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Equinox/p2/Admin UI Users Guide

About the Eclipse Provisioning RCP Agent

  • If you have not yet downloaded the Eclipse Provisioning RCP agent, see Getting started with M1.
  • The agent RCP application allows you to install (and uninstall) an Eclipse 3.3 SDK using the Equinox Provisioning framework that is being developed in the Equinox Incubator.
  • The agent application itself is structured on top of the provisioning framework, so you can (purposefully or inadvertantly) modify the agent application by manipulating it within the application.
  • The UI for the RCP app is based on a provisioning admin UI that is being used by the provisioning team to manipulate the environment. <Disclaimer:> It is not intended to demonstrate what kind of provisioning UI would be delivered in Eclipse. In other words, it is not intended to replace the Eclipse Update Manager UI.
  • The workflow we are trying to demonstrate is very narrow, yet the UI is more flexible in allowing you to add/remove repositories and profiles. Failures are brittle (vague error reporting that requires you to check your .log file).

Overview of the Eclipse Provisioning RCP Agent

  • The RCP app is comprised of three views:
    • The Metadata Repositories view shows those metadata repositories known by the provisioning infrastructure.
      • You can (and should) ignore those repositories located in your c:/equinox.prov directory. Those are the repositories containing the RCP agent application.
      • The repository of interest is the repository located on eclipse.org (http://download.eclipse.org/eclipse/equinox/provisioning/metadata/).
      • You may add or remove repositories using this view.
      • Expanding a metadata repository will show you the installable units (IU's) available for installing.
      • You may examine the properties of repositories or IU's
      • You may install an IU to a specified profile using drag and drop or the popup menu.
    • The Artifact Repositories view shows those artifact repositories known by the provisioning infrastructure.
      • You can (and should) ignore those repositories located in your c:/equinox.prov directory. Those are the repositories containing the RCP agent application.
      • The repository of interest is the repository located on eclipse.org (http://download.eclipse.org/eclipse/equinox/provisioning/artifacts/artifacts.xml).
      • You may add or remove repositories using this view.
      • Expanding an artifact repository will show you what artifacts are located there
      • You may examine the properties of the repository
      • You can't examine the properties of the artifacts or otherwise manipulate them (yet)
    • The Profiles view shows profiles defined for installing software. Profiles are the target of an install operation.
      • The EquinoxProvisioningUI profile represents the agent application itself. It contains the IU's (bundles) that comprise the RCP app.
      • You may add or remove profiles using this view.
      • Expanding a profile shows you what IU's have been installed in the profile.
      • You may examine and change the properties of profiles and IU's.
      • You may uninstall an IU from a profile using the popup menu.
  • The Window>Preferences... menu item lets you control some application preferences:
    • You can control whether drag and drop operations should be confirmed first
    • You can control whether you view all IU's in the repositories and profiles, or just those that have been marked as a "group" IU. Viewing groups only helps reduce the clutter when you are trying to find something like the SDK.

Installing the Eclipse 3.3 SDK using the Provisioning RCP Agent

  1. Define a profile representing your Eclipse SDK install
    1. From the profile view's local menu, toolbar, or popup menu, choose Add Profile...
    2. Choose a unique id for your profile, such as "Eclipse SDK".
    3. You may optionally define a name and description to further describe your profile
    4. Choose an install folder for the profile (this is where the SDK will be installed).
    5. It is important to keep the defaults for the other values, or the install may fail with little explanation
    6. When you have pressed OK you should see the new profile in the view
  2. Locate the sdk IU in the eclipse metadata repository
  3. You may install the sdk in several ways:
    • Select the IU and drag it to your newly created profile.
    • Select the IU and choose Install... from the popup menu. You will be prompted for a target profile.
  1. You should see a progress indicator that reports the progress of the install. In some phases, progress reporting is very sparse. You may see some long pauses without progress.
  2. When it is finished, you have a full Eclipse SDK located in the install folder of your profile

Cool stuff you can try

  • If you install the SDK into the agent profile (EquinoxProvisioningUI), then the next time you launch the rcp app, you'll actually be running the Eclipse SDK!
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