[dojo-contributors] Eclipse RCP Dojo builder

[Chris Mitchell]

I think making this Eclipse compatible is a good idea, because of the
large community of Eclipse-based tool vendors with products.
--Chris
On 12/15/06, Shane O'Sullivan <shaneosullivan1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> There's a lot of talk currently about making the build system for Dojo
> simpler.  The web based method definitely shows promise, and will be
> attractive to many users.  However, I think that many developers would like
> to have more control over the build process, while still having the
> possibility of all of it being automated for them.  For this reason I've
> decided to look in to the possibility of using an Eclipse based build system
> that can operate as a standalone Rich Client application or be a new
> perspective in Eclipse.
>
> My current thinking is that it will be a generic Ant-based build system that
> can be customised for multiple "categories", of which Dojo will be one.  The
> use case is:
>
> User chooses an Ant build file to import
> View pane 1 lists all the available Ant build targets as a list of
> checkboxes that the user can select
> View pane 2 lists all the properties that can be set on the Ant build.  This
> pulls the original values for these properties from the build.xml file, but
> these can be overridden by setting some defaults in the application.
> View pane 3 provides customised Dojo controls, and this is where the meat of
> the application will lie.  These controls will be able to do a number of
> things:
> Select combinations of build targets based on predefined settings.  E.g .
> "release" and "intern-strings"
> Set various properties on the build
> Check out various builds of Dojo from SVN trunk and give the user the option
> to use the build files and/or source files from that release, or from the
> nightly builds.
> Provide a list of build profiles that the user can choose from, with the
> possibility of also having a profile-builder that will automatically import
> a list of all the files that a user can choose and writes the profile for
> them The advantages of this approach:
>
> Easy to use
> Works both online and offline (online for checking out builds, offline for
> building)
> Integrates with Eclipse, so can be a standalone application or part of an
> existing development environment
> Gives you complete control over the build process, while also simply letting
> you choose a profile and click "Build"
> Users don't have to install Ant, Subversion etc.  All these utilities will
> be included in this application
> Can leverage the Eclipse update mechanisms so that users can update their
> application from an Eclipse update site hosted at dojotoolkit.org
> Fun to write
>
> Disadvantages:
>
> Large initial download - probably ~ 7megs for the standalone app, much
> smaller for just the Eclipse plugin set
> A lot of work for me :-)Much of this work is already done - the base
> framework is laid down, all the ant stuff and UI issues have been sorted
> out.  Now I'm working on the Dojo-specific components, including the SVN
> checkouts etc.  Hopefully I might have something ready next month some time,
> at which time, if people like it, I can commit it to Dojo and it can be
> hosted there.  Otherwise I can simply host it myself.  If it is to be hosted
> at Dojo however, it would be a good idea (also for the web-based build
> system) to have another SVN stream for tools, separate from the Dojo trunk,
> for obvious reasons.
>
> So, what do people think? Ideas, suggestions, criticisms, ridicule....?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Shane
>
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