[Pluginbuilder-development] Pluginbuilder release 0.7.0

[Markus B. <Mar...@gm...>]

Hi all,

I just wanted to let you know there was a release of pluginbuilder and 
get your input for the further development.

The release 0.7.0 
(http://www.pluginbuilder.org/news/article/released-070) does not 
support any of the new Eclipse 3.5 features yet with one exception: the 
autotestsuite is compatible with Junit 4.5. Is there anything which 
would be particularly important for you?
 
With Eclipse 3.5 there have been some changes concerning the target 
platform. For example there are target definitions. I still have not 
figured out the easiest way how to get a target platform for the PDE 
headless build from a target definition. For example, if the target 
definition contains references to update sites, how would I create a 
local directory which I could zip und make available on the build 
server? Any suggestions? BTW, I have tried to describe a way to build 
the target platform automatically 
(http://www.markusbarchfeld.de/blog/article/2009/02/23/build_automation_for_your_target_platform.html) 
but this seems cumbersome and I wonder if target definitions could 
simplify the approach.

Another change with Eclipse 3.5 concerns the RCP delta pack: it can not 
be copied over the Eclipse installation anymore. Instead it must be part 
of the target platform. So, for RCP builds you must define a target 
platform which includes the delta pack. If you copy the RCP delta pack 
over an Eclipse installation, it can not be started up anymore.

Unfortunately this affects the current approach of using the same host 
as build and test host: currently we just create one Eclipse 
installation which includes everything to build and test, i.e. the JDT 
and PDE, the prerequisites of the application to be built, any test 
dependencies and - the delta pack. After the build has finished the 
resulting features will be added to the build/test host via the update 
manager API.

Now, by using a target platform, the prerequisites do not have to be 
added to the build host anymore, but they must be made available to the 
test host. It is not possible to just add the target platform to the 
test host in the same way as the resulting feature because it also 
includes the RCP delta pack.

So, I guess we have to change the way how RCP apps are tested. We 
probably have to reverse the process: instead of adding the resulting 
features to the test host the necessary plugins for running the tests 
should be added to the RCP app. Do you have experience with that 
process? Any suggestions are welcome.

Thanks
Markus