Automatic Eclipse mirror selection / Better download pages?

Have you ever wanted to fetch a whole stack of Eclipse project runtimes so you can build against them? For example, say you want all the Galileo M7 builds from Platform, TPTP, BIRT, DTP, WTP, and dependencies (EMF, GEF, XSD). You can find the URLs for each zip you want on the projects' pages, and download them one-by-one from the closest mirror, but that's time- and bandwidth-consuming, esp. if you want these on a remote server, not your local box.

Enter the "&r=1" option on http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/download.php, which will fetch from the closest mirror automatically.

So, now, you can script the M7 stack fetch like this:

for u in $*; do
  if [[ ! ${u##*file=*} ]]; then # add the r=1 suffix
    u=${u}"&r=1"
  fi
  echo "wget $u ..."
  wget --no-clobber "$u"
done

Then run it like this:

./fetch.sh \
"http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/download.php?file=/tools/gef/downloads/drops/3.5.0/S200905011522/GEF-runtime-3.5.0M7.zip" \
"http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/download.php?file=/birt/downloads/drops/M-R1-2.5M7-200905061338/birt-report-framework-2.5M7.zip" \
"http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/download.php?file=/birt/downloads/drops/M-R1-2.5M7-200905061338/birt-wtp-integration-sdk-2.5M7.zip" \
"http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/download.php?file=/datatools/downloads/drops/N_DTP_1.7/dtp-1.7.0M7-200905052200.zip" \
"http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/download.php?file=/eclipse/downloads/drops/S-3.5M7-200904302300/eclipse-SDK-3.5M7-win32.zip" \
"http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/download.php?file=/eclipse/downloads/drops/S-3.5M7-200904302300/eclipse-SDK-3.5M7-linux-gtk.tar.gz" \
"http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/download.php?file=/eclipse/downloads/drops/S-3.5M7-200904302300/eclipse-SDK-3.5M7-linux-gtk-x86_64.tar.gz" \
"http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/download.php?file=/eclipse/downloads/drops/S-3.5M7-200904302300/eclipse-SDK-3.5M7-macosx-carbon.tar.gz" \
"http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/download.php?file=/modeling/emf/emf/downloads/drops/2.5.0/S200905041408/emf-runtime-2.5.0M7.zip" \
"http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/download.php?file=/tptp/4.6.0/TPTP-4.6.0M7-200904260100/tptp.runtime-TPTP-4.6.0M7.zip" \
"http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/download.php?file=/webtools/downloads/drops/R3.1/S-3.1M7-20090505073946/wtp-S-3.1M7-20090505073946.zip" \
"http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/download.php?file=/webtools/downloads/drops/R3.1/S-3.1M7-20090505073946/wtp-jpt-S-3.1M7-20090505073946.zip" \
"http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/download.php?file=/modeling/emf/emf/downloads/drops/2.5.0/S200905041408/xsd-runtime-2.5.0M7.zip" 

So, now the only problem is that every project structures & styles their downloads pages differently...

1. DTP -> choose file(s)
2. GEF -> choose file(s)
3. EMF/XSD -> choose file(s)
4. WTP -> choose build -> choose file(s)
5. Platform -> choose build -> choose file(s) & platform(s) -> click through warnings
6. TPTP -> choose branch tab -> choose build -> choose file(s)
7. BIRT -> More Downloads -> Recent Builds -> choose build -> choose file(s)

Am I the only person that finds this inconsistency annoying? Is it time for a more consistent UI? I'm exploring what to do for Athena-based builds, and welcome suggestions in bug 275682. What pages do you like best? Worst? Which are easiest to use? Hardest? Do you prefer the old blue-and-white pages? The purple Phoenix pages? The grey Nova pages? Any UI designers want to contribute?

Or, really, are downloads obsolete? If we could collect statistics on p2 jar downloads, I'm sure we'd see that most people prefer that approach, and I for one would certainly prefer to just build against a p2 repo (or 7) than a pile of zips. I suppose the hybrid solution for now is to provide zipped p2 repos for download, many projects do today (Modeling, GEF, PDT, VE ...).

Modeling: Home Star Loader

Last week I reported that there are now 70 committers / contributors in Modeling.

