'd like to start a thread about where JBI components that are contributed by users should be hosted.
I think that, like most other applications that have plugins, we should cover all three bases. Components maintained by the core team should be hosted locally. An open repository should exist for components donated by third parties who don't have the resources to host them themselves and this repository should have no licensing restrictions. At the same time, a list of external components should exist on the main site to integrate larger third party projects that provide JBI connectivity as part of their remit.
I agree with the need to split the component's lifecycle from that of the container. From an enterprise point of view, most IT departments would want to work against a fixed release version of a container, but would consider the merits of each component as it became available, based upon their needs.
This has a couple of implications. We would need strong integration tests for each component so that we could ensure compatibility with new container releases and we would need to keep a history of component versions to ensure ongoing backward compatibility against prior container releases.
We should also clearly mark as deprecated those components that have been superceded by cleaner approaches and try to provide migration advice where possible.
Terry
