HOWTO: Build Plugin & Feature Projects, Then Run Their Unit Tests w/ Tycho :: GEF Example

Note that the instructions below are for Linux (or MacOSX). On Windows, your YMMV, but the process is the same.

1. Check out the entire source tree of your project from CVS, SVN, or Git into ~/build.

2. If needed, move plugins, features & test plugins into:

~/build/plugins/
~/build/features/
~/build/tests/

(Test features should go into features/ folder too.)

3. Install scala from http://www.scala-lang.org/downloads

4. Fetch genpom.scala and parent-pom.xml; save in ~/build or equivalent.

5. Tweak parent-pom.xml to suit your needs or use as-is.

6. Run this to generate pom.xml files for plugins, features, and tests:

cd ~/build/plugins/; scala ../genpom.scala
cd ~/build/features/; scala ../genpom.scala
cd ~/build/tests/; scala ../genpom.scala

7. Download Maven 3 from http://www.apache.org/dyn/closer.cgi?path=/maven/binaries/apache-maven-3.0-alpha-7-bin.tar.gz

8. Install Maven 3

sudo su; cd /opt; tar xvzf apache-maven-3.0-alpha-7-bin.tar.gz
ln -s apache-maven-3.0-alpha-7 maven3

9. For convenience, alias mvn3 to the new maven:

alias mvn3='/opt/maven3/bin/mvn 2>&1 clean install | tee buildlog.latest.txt'

10. Build the plugins, features, and finally tests:

cd ~/build/plugins/; mvn3
cd ~/build/features/; mvn3
cd ~/build/tests/; mvn3

Look in ~/build/plugins/org.eclipse.*/target/ for generated jars.
Look in ~/.m2/repository/org/eclipse/* for published jars.

---

To automate steps 6 and 10, you can run this script in the ~/build/ folder:

#!/bin/bash
for f in plugins/ features/ tests/; do \
  cd $f; scala ../genpom.scala; \
  /opt/maven3/bin/mvn 2>&1 clean install | tee buildlog.latest.txt; \
  cd ..; \
done

(The above blog is also posted here.)

I'm in love with Tycho 0.8 and Maven 3

Monday:

Signed up for GitHub, downloaded apache-maven-3.0-alpha-7-bin.tar.gz, and built Tycho from source. Took a bit of path wrangling (namely figuring out that maven runs based on current directory), but it built and most of the tests passed. Not bad for my first day ever using Maven.

# First download Maven3 and unpack into /opt/
export MAVEN_OPTS="-Xmx512m"
export TYCHO_TARGET_PLATFORM=/home/nboldt/eclipse/35clean/eclipse
mvn=/opt/maven/bin/mvn
$mvn clean install -e -V -Pbootstrap-1
$mvn clean install -e -V -Pbootstrap-2 -Dtycho.targetPlatform=$TYCHO_TARGET_PLATFORM
$mvn clean test -e -V -Pits -Dtycho.targetPlatform=$TYCHO_TARGET_PLATFORM

The really confusing part was "what now? what did I just build? And how do I use it?" Answer: You can now run maven3 from .../sonatype-tycho/tycho-its/target/apache-maven-3.0-alpha-7/bin/mvn

---

Tuesday:

Attended the Sonatype-sponsored Tycho Build Workshop, and amazed Pascal by saying good things about Tycho and Maven3. Apparently I'm known to complain about all things p2, despite my numerous blogs and wiki contributions touting its success and usefulness. Also installed m2eclipse to see how effective the pom editor is.

During the workshop, I got the following JBoss Tools projects to build: jmx, archives, as, flow, jbpm3/4, drools, bpel, smooks, common. That's nearly half our projects! Thanks to Jason and Igor for their invaluable assistance.

The reason it was so easy was that Max had already created a scala script to generate all the pom.xml files we need to build JBoss Tools, and a parent-pom.xml on which those tiny pom.xml files depend. (For me as a Maven noob, not having to think at all about creating poms made this transition a no-brainer. Speaking of no-brainers, my slides from Monday's talk about Dash Athena and Zombies are here (PDF).

As an added bonus, Tycho, being more strict than PDE, exposes missing information in MANIFEST.MF files such as dependencies on plugins. PDE-based builds are apparently more forgiving because they generally include more crap than is actually needed in the target platform against which the build runs; Tycho builds against what you tell it you need. So, the mavenification of JBoss Tools will actually cause us to have better described plugins, and therefore make them easier to build anywhere. I'm very impressed so far.

Unlike Dash Athena which needs to be told all the IUs (features/plugins) against which your project needs to build, Tycho determines this information from your manifests, so the information need not be duplicated.

I still need to look at how to build update sites from the output of a Tycho build, and how to hook in SWTBot/JUnit4 tests. I have a suspicion this may be handled using Buckminster tools such as their Aggregator, or my own custom Ant hackery using the SWTBot wiki docs. Time will tell.

---

Wed

This morning on a whim I decided to see if I could port Max's scala script (aside: I've never seen scala before yesterday) to generate pom.xml files for EMF or GEF. Success! With some minor tweaks, I've managed to build GEF 3.6 into my local maven repo (~/.m2). Obviously there's more to be done here... but damn, this is easy.

Modeling: From Zero to Seventy

Remember when no one had heard of EMF? When it was just Ed Merks, Frank Budinsky, and Dave Steinberg? Me neither.

These days modeling is everywhere, and with good reason. There are now a total of 70 people contributing to and committing for the various Modeling projects, the most recent additions being from MDT (Papyrus, BPMN2), EMF (CDO), and TMF (Xtext).

