Your point about the number of available plugins is valid. One way to mitigate that is to have the
internal plugin component enhanced to use the list of plugin sites so they can all be searched and a
comprehensive list of plugins from all sites presented to the user with the source of the plugin
displayed alongside the plugin. Then it doesn't matter how many or where the sites are. If the
sites are up then the content will be displayed, if they're down then the content is invisible.
This way the user doesn't have to iterate through the sites individually which is a problem that we
have today regardless of what the default is.
Would this enhancement resolve the issues as Geronimo can be the default, the user's life is
simplified and the number and location of the sites is not the primary issue. The site's that have
the content would be visible next to teh plugin so the user can select the one they want.
Another enhancement would be for the plugin manger to list and display an optional license file that
is included in the plugin so users would be able to get that information about what license they are
accepting.
Matt
Aaron Mulder wrote:
I have to disagree with putting up an ASF option as the default.
Let's say there are 50 plugins produced by Apache and 70 by outsiders.
We have a choice to make the default a repository containing 50
entries, or a repository containing 120 entries. What makes sense?
To me, this is a no-brainer, you make the default the one that offers
the best selection to the user.
If you're worried about site maintenance, as I've said repeatedly,
we're more than happy to provide accounts to Geronimo committers who
want to help out. We could also move much of the site content to an
Apache SVN repo if you like, leaving the non-free content such as
images as URLs that will need to be resolved by the browser.
There was a proposal on IRC to set up a separate non-profit
organization to manage the plugin site, and I think we'd be happy to
ultimately transition the site to such an organization. Another
recommendation was to allow the list of available plugin sites to be
updated on demand (e.g. not only updated by new Geronimo releases),
which is also fine.
Finally, remember, this is not a proposal to host the Geronimo core
offsite, or to replace the Apache repository as the authoritative site
for downloads of Apache components. This is a method to make the
widest possible selection of third-party / after-market components
available to Geronimo users.
Thanks,
Aaron
On 5/2/06, Matt Hogstrom <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
I agree that in principle its different with the following exceptions.
* IBiblio is maintained by a staff of engineers at Chapel Hill. I
believe their availability
requirements and staffing are an order of magnitude above what is
currently available for the
Geronimo Plugins Site.
* We do not point to IBiblio for a running server, we use it to build
the server. I think there is
a different constituency of people that would be depending on
availability.
* IBiblio is a mirror of other content sites so if it is down there
are other places to get the
information contained on their site.
Again, I'm in favor of the plugin concept and Aaron has brought it to
life. I also think the
www.geronimoplugins.com is a great way to distribute a variety of
material that is non-ASF licensed.
However, from a project perspective I think we should make the default
http://geronimo.apache.org/plugins and have the
www.geronimoplugins.com as an alternate site in the
dropdown list along with any other sites that people choose to put up.
I do not think we should make the geronimoplugins site the default and
we need an ASF option as the
default.
Matt
David Jencks wrote:
> I haven't looked in detail at the current plugin site, but I don't see
> how it is different in principle to the primary maven repo at ibiblio,
> which is certainly not on apache hardware, as it distributes oodles of
> non-asl compatible stuff. Just as there is an apache maven repo that
> gets synched to the ibiblio one, I have no problem with an apache
> geronimo plugin repo that is synched to a more inclusive one.
>
> Is the plugin site essentially a maven 2 repo with specialized content?
> I would hope that we have a maven (2) plugin to install plugins into a
> server, so the process of building the server for your application can
> be somewhat integrated into your build process.
>
> thanks
> david jencks
>
> On Apr 30, 2006, at 10:32 PM, John Sisson wrote:
>
>> I noticed that the 1.1 console has the www.geronimoplugins.com site as
>> a default value for the URL in the "Import/Export Configurations"
>> page. This was introduced in
>> http://svn.apache.org/viewcvs?rev=394605&view=rev .
>>
>> I have a few questions:
>>
>> Was the plugin concept, site etc. discussed on the dev list? I
>> haven't been able to find much at all.
>> Where is this site currently hosted?
>> Will it be an ASF hosted site before the 1.1 release goes out?
>> Where is the source for the site?
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> John
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
>
