Revision as of 15:02, 16 July 2007

Note: This is a draft of the requirements document and is expected to change.

Last revised: July 16, 2007

Please send your feedback on this draft document to the wtp-dev@eclipse.org developer mailing list.

Introduction

This document captures the requirements for the Web Tools Platform Project Release 3.0. The inputs for this requirement will be from the WTP community of Users, Adopters and Developers and the Eclipse Requirements Council. The document will be maintained by the WTP PMC members and the WTP Component leads.

Release Themes

Themes and their priorities communicate the main objectives and their importance to the project. The following themes are derived from those defined by the Eclipse Requirement council for the Eclipse Ganymede release and from the WTP 2.0 release themes. These will be prioritized based on the community feedback. New themes could be synthesized from the requirements submitted by the community.

Theme Categorization

(Note: The following definition is provided by the Eclipse Requirements Council

Eclipse themes are described in one of four categories.

• Active themes are those that are ongoing and changing. From time to time, some Active themes will become Persistent and Pervasive.
• Persistent and Pervaisve themes are not time or release specific. Persistent and Pervasive themes are not only a signal of importance, but permanence.
• Deferred Themes are not an indication of priority, but are an indication that there are technical or resource inhibitors preventing them from becoming an Active Theme. Deferred themes are a signal to the ecosystem that help is needed.
• Pending Themes are new and interesting themes that have not yet been properly explored and discussed to become an Active theme.

Active Themes

Platform Support

WTP will support the platforms certified by the Eclipse Platform project. These include support for

• OS

1. Windows Vista

• Java

1. Java SE 6.0

Support for Rich Internet Applications (RIA)

"Web 2.0" is a significant technology trend (see Wikipedia discussion on Web 2.0) that has enabled the development of a new generation of web sites that provide a rich and user-friendly experience in a wide variety of applications. As developers shift from the development of traditional web sites to Web 2.0-style sites, WTP should support developing applications that leverage Web 2.0 techniques such as Ajax (and Flex?).

Java EE 5.0 Support

Support for the Java EE technologies is one of the main charter of WTP. The WTP 2.0 release supports some of the key technologies in the Java EE 5 technologies stack. The next releases of WTP should provide complete support for all the relevant technologies in Java EE 5.

Improve the "Out of the box" Experience

This is one of the critical objectives of this release. WTP should explore ways to make it easy for a (first-time?) WTP user to become productive in using its features. Examples include:

• Use of the Eclipse Packaging Project to offer additional role-based packages (such as Web Development kit, AJAX development Kit, XML Development kit).
• Continue to work on the Release 2.0 theme,' Improved Provisioning of Third Party Content'. WTP should help create remote Update Manager sites hosted by providers of third party content required by WTP such as a site at Apache for components such as Tomcat, Axis2 etc.
• WTP should provide task-based Cheat Sheets, tutorials, screencast for the most common set of tasks

Ease of Use

Features provided by WTP should be simple to use for users with widely-varying backgrounds and skill sets.

• WTP User Interface should be consistent and should follow the Eclipse User Experience Guidelines.
• Usability and Accessibility reviews should be done for the most common task flows. Cheat Sheets should be provided to assist users in performing tasks
• WTP should provide enhanced user documentation, tutorials, white papers, demonstrations.

Persistent and Pervasive Themes

Design for Extensibility

WTP is a platform that is used by adopters to extend its functionality. This theme is about continuing to ensure the success of its adopters by promoting new API's and Extension points. These should be backed with robust Junit tests and good documentation.

Scaling Up

This refers to the need for WTP to deal with development and deployment on a larger and more complex scale. WTP should spend focused effort on performance testing and improvement when dealing with extremely large projects and workspaces.

Architectural harmonization

WTP should continue to improve the interaction/integration with other projects in the Eclipse ecosystem. Uptake of new features from the dependent projects such as the Eclipse Platform, improved integration with TPTP are some of the items to be considered for this release

Requirements

General Project-wide requirements

Reduce use of cross-project non-APIs