Eclipse Community Forums: Graphiti » Graphiti Migration with GEF4

Re: Graphiti Migration with GEF4 [message #1713723 is a reply to message #1713592]

Fri, 06 November 2015 08:41

Messages: 1937
Registered: July 2009
Location: Walldorf, Germany

Senior Member

Abhishek Chakraborty,

thanks for bringing this up. GEF4 by now is a really interesting technoly and Graphiti should surely move forward and use it.

However, speaking of plans would be too much. Unfortunatly, I'm currently the only active committer on Graphiti and I simply do not have the time to invest into such a rework of the complete framework. Working on something of that scale would in my opinion require help fro the community and external contributors.

What I would like to start with anyhow would be thinking about how Graphiti could be moved to GEF4 and about some technical guidelines regarding that move.

So: any help on this would be highly appreciated. Smile

Michael

Re: Graphiti Migration with GEF4 [message #1775798 is a reply to message #1713723]

Mon, 06 November 2017 15:32

Messages: 51
Registered: February 2012

Member

Hello,

My team is currently reviewing our possible options in implementing Graphical Editors and from my experience Graphiti's flat learning curve helps a lot.
But because GEF3 is now a legacy, does the community have future plans on switching to use GEF4?

Thanks!

Che

Re: Graphiti Migration with GEF4 [message #1776017 is a reply to message #1775798]

Thu, 09 November 2017 11:14

Messages: 1937
Registered: July 2009
Location: Walldorf, Germany

Senior Member

Che,

well, plans would be said to much, there are some ideas and dreams rather. To be honest there is simply no development capacity to start something like that.

Michael

Re: Graphiti Migration with GEF4 [message #1790114 is a reply to message #1776017]

Tue, 05 June 2018 11:15

Messages: 7
Registered: June 2018

Junior Member

Hi Michael,

we are currently evaluating the Graphiti framework as the basis for a client's graphical editor.
Could you provide a rough estimation (in person weeks or months should be close enough. Btw, we are RCP beginners ;) ) of the programming effort required to move the framework towards GEF5 and e4?

As it seems you are essentially the only person involved in this project and based on your statement from Fri, 06 November 2015 08:41, below:

Could you provide some hints what would have to be done to achieve this goal?

Thanks in advance,
Hans

Re: Graphiti Migration with GEF4 [message #1790348 is a reply to message #1790114]

Fri, 08 June 2018 13:34

Messages: 1937
Registered: July 2009
Location: Walldorf, Germany

Senior Member

Hi Hans,

thanks for your interest in this.

You are right in that I'm basically the only one working on the project (with very little available time). As required effort I would say, it is something around 2-3 person months to do that switch to GEF and e4.

For GEF I would see the following topics:
- Get familiar with GEF 5 (so far I only got a rough overview of components and concepts, but did not yet have the time to work with it and really try out things)
- Create Graphiti support for GEF 5 (implement edit parts, policies, etc. so that the Graphiti concepts are mapped to GEF 5)
- Ideally this implementation could be done in a new plugin for Graphiti (e.g. org.eclipse.graphiti.gef5) in parallel to the existing org.eclipse.graphiti.ui (and keep that availabla and running against GEF legacy).
- Implement test and a test environment (basically what is in org.eclipse.graphiti.examples.common) to try out Graphiti editors

For e4:
- Provide a base class and the required stuff around (behavior classes, menu contributions, property sheets, outline, selection, etc) for a part that can be used as replacement for the Graphiti DiagramEditor and its stuff around
- Could be done in the new plugin o.e.g.gef5, but maybe even better in an own plugin to separate things even better.
- Make use of the modeling configuration aspects in e4 and integrate that with Graphiti

Probably there is much more, but as I said I simply do not find the time to dig deeper into this. But any support in this is of course highly welcome and I will for sure try to find the time to help out on questions and design.

HTH,
Michael

Re: Graphiti Migration with GEF4 [message #1790795 is a reply to message #1790348]

Mon, 18 June 2018 06:19

Messages: 7
Registered: June 2018

Junior Member

Hi Michael,

thanks for the quick reply.
I will suggest Graphiti as an option for our client and will come back to you in case we need help :)

Best regards,
Hans

Re: Graphiti Migration with GEF4 [message #1792754 is a reply to message #1790795]

Mon, 23 July 2018 14:18

Messages: 7
Registered: June 2018

Junior Member

Hi Michael,

I am sorry to inform you that our client has decided against using Graphiti for their editor.

All the best for the project!
Hans

Re: Graphiti Migration with GEF4 [message #1793104 is a reply to message #1792754]

Tue, 31 July 2018 08:38

Messages: 1937
Registered: July 2009
Location: Walldorf, Germany

Senior Member

Hi Hans,

that's a pity but thanks anyhow for the update.

Michael

Re: Graphiti Migration with GEF4 [message #1793671 is a reply to message #1792754]

Mon, 13 August 2018 19:01

Messages: 51
Registered: February 2012

Member

Hi Hans,

Just curious, so what type of framework did your client use to implement the Editors?

I myself is going through the same process of reviewing what's out there. I have used Graphiti and I find it helpful at least for our case.

Che

Re: Graphiti Migration with GEF4 [message #1794584 is a reply to message #1793671]

Mon, 03 September 2018 10:56

Messages: 7
Registered: June 2018

Junior Member

Hi Che,

as mentioned earlier, they use Eclipse e4 (and JavaFX for UI) as a basis.
They will use GEF 5 directly.

Best regards,
Hans

Re: Graphiti Migration with GEF4 [message #1804655 is a reply to message #1794584]

Fri, 29 March 2019 18:17

Messages: 51
Registered: February 2012

Member

Hi Michael -

Just curious, if we were to help migrating Graphiti to GEF5, Is it possible to do just the GEF part and not the e4 part?

Also, I know this is open source, but I'm just curious if
1. This is a pure volunteer work or does it have a budget?
2. After the 2-3 months of development, who will provide support?

Che

[Updated on: Fri, 29 March 2019 21:14]

Re: Graphiti Migration with GEF4 [message #1804778 is a reply to message #1804655]

Mon, 01 April 2019 06:31

Messages: 1937
Registered: July 2009
Location: Walldorf, Germany

Senior Member

Hi Che,

from Graphiti point of view this should be possible and probably also easier to implement, since it basically means to replace the graphical interface only and leave the Eclipse integration part in place. On the other hand I do not know in how far GEF5 relies on E4 as basis.

Michael

Re: Graphiti Migration with GEF4 [message #1804829 is a reply to message #1804778]

Tue, 02 April 2019 05:57

Messages: 51
Registered: February 2012

Member

Thanks Michael for your response.

Our project wants to use Graphiti but we would like to have it on the new GEF . We might be able to help push this through.
Is there any other way I can contact you? I have few questions related to the other 2 questions I have on my previous reply (see above).
I figured this might not be a good channel to discuss it.

Thanks again.

Re: Graphiti Migration with GEF4 [message #1804832 is a reply to message #1804829]

Tue, 02 April 2019 06:37

Messages: 1937
Registered: July 2009
Location: Walldorf, Germany

Senior Member

Hi Che,

thanks for your interest in this, I guess the discussion would best be done on our dev mailing list: graphiti-dev@eclipse.org

However, a word of warning ahead. While I would really like to see that going ahead, I'm afraid I will not have time to drive this, because I hardly find time to maintain Graphiti as it is now (I'm working in a completely different area by now, and Graphiti is more or less a hobby project at the side). I can try to give direction and help in technical issues, I may also be able to review changes, but even that might be difficult with such a big topic.

Michael