Thanks Allen.
Based on Allen's feedback, I think the Roller Support project should
offer:
These required components (with docs)
Required Webapp Jars for Roller - for Webapp only
Required Source Jars for Roller - for building from source only
And these optional components (with docs)
Optional page-plugins for Roller (JSPWiki page plugin)
Optional editor add-ins for Roller (Ekit and JavaScript enhanced
plugins)
Optional themes for Roller (Ocadia and Spring)
And as a result the Roller docs will changes as follows.
The install guide installation docs will explain only:
- How to get and install the missing Hibernate jars from the
Hibernate project
- The Roller Support project exists and has helpful downloads for
installers
The Install Guide upgrading Roller section will explain only that:
- The JSPWiki plugin, Ekit editor and JavaScript enhanced editor
have been removed
- The Roller Support project exists and has helpful downloads for
upgraders
I'll make these changes and prepare RC2, hopefully by sometime Monday.
Anybody else want to weigh in?
- Dave
On May 6, 2006, at 12:46 PM, Allen Gilliland wrote:
David M Johnson wrote:
On May 5, 2006, at 11:54 PM, Allen Gilliland wrote:
Just a little nit pick, but I think we can find a better way to
describe the extra downloads than "unshippables". Maybe the
Roller "required libraries" and "optional libraries" or
something like that. I think that is a little easier to
understand to a first time user trying to get the files.
That's good feedback.
If you read the Installation Guide you'll see that I explain how
to get the Hibernate and other jars from the original "vendors"
and not from the "Roller Support" project. I *do* reference the
Roller Support project, but I never say specifically that you can
getting all of the missing jars there.
If you read the text on the Roller Support project (a project that
is supposed to be separate and independent from Roller) you'll
see that there are two "unshippable" downloads:
** Webapp Unshippables for Roller - all of the missing files
(Hibernate, JSPWiki, XMLP JavaScript XML parser, etc.) arranged
in Roller webapp directory structure, so that you can just unzip
them ontop of a Roller install.
** Source Code Unshippables for Roller - all of the missing files
(Hibernate, JSPWiki, XMLP JavaScript XML parser, etc.) arranged
in Roller source directory structure, so that you can just unzip
them ontop of a Roller install.
yes, i understood all of that, but what i am saying is that to me
"unshippables" as a term doesn't mean anything. i think that is a
confusing way of labeling that download and i think we can come up
with something better.
So "required libraries" isn't correct, since the downloads
contain both required and optional files and not just libraries.
And "optional libraries" isn't quite right either.
okay, then we just need to pick better terms, but there has to be a
way to separate out the required elements from the optional ones.
I considered breaking everything up into separate optional and
required downloads (listed below), but that defeats the purpose
of the unshippables downloads, which is to make installation as
easy as possible. Eventually, I'd like to move the optional parts
to the Roller Support project entirely with build scripts that
package them up as add-ins (and try to make that process easy),
but for now, I think two unshippables downloads is the easier
route to support Roller users.
- Hibernate jars (required)
- EJB 1.1 jar (required at buildtime)
- JSPWiki plugin and jars (optional)
- text-js editor and associated JavaScript classes (optional)
personally, i don't like the idea of packaging the required and
optional stuff together so that the user just gets everything. i
definitely want to make it as easy for the user as possible, but
the whole point of something being "optional" is that users are
supposed to choose to use it. what you have now means that someone
could download the package just to get at the Hibernate jars which
are required, and they end up with the wiki and editor stuff that
they don't even want.
so i still think required vs. optional packages makes some sense.
it sounds like the required webapp addons is just the Hibernate
jars, and the required source addons are Hibernate + EJB 1.1.
everything else is optional.
i also think it is ideal that for the optional package we don't set
it up to automatically overlay a Roller build and dump everything
into the distribution. assuming we want the optional package to
contain lots of stuff, like a whole set of plugins, themes,
editors, etc. either that, or we should be *very* vocal about the
fact that overlaying the optional package will add lots of things
to the standard distribution and users may want to add them
individually instead.
-- Allen
And one other point, perhaps we should have the "unshippables"
discussion on the Roller Support project mailing list, since this
is really not Apache business.
- Dave
-- Allen
Dave Johnson wrote:
I've put together a first release candidate (RC1) for Roller
2.3 and updated the user and installation docs. Please take a
look. Here's a summary of what's available for 2.3:
*What's new*
I updated the Roller 2.3 what's new page to include the 2.2
features and to mention that the release no longer includes
the Hibernate jars, the spell checker and the text-js editor.
http://rollerweblogger.org/wiki/Wiki.jsp?page=Roller_2.3_WhatsNew
*The release files*
Roller is now distributed as two files:
1) the webapp download named apache-roller-X.Y-incubating.tar.gz
and
2) the source code download named apache-roller-src-X.Y.tar.gz
You can get those files for Roller 2.3 RC1 here:
http://people.apache.org/~snoopdave/roller-2.3-rc/
*The documentation*
I updated the Roller Installation Guide to explain how to get
the missing HIbernate and other jars. The User Guide has also
been updated for 2.3. You can get both of these docs here:
http://people.apache.org/~snoopdave/roller-2.3-rc/
*The Roller Support project*
I'm going to re-purpose Roller's former Java.Net home as the
"Roller Support" project, which will be devoted to supporting
Roller. It will host new plugins, themes and add-ons that
we're not ready to support in Roller or cannot distribute in
Roller due to licensing issues. It also hosts the
"unshippables" -- a couple of downloads helpful when
installing Roller.
https://roller.dev.java.net/
