[eclipse-incubator-e4-dev] next steps for the E4/connection management d

[brian.fitzpatrick@xxxxxxxxxx]

Hi all...

I've been pondering what to put in this
e-mail for a few days, but decided it was better to just throw it out there
to keep the conversation alive than anything else... 

Martin O sent out an e-mail not long after
our dog & pony show about connection frameworks on 9/11 and suggested
some next steps, so I thought I'd follow on that idea a bit in an e-mail
before committing this to the Wiki.

=The Effort So Far=

We had one meeting to discuss some of the
various connection management frameworks that exist in Eclipse projects
today. DTP, ECF, and RSE discussed and demonstrated their frameworks and
current user interface components. 
 
Though we didn't come to any solid conclusions,
it seemed very evident that there's definitely a need for some sort of
cross-project connection management framework in the E4 timeframe. 
 
Since the meeting, I was contacted by Eike
Stepper from the CDO Model Repository and Net4j Signalling Platform projects.
She would like to contribute to the conversation and at least keep informed
of our progress, so it's good to know that outside of the immediate E4
group we have interested parties. Not sure if she'd like to demo their
current frameworks or not. (Eike, do you want to chime in here?)
 
=High Level Goals=

At a minimum, it would be helpful to come
up with a common API for connection management and persistence. 

Some simple use cases might include:
 
* Connecting to a unique connection object
(database, system, etc.)
* Disconnecting from a unique connection
object
* Retrieving the raw connection class from
the managed connection object
* Managing connection properties (such
as connect/disconnect state and any custom properties for the connection
type)
* Managing a list of connections, both
connected and disconnected
 
More complicated use cases might include:
 
* Connection timeout
* Backward compatibility

I think some level of UI consistency is
still an important factor also. Maybe if we don't all have the same UI
components, we could all agree on a consistent set of UI-based connection
management tasks? Or a consistent look and feel even if we're not all exactly
the same?

Thoughts?

--Fitz

Brian Fitzpatrick
Eclipse Data Tools Platform PMC Chair
Eclipse Data Tools Platform Connectivity Team Lead
Staff Software Engineer, Sybase, Inc.