Joe Bohn wrote:
<snip>
...
Plugins are a way to distribute these applications, a convenience to
install the sample binaries once the samples get released. Plugins
should not be a requirement for sample applications, it should be an
option.
I agree that plugins are distribution mechanism. There are 2 main
differences regarding plugins with the latest sample changes:
1) The datasource definitions have been provided in a plugin rather than
requiring the user to create the definitions via the admin console based
on the system database. In that sense ... you could look at the admin
console and manual directions earlier as our "distribution mechanism".
We have to pick something for this purpose and I think the plugin is
perhaps easier for the user. I don't think manually creating the DB
configurations adds any value to the samples. If there is value then we
can come up with some more manual steps ... but I think that might be
more confusing for the users.
I agree, creating a database or connection pool does not make the sample app but rather
complements it and it is already covered in other sections of the doc. So yes, it make
sense to have a "Sample applications prerequisite plugin" that would be common
to all samples, creates a sample database, connection pools and defines any other
configuration that might be required by some of the samples.
2) The Geronimo deployment plans are created as a result of building the
plugins rather that included as pure source. This is a little more
difficult for the user IMO because the user must build to see the plan.
That's one of my biggest points. The plans are created automatically by the
car-maven-plugin, but for that you need to provide at least a plan.xml and
don't really know what else. That is as far as I know about the maven plugin.
This is links back to my previous comment about requiring a new user to be
familiar with the Geronimo plugin architecture and the car-maven-plugin in
particular.
However, we have started adding adding a copy of the plan into the
documentation (where we had included a copy of the plans earlier). I
think a user that doesn't want to build can take the distributed
artifacts (ears, wars) and distribute them with the plans that we
include in the doc if they want to avoid the plugins.
So, would this require the user to repackage the binaries to include the plans?
what do others think?
What are the alternatives?
Why not keeping the sample apps as just that, sample apps. Let's fix/improve them where needed, keep an ear being an ear, a war being a war.....
If we don't offer simple sample applications then we should provide some sections in the doc for adapting/migrating applications to Geronimo and include less specialized samples there.
Cheers!
Hernan
Cheers!
Hernan
