[Exist-development] final steps with package repository

[James F. <jam...@ex...>]

Hello Committers,

Before we widely announce package repository and start communicating
out to wider group about its capabilities we have a few things left to
address:

* need to create classloader to dynamically load stuff so we avoid the
current constraint of having to restart eXistdb ... I am a little
unsure of where to start with this effort, there are a few routes to
achieve this and I know that Dmitry and Adam have voiced their
willingness to pitch in on this, but I guess what I am saying is I
could use some direction/hints and opinions of the best way to achieve
this

* setup master Public repository ('the eXistdb App store')  under a
cool domain like repo.exist.sourceforge.net, we can use demo server
for this but we will need to refresh/rebuild it to latest trunk and
set access rights so we can upload packages

* probably need to test and tweak application packages (myapp-0.1.xar
is an example of this) ... there maybe a trivial mimetype issue at the
moment, but have not had time to test

I could also do with someone assisting in creating new packages ...
its real simple and the more people who know how to create packages
the better.

Just check out the repo docs and view the webapp/repo/packages
directory for examples; its very straightforward. I have committed
package distros to the webapp/repo/packages directory for the interim
whilst we develop and use targets in extensions/modules/build.xml to
zip them up. I have also committed the .xar packages themselves to
webapp/repo/packages for convenience but we probably want to remove
these at some point.

Some examples of packages that need to be created are:

* packaging up and test all eXistdb examples

* packaging up and test existing 3rd party extensions (math-0.1.xar is
an example of this)

* packaging up and test stable 3rd party libraries (e.g.
functx-1.0.xar is an example of this)

Its important to have the master Public repository launch with a good
stable set of packages.

We will also need to setup a review process of .xar packages that
people want to have included in the 'eXist app store' (aka master
Public repository) ;)

thats all for now

James Fuller