So, is it any surprise that there are 29 Modeling Track talks this year at EclipseCon, from the introductory Mega Modeling Mania BoF to the double-black-diamond GMF and QVT: roads (finally) crossed?

And that's not even including a couple of e4 talks about The Modeled UI in Eclipse e4 and The e4 Programming Model Across Web and Desktop or one about Designing an Android Domain Specific Modeling Language using EMF, GEF and GMF!

I guess some people are just unbearably stupid, eh?

Clarifying Our All-In-Ones

In order to make it clearer what's in the various flavours of all-in-one zips provided in Modeling, GEF, and PDT, I've concocted some new icons to better differentiate them.

This is actually moving in the opposite direction from what I'd proposed in bug 240223 regarding Simplified EMF Downloads as we're now providing more, not less... but IMHO that's okay as long as the community is well served. If you have an opinion on update site vs. update zips vs. SDK zips vs. EPP bundles, please feel free to weigh in on bug 240223.

And if you hate the new icons, please let me know. Better still, design me a replacement. Thanks to iconeden.com for the source pixels.

And Don't It Make Your Blue Eyes Red

Today I resigned from IBM to join Red Hat Canada as their new Productization Lead for JBoss Tools and JBoss Developer Studio, working with Max R Andersen, Rodney Russ, and Andrew Overholt. Yet more release engineering? Oh, hells yeah.

So, because it's been nine great years, and because I'm a mathie from way back, I'd like to present...

IBM By The Numbers

• Number of Jobs Within IBM: 3
• Number of Thinkpads Used: 4 (770, T23, T40, T60p)
• Versions of Desktop Windows Used: 3 (NT4, 2K, XP)
• Versions of Desktop Windows Anti-Virus & Firewall Software Used: 6
• Versions of Desktop Linux Used: 3 (MEPIS 3.x, MEPIS 6, AntiX 7)
• Versions of Desktop Linux Anti-Virus & Firewall Software Used: 0 (suck it, Windows!)
  
  
• Memorable Website Launches While at IBM Global Services: 7+
• Memorable Applications Built While at IBM.com: 7+
• Memorable Open Source Software Releases While at IBM Rational: 30 in 5 years (EMF 2.0-2.4 = 5, UML2 1.0-2.1 = 4, OCL & EMF-QTV 1.0-1.2 = 12, JET 0.7-0.9 = 3, EODM 0.7-0.9 = 3, GEF 3.3.2-3.4 = 2, GMF 2.1 = 1)
  
  
• Supported Modeling Builds in 1Q2004: 1 (EMF)
• Supported Modeling Builds in 4Q2008: 22 (EMF x 7, EMFT x 5, MDT x 3, M2T x 3, M2M x 2, GMF x 1, TMF x 1)
• Other Builds in 4Q2008: 3 (GEF, PDT)
  
  
• Number of Eclipse Project Committerships in 1Q2004: 3 (EMF, SDO, XSD)
• Number of Eclipse Project Committerships in 4Q2008: 25 (EMF x 8, EMFT x 6, MDT x 5, M2T, M2M, GMF, GEF, SOC, Dash)
  (Note: some projects define releng committership separately from project committership.)

And now, to get the other side of the brain fired up, I leave you with my version of...

Fall Out Boy - Thnks Fr Th Mmrs

Another build will bend and break
(But it's an easy fix, these things)
Automate, yeah let the crontab roll
In case ya don't wanna show
(Let the crontab roll, let the crontab roll)

And I want these words to make things right
Avoid any wrongs, and keep Modeling alive
Empower EMF
So after a brief break,
Gonna put my fingers back to the keys

Nine years, one helluva time
Thanks for the memories
Thick and thin, they've been so great
Workin' for the Big Blue leader

Nine years, yeah and one more time
Thanks for the memories
Thanks for the memories
With two woof'rs who needs a tweeter? Ohhh!

Been looking forward to the future
But my eyesight is going bad
Must be the late nights
It's always cloudy except for (except for)
When you look into the past (look into the past)
Nine whole years. (Nine whole years, now!)

Three jobs within Big Blue
Thanks for the memories
Websites, apps and FOSS
Wonder what became of Peter?

Nine years, yeah one more time
Thanks for the memories
Thanks for the memories
O'en source always tastes a bit sweeter

(They say) I only think in the form of crunching numbers
Up late at night, exploring six-gig log files
Goin' out of my mind
Runnin' out of disk space
I'm a line away
From getting it all to work! Woo!

(In) AD 2101
Captain say 'what happen ?'
Operator: 'we get signal'
Mech: 'Someone set us up the bomb.'

Main screen turn on. It's you !!
How are you gentlemen !!
No chance, yeah make your time
You, are on the way to destruction. Ohhh!

Nine years, it's been a slice (had a blast, one more time)
Thanks for the memories
Addicted to Eclipse now (can't get enough Eclipse now)
But what still sucks? That'd be features!

Nine years, yeah and one more time (been great years, one more time)
Thanks for the memories (for the memories)
Thanks for the memories (for the memories)
Time on Sprockets to dance vith Dieter! Ohhh!

Building Change

Seems everyone's talking about change these days. Hell, people are even ranting about the way media is changing.

But real issues aside, in part two of this series, I'd like to briefly mention two changes happening closer to home, here in releng-land:

• EMF, SDO, and XSD are now being packaged a little differently. Consider this a little social experiment to see who, if anyone, still uses zips to get their downloads, rather than using Update Manager. Do you like the new "sourcedoc" zips? Feel free to let us know what you think (here, on IRC in #eclipse-modeling, or in the newsgroups).
• GEF is now being built by the Common Modeling Build, the first (of many, I'm sure) projects to come over to the dark side. Will DSDP or VE be next? Time will tell.