Whenever I’m working on UI stuff, something always goes terribly wrong Sometimes it’s only a margin or padding, other times it a composite that crosses my path. I was pretty happy that Chris Aniszczyk and Simon Archer hacked together Picasso, which helps you to identify some of these layout issues. As you may know, most of the time I work on the Rich Ajax Platform (RAP) and come across the same issues. As Picasso was originally intended to work for RCP, it’s not a long way to get it working for RAP.

In case you’re struggling with these issues too –  and working on RAP applications, please add your vote to bug 267975 so we can use Picasso on both runtimes.

Tags: layout, pde, picasso, rap, Single Sourcing, tips, ui

In a previous post, I mentioned that an OSGi and Equinox book is in the works. Well, we are nearing completion of the entire thing. Since we started doing the book there have been many changes in direction, content and now the title.

The new title, “OSGi and Equinox: Creating Highly Modular Java Systems” is a much better reflection of the content and intended audience. Originally we were very Eclipse-focused.  How does Eclipse use OSGi, how does Equinox work, … As we wrote more and more of the code and the text it, of course, became clear that all of this stuff is generically relevant and applicable.

As a result, the book is now essentially a generic OSGi book that covers a wide range of standard OSGi concepts and details. Mixed throughout are specifics that relate to Equinox (yes, we talk about the extension registry). The net result, we think, is a technically sound, pragmatic treatment of OSGi with value add for people using Equinox.

Along with this rethink came a look at some new content that is not so generic but still hugely relevant. For example we added:

• More detail on provisioning with p2,
• Coverage of server side OSGi creating WARs that use the servlet bridge
• Distributed OSGi (RFC119) and ECF
• Great depth on Declarative services
• Many best practice and experience tips
• Even integrating Google Earth as a service!

Needless to say, we are pumped about this content and about finally getting the damn thing out.

Its not quite done yet but very close. The Rough Cuts content should be updated by early October and the final version in a book store near you by Christmas.

P.S. Yes, the 2nd Edition of the RCP book is still coming and hopefully is on a similar timeline. Type type type…

Tags: equinox, OSGi, syndicate

Finally I’m happy to announce the long expected extension of the EPP Wizard for proxies. Now the EPP Wizard provides an extended P2 installer which allows you to edit the proxy-related settings. The extended P2 installer has a dialog where you can select a proxy and enter the credentials for it. This feature should be used in cases where the proxy needs full authentication (user name and password). For all other use cases, the P2 installer works fine. The new dialog looks very similar to the dialog “Edit Proxy Entry” on the “Network Connections” preference page of Eclipse. The proxy support is already contributed to the P2 installer with the following bug.

To use the new proxy functionality select the check box “use manual proxy settings”.

Extended P2 Installer

Than the “Settings…” button is activated. Select this button to open the proxy dialog. On the dialog page you can select a proxy schema and enter all needed information for it.

Proxy Settings Dialog

If you encounter problems or have any ideas how to improve the functionality, please don’t be shy and send us suggestions through our feedback form on our download site.

Tags: epp, galileo, p2

Next Tuesday (September 15th), I’m going to be presenting a free webinar to introduce you to the Eclipse provisioning platform, p2, and how it can be leveraged in your own RCP applications.  If you are wondering what p2 is, or how to use it in your own custom RCP application, this webinar is for you!  In particular, we will be looking at how p2 can help you:

• Deliver your bundles and features
• Provide an update mechanism for your application
• Provide a mechanism for users to control their environments (roll back, un-install, etc…)

This course is meant as an introduction to the p2 API.  We will be building on top of standard Eclipse examples so there are no prerequisites outside of basic RCP knowledge.  This webinar will make use of the Eclipse 3.5 (Galileo) API.

I only have an hour, so I will try my best to cover:

• Make use of the p2 provisioning platform for software management
• Integrate the creation of p2 repositories into your build system
• Reuse the p2 user interface and existing work-flows
• Customize the p2 user interface for your specific needs
• Debug common pitfalls

Is there anything else people would like me to include if time permits?

The webinar will be free, however, you will need to sign up ahead of time to get a login.  Please see our registration page.

Tags: p2, webinar

Last weekend, I attended EclipseDay at the Googleplex with about 200 other people. The day was filled with great talks and special thanks to our Google hosts for making the show really smooth. The majority of the presentations have their slides posted now, here are some of my favorite talks:

Eclipse in NASA Mission Control

Jeff Norris offered a fascinating story of how NASA is adopting Eclipse technologies such as RCP, EMF, GEF, CDO and server side Equinox in order to build mission-critical tools to control robots on land, in the air and in space. If you want to learn more about NASA and Eclipse, check out the last part of this webinar.

Eclipse in the Enterprise: Lessons from Google

Robert Konigsberg and Terry Parker took us through how Google is leveraging Eclipse on the inside. Inside of Google, they created their own Eclipse distribution and used Debian packages to help with the provisioning of plug-ins. This solution somewhat worked, but Google experienced a myriad of issues with the “links” folder, corruption and the pain of perfoming live updates. Then Eclipse Ganymede came out and they were introduced to p2:

p2 filled the void that their previous “provisioning system” was filling, but caused havoc because p2 was significantly more advanced than the previous update system at Eclipse. At first, there was some learning pains, but Google decided to embrace p2 and use it to manage their distributions after some prototyping:

The p2 solution works well for Google because it avoids corruption and makes it really easy for users to try new things via their local p2 profile. This is one of the benefits of p2 because it guarantees that if you can install something, it will be able to run.

On the whole, I’m looking forward to the next EclipseDay and maybe this time, we’ll see something on the east coast

We are currently working on a new theme for the Rich Ajax Platform (RAP) 1.3 which will be released within the Helios release train. As you probably know we have released a RAP theme with the Galileo release. This theme was called “business” and portrayed a serious and refined look.

The current theme I’m working on is nicknamed “fancy.” It’s a more modern and fresh style compared to the business theme. It’s a lightweight design for people who just want a modern look for their RAP applications.

In the end, this is all possible via the RAP Extended Presentation API. The progress on the fancy theme has just begun but the RAP team wanted to publish a version as soon as possible.

Do you have any themes you want to see be part of RAP? Want to contribute one?

Tags: helios, rap