Agreed Murray.
I've not been following closely but it appears with 3.0 just around
the
corner compatibility breaking changes are now possible. For instance,
plugins in general can be broken and changed. For example, WikiPlugin
could spout new *required* methods and have signature changes.
Things like generics and annotations are now possible in 3.0 so
perhaps
the time is ripe for significant change.
Of course wholesale change just for change sake isn't a good idea, but
really an opportunity for change like this doesn't happen very
often in
a project's lifecycle (after all, I haven't heard anyone say anything
about 4.0 ... yet <grin/>).
Let me think on this some more and pull the code from svn (and get
back
up to speed with svn, eclipse, etc... It's been too long.). I'll
browse
around and see about writing out some sort of proposal regarding
plugins
and 3.0. This should be given some thought by plugin developers and a
wish list should be discussed.
----
Unless of course current committer thinking is that this is an area
where change isn't desired in 3.0?
I see lots of talk about storage backends, UI front ends and other
plumbing, but nothing systematic regarding plugins. Is this viewed
as a
fully satisfied niche of JSPWiki? This seems ashamed because plugins
represent a fairly simple way of bolting new functionality into
JSPWiki
as a platform and the existing framework could be strengthened to make
plugin development easier and more regular. But then again, if it
ain't
broke don't fix it is a good rule-of-thumb too.
----
<aside>
I'm ashamed to admit it, but I've had a recent experience where a
group
of wiki users choose UseMod over JSPWiki because the JSPWiki UI was
too-cluttered and complicated (quote: "and *why* doesn't the page
title
give a list of backlinks like every other wiki in existence?").
<head-shaking/> Just shows that not everyone can be happy; they
detested
the default template, tried installing other templates and threw up
their hands in disgust. Anyway it just goes to show that there are
different folks in the world.
</aside>
Regards,
John Volkar
-----Original Message-----
From: Murray Altheim [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Monday, November 10, 2008 4:58 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Idea? Auto-update (Ecplise-like) mechanism for JSPWiki
plugins.
Volkar, John M. wrote:
Anyone give any thought to how sanctioned plugins could be hosted and
have a means for live running sites to auto-download and install
updates to them?
If there were someway to do this, the annotations which are being
discussed could be used to query a plugin about its needs,
dependencies, etc. This would have to be seriously thought thru, but
could be quite cool.
Hi John,
From someone with a *lot* of plugins to deal with, the current system
using jspwiki_module.xml is rather broken. It's too complicated,
and if
one misses a file, or misses a plugin alias (i.e., a class used to
shorten a name or move a plugin into a parent package), or includes in
the XML configuration a plugin that isn't actually available, the
whole
shebang comes apart. I've ended up removing all the XML files from my
jar files since I couldn't get everything to reliably work.
My feeling is that annotations might work fine if they permit each
plugin and any of its aliases to function independently and not be
bound
to packaging restraints; this is not to speak of actual code
dependencies. I am wary of further complications though. If, for
example, someone has available to them dozens of plugins, and has
several sites using different combinations of plugins, whatever
approach
is taken would hopefully be pretty seamless and not require
complicated
combinations of configuration files or machinations in ant build
scripts
as I've had to try, such as copying from a pool of jspwiki_module.xml
files depending on configuration. A mess.
I'm currently dealing with installs that include three or four jar
files, sometimes with code dependencies across jars, and as I've
mentioned before it's unclear about the order and priority of
processing
when there are multiple XML configuration files.
Murray
......................................................................
..
...
Murray Altheim <murray07 at altheim.com> ===
= =
http://www.altheim.com/murray/ = =
===
SGML Grease Monkey, Banjo Player, Wantanabe Zen Monk = =
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Boundless wind and moon - the eye within eyes,
Inexhaustible heaven and earth - the light beyond light,
The willow dark, the flower bright - ten thousand houses,
Knock at any door - there's one who will respond.
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