Today, Denis announced on the Phoenix mailing list that EMF, EMFT, MDT and GMF are in the top 30 requested home pages for Feb 2009.

The top three popular project pages were, in order: PDT, EMFT, and WTP.

However, if you combine the numbers for the four Modeling subprojects, you get 162K hits for the month, placing Modeling in the #4 slot behind only the Eclipse.org home page, Downloads page, and Categories page, and making us the #1 (aggregate) project page.

HOWTO Create a Seam Web Project with JBoss Tools 2.0.0.CR2 or Developer Studio 3.0.0.CR2

As Max announced earlier today, JBoss Tools (JBT) 3.0.0.CR2 is now available.

In my continuing effort to automate - or at least document! - everything I do, here's a quick slideshow showing how to install and run JBoss Developer Studio (JBDS) 2.0.0.CR2 to quickly create a Seam Web Project. JBDS includes most of JBT, plus a few extra goodies.

view larger images

What else can you do with JBoss Developer Studio or JBoss Tools? Lots. Here's a list of the individual plugins, and the reference guides. There's even a jBPM/BPMN diagram editor, which I used recently to sketch out my Blackberry data sync flows:

click to enlarge

JBDS is available for Linux (gtk x86_32 and x86_64), Mac OS X (carbon), and Windows (32-bit). JBT is available for any platform that can run Eclipse 3.4.x. On Fedora, JBDS and JBT both run great with IcedTea (OpenJDK 6) and Fedora Eclipse 3.4.1.

If you're curious, the software involved here is: Virtual Box 2.1.0 running in Fedora 10, hosting a Windows XP Home guest, HyperSnap 6 to grab snapshots (works in Windows guest and through WINE - though not as well - in Linux host), Sun Java 6.0 to run JBDS (or Eclipse + JBoss Tools), Picasa 3 For Linux to crop, resize and upload images, then create the slideshow.

Day Of The 'Mede

Merci to Denis Roy for proofing my Franglais, und Vielen Dank to Benny and Dominik in #eclipse-de for enduring my silly request to write the German verse below. Ganymede is a multi-cultural / multi-lingual release! Feel free to add your own verse or chorus in the comments! Bonus points if your translation into English rhymes! (See links below for the English text and video; you can also find this en español, if you prefer.)

I was just a tourist my first time at Eclipse-dot-oh
I was a newbie, in danger in a world unknown
But one quick download and the world around me did explode
And projects by the dozens come out from that hole

Why? No lie!
It's the Day of Ganymede! There are there torrents you can seed!
oh-oh-ohh, I didn't even know
It is the Day of the 'Mede! Let's make the servers bleed!
oh-oh-ohh, up there in Otta-whoah!

The place was jumpin' with TCP/IP to and fro
But thanks to p2 I can multi-thread my downlo'
I opened the pinata and a swarm of plugins did install
Dependencies resolved and I knew that I was good to go

Why? No lie!
It's the Day of Ganymede! Can you get some? Indeed!
oh-oh-ohh, I didn't even know
It is the Day of the 'Mede! All our sources have been freed
oh-oh-ohh, in Portland, Orego'!

The councils tell me not to fear
It happens like this once a year
When the build's done, committers leave their cubes and
Apparently they come out here
For the beer!

Why? No lie!
It's the Day of Ganymede! And now it's time to feed
oh-oh-ohh, join the release party
It is the Day of the 'Mede: so lift a jug of mead
oh-oh-ohh, wherever you might be

Es ist der Tag von Ganymede! - um was es geht?
oh-oh-ohh, Der Zug fährt ab, die Community ist froh
Es ist der Tag von Ganymede! - mit Projekten fast fürs ganze Alphabet
ja-ja-jaa, von BIRT bis Webtools, alle sind sie da!

C'est le jour de fête Gany, comprends-tu ce que je dis?
oh-oh-ohh, ou est-ce que c'est pelle melle?
C'est le jour de Ganymède! Toujours besoin de l'aide*
oh-oh-ohh, traduire projet Babel!

* - Yeah, that translation rollover's a bit of a stretch, I know.

Voltaire - Day of the Dead / Dia de los Muertos