Deployment environment and Admin portlets

[Cr...@Keane.Com]

I just wanted to get an update on your intentions for the Pluto deployment
environment that I created (see
http://nagoya.apache.org/jira/browse/PLUTO-72) and tell you that based on
this work, I have started on a Pluto Administration Portlet Application.
These portlets would be used to deploy a portlet application to Pluto, and
do modifications to portletentityregistry.xml and pageregistry.xml.
Attached is an HTML mock up of the admin portlets deployed in Pluto (in
view mode).

I have stubbed out all the JSP pages and the Generic Portlet subclasses for
these portlets and got them deployed in Pluto. The next step is to make
them functional, but before I do that, I want to get some sort of consensus
from the committers. Specifically, I would like to know:
1. Whether you are interested in a Portlet Application to administer Pluto
portlets?
2. Whether there are plans in Pluto 1.1 to change the deployment process
including portletentityregistry.xml and pageregistry.xml. If so, are there
any future plans for the Pluto 1.0+ branch or will development quickly move
to the 1.1 branch?

I am trying to figure out whether it will be productive for me to continue
developing these portlets for Pluto 1.0.1 or switch to the 1.1 stream (I'm
not sure how far along it is). In the meantime, I believe that my
deployment environment, that uses Ant, is a contribution that makes Pluto
deployment easier. I have personally set it up on four separate computers
without a problem (under JDK 1.4), and have incorporated it into my Admin
Portlet build to quickly deploy a new version of my app. Is there a
possibility for putting it in Pluto 1.0.1-rc2 or the final release binary
distribution? If not, are there any modifications that I could do to make
it acceptable for inclusion in a binary distribution?

TIA
/Craig
----------------------------
Craig Doremus
Principal Consultant
Keane Inc.
Northern New England Branch
cdoremus-at-keane.com
cdoremus-at-inovant.com
----------------------------

Re: Deployment environment and Admin portlets

["David H. DeWolf" <dd...@apache.org>]

> 
> I have stubbed out all the JSP pages and the Generic Portlet subclasses for
> these portlets and got them deployed in Pluto. The next step is to make
> them functional, but before I do that, I want to get some sort of consensus
> from the committers. Specifically, I would like to know:
> 1. Whether you are interested in a Portlet Application to administer Pluto
> portlets?

I'd be interested in taking a look.

> 2. Whether there are plans in Pluto 1.1 to change the deployment process
> including portletentityregistry.xml and pageregistry.xml. If so, are there
> any future plans for the Pluto 1.0+ branch or will development quickly move
> to the 1.1 branch?

It's hard to say at this point.  Personally, I'm for a change.  I feel 
as though 1) the portal driver is more complex than it needs to be given 
that we intend it to be nothing more than a quick driver that allows 
testing and developing of portlets 2) the configuration has has too high 
of a learning curve for newbies.  A single, self documenting, xml based 
configuration file to me would be the easiest route.

To that point, the 1.1 branch which I've checked in contains these 
changes, however, nothing in there is set in stone.  As soon as others 
start to jump in and start looking under the covers, I'd assume that 
there will be discussions around this type of thing.

> 
> I am trying to figure out whether it will be productive for me to continue
> developing these portlets for Pluto 1.0.1 or switch to the 1.1 stream (I'm
> not sure how far along it is). 

I think there will be two parallels of development for a while.  We are 
definitely still working towards getting a general availability release 
of 1.0.1 out.  I expect to see at least a 1.0.1-rc2 and a 1.0.1 release 
in the near future - the latter being general availability.

I have no idea what the timing for 1.1 looks like.  It all depends on 
how much involvement we generate from the community.  There has 
definitely been more activity on these lists since the release. 
Hopefully that means others will begin to get interested and start 
providing feedback on the future of Pluto.  Additionally, there were 
others that expressed interest in the simplification of Pluto and I'm 
looking forward to their input.

In case you do decide to go to 1.1, I've checked in the beginnings of 
the deployment code which I've been working on.  It's in it's infant 
stages and is buggy, but it does work and give you a possible starting 
place.  That said, if you think that you have some better ideas, please 
feel free to propose them and/or submit patches with massive changes. 
(To get started you can read the README and run the maven 
"executable:build" task, and feel free to ask questions). You'll notice 
that I've currently only written the .bat file (no shell script yet), 
but you can always invoke the Assembler manually.

In the meantime, I believe that my
> deployment environment, that uses Ant, is a contribution that makes Pluto
> deployment easier. I have personally set it up on four separate computers
> without a problem (under JDK 1.4), and have incorporated it into my Admin
> Portlet build to quickly deploy a new version of my app. Is there a
> possibility for putting it in Pluto 1.0.1-rc2 or the final release binary
> distribution? If not, are there any modifications that I could do to make
> it acceptable for inclusion in a binary distribution?

Honestly, I haven't had a chance to look at it yet.  While I definitely 
see the value and appreciate the contribution, I've been spending most 
of my 1.0.1 time looking at bugs and documentation updates as opposed to 
enhancements.  That doesn't mean that it won't get in -- just that I 
personally haven't had the chance to even take a peak yet.

Thanks for your participation,

David

> 
> TIA
> /Craig
> ----------------------------
> Craig Doremus
> Principal Consultant
> Keane Inc.
> Northern New England Branch
> cdoremus-at-keane.com
> cdoremus-at-inovant.com
> ----------------------------
> 
> 
>