Difference between revisions of "Mylyn/Discovery"

Revision as of 13:03, 10 June 2009

DRAFT: Please comment using bug 279709

Mylyn Connector Discovery

The purpose of the Mylyn Connector Discovery mechanism is to make the productivity benefits of Mylyn available to more users. Mylyn relies on connectors that bridge between Eclipse and application development and lifecycle management tools. A limiting factors of the adoption of Mylyn has been the availability and ease of install of connectors. To address this, the Mylyn project has created an install technology, built on Eclipse P2, which makes it easy for Eclipse users to discover and install connectors [bug link].

Third Party Dependencies Overview

The principle and mechanism is identical to the Web Tools Platform's Server Adapter install and is similarly based on the ability to include works with dependencies within Eclipse, presenting the user with license agreement prior to the install of the depencencies.

We support three kinds of connector dependencies. Mylyn does not require the third party connector software to be present and functions with multiple third party connectors present. The following connector kinds are supported:

• Task Repository Connectors: provide Task List and Task Editor integration for accessing a task/bug/issue management system.
• Document Bridges: provide focusing features to programming and other document management tools.
• Version Control: provide automatic change set management for source and version control systems.

The following reference implementations of connectors are distributed with Mylyn:

• Task Repository Connectors: Mozilla Bugzilla and Trac
• Document Bridges: Eclipse JDT and PDE
• Version Control: Eclipse CVS

Listing Criteria

The goal of the connector listing criteria is to make quality connectors easy to install. We define quality connectors as those that implement all of the corresponding Mylyn APIs and that have an active user community. Connectors that do not yet have an active user community can use the other Mylyn communication channels [link] in order to advertise their availability to existing Mylyn users. Further listing criteria specific to each type of section are listed below. This process is open for discussion via bug 279709.

Eclipse.org Section

Connectors that are part of the Mylyn project can be included in the Connector Discovery listing if they have graduated from incubation status. To achieve that, the connector must have passed UI and architecture reviews by the Mylyn committers, must have an active community as defined by the activity on bugs.eclipse.org reports, and must have sufficient committer and contributor resources in order to maintain the implementation based on that feedback. The Mylyn committers then vote on the inclusion of the connector using the same process as used in committer elections, basing their decision on how these criteria are met.

Community Section

A connector can be listed in the Community section if it implements all of the corresponding Mylyn APIs and already has an active user community. To be listed, the connector author(s) should request a review on the weekly Mylyn call, present how the integration meets the Mylyn API requirements and Eclipse UI guidelines and demonstrate that the connector has an active user community. The authors must also provide a support forum that the Mylyn committers can forward connector-specific support requests to. The Mylyn committers then vote on the inclusion of the connector using the same process as used in committer elections, basing their decision on how these criteria are met.

Additional Sections

Additional sections can be added to the discovery listing if they meet the goals defined above. Since the Mylyn project does not have direct control of the entries under the listing, but these are likely to need to address user and framework related support requests for those entries, the current goal is for additional sections to only be added by parties making significant contributions to Mylyn, e.g., vendors with committers on the Mylyn frameworks. This ensures that the additional listings add more to the project than they take away in terms of overhead for the existing committers.

Eclipsepedia Listing

The connector listing on Eclipsepedia [1] is open to all. The Eclipsepedia page is linked from the Connector Discovery mechanism, so all connectors listed in the discovery mechanism should have an up-to-date listing on the Eclipsepedia page.