comparing configurations (rollback history or compare one profile to another?)
• Search based metaphor
  • Currently the UI is repository centric. It would probably be beneficial to have a more search oriented UI.

Performance/Architecture

• Query/load assumptions, better async support (Susan)
  • Get rid of deferred tree content manager and the "load is slow, query is fast" assumptions
  • Alternate progress indication during fetch job (redirect to the wizard)

API

• Cleanup and document existing provisional API (Susan)
  • javadoc
  • wizard page creation should be early and explicit (problems with dynamic page creation)
  • ability to insert pages into a wizard
  • actions should not be API (make internal or migrate to commands and handlers)
• Core/UI responsibilities
  • should UI be the one coordinating provisioning operations vs. having scheduling rules Bug 218216
  • batched repo events
• Supported API for all UI building blocks
  • Individual wizards, dialogs, commands
  • consider handlers vs. actions for UI pluggability/are some command ID's contracts (so clients can invoke UI by id)
  • Content and label providers

3.6 Milestone Plans

M1 - (date?)

• alternate license UI Bug 217944 - (Susan)