Re: [europa-build-workshop] CBI

[Pete Mackie <pete@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 01:51 PM 11/27/2006, Andrew Overholt wrote:
> On Mon, 2006-27-11 at 13:48
> -0800, Bjorn Freeman-Benson wrote:
> > What would you like to say? Ward and Denis and I are actively
> reading 
> > everything that goes by and I guess we are "the
> Foundation"...
>
> I was referring to the work item we decided on of writing a report
> of
> what we recommend for a CBI - something formal that could be
> presented
> at a financial planning meeting.
>
> If it were up to me, I'd recommend that the foundation undertake the
> creation of something like I outlined in the previous image.  This
> would
> require at least one person, but in my dream world the foundation
> would
> think this was useful and would hire someone with its buckets of cash
> :)
> Of course, I realize that's a big expense and that the foundation
> has
> typically rejected actually writing any code, but I honestly can't
> think
> of any negatives that could come from implementing such a system. 
> I
> guess people could argue that they're already getting by with
> internal
> machines and processes, but I see no reason those would have to go
> away.
> In my dream world, I see the CBI becoming so good that over time
> every
> team would *want* to use it :)
>
> I realize, however, that it's not just up to me and that my dream
> world
> doesn't exactly match reality.  So I was questioning whether or not
> we
> should write a report at all seeing as Nick's work is progressing
> and
> could probably be extracted to a decent CBI.  I guess I just think
> that
> the foundation should undertake something like this as it does
> things
> like facilitating project work and encouraging openness and all that
> jazz :)
>
> Andrew

---

Here's my view of Andrew's dream. What I've be designing and working on
pretty much follows Andrew's

"CBI.jpg" concept diagram functionality.

There would be one client Web page for PDE builds written in Flash, using
Adobe Flex
2 for development. Flash is on over 95% of computers in use and
auto-loads if it isn't, only via user permission. (If you have ever
viewed a YouTube video, then you already have flash installed.) All
elements of the Web page contents would be dynamically driven from the
MySQL database by a combination of user/role authentication and by
project data. The client Web page functionality and layout would based on
Nick's EMFT web page (attached). IMO, Nick's build Web page pretty much
provides everything required for a PDE build. If not, then I would like
to hear about your CBI needs.

The one-time development of the build client would consist of ~400 lines
of mixed declarative XML statements and imperative programming using
Adobe ActionScript 3, which syntactically follows the upcoming ECMAScript
(ECMA-262) edition 4 draft language specification (a.k.a. _javascript_).
The declarative statements class load ActionScript objects, then all the
ActionScript gets compiled into Flash 9.

The Web server side PDE build would reside on 100% PHP open source via
WebORB
for PHP,
from Midnight
Coders.

Access to the Eclipse build, PHP PDE classes, on the server,--which
produce the user/project customized build page on the client--can be
constrained by any or all of the following security domain
criteria:

1. user/role
2. IP address of the incoming request
3. IP address range of the incoming requests
4. Hostname of the computer where request has originated.

The above security domain security domain information is stored in
multiple MySQL database records making administrative access management
simple. User authentication is done PHP to LDAP linked to
"roles" for user authorization to multiple versions of the
above security domains. Any user can be assigned multiple
"roles" for access to more the one security domain, providing
convenient access to multiple build projects.

With WebOPB for PHP, the above security domain is presently stored in XML
files. Working with Midnight Coders, I have extended WebORB for PHP so
the above security domain is a MySQL database instead of XML
files--actually it can be a simultaneous mix of secuirty domain criteria
from both repositories. I will be making my development efforts here
publicly available on a couple of Flex 2 / WebORB forums sometime in the
next few weeks. (I do have the MySQL security domain repository working
with WebORB for PHP. It needs testing and refactoring--users are waiting
though.)

For the curious, if you would like to view a diagram the WebORB for PHP
authentication / authorization security flow plus a description of how it
works go to:

http://blog.themidnightcoders.com and scroll down to the blog title:
WebORB for PHP 1.3 (now with Flex security)

Let me say that I've been deeply inside the WebORB for PHP code for
the past few weeks and professionally I know that it works as advertised.
The code is 100% PHP 5 classes--including my MySQL database I/O
class--making extensibility development a snap. Interesting to note that
WebORB has no stand-alone code except for a small snippet of startup code
to instantiate the first PHP class.

Initially our PHP server could directly connect into manually developed,
by project, PDE Ant build scripts. More likely it will be through Maven.
A tentative Kepler
project plan's milestone 1 goal (six weeks out...e.g. mid Jan) with
Maven + PDE builder (as a maven--NOT ECLIPSE--plug-in) + ECF PDE Ant
scripts (as project specific templates) be put in place for headless
build for 2+ projects (BIRT+ECF). 

Please appreciate that the Kepler project is in the proposal stage and
does not yet have a published Eclipse Foundation approval date.
Accordingly the above plan's milestone 1 goal may move or may not even
occur. I only publish this information to provoke further CBI dialog and
awareness of tentatively what is coming from Kepler.

Anyway, my $0.02 worth. Hope this
helps.TM 

Comments? Questions?

For the technically curious about using Flex 2 generated Flash on the
client to message to PHP on the server, here's the reference links:

http://www.brightworks.com/technology/adobe_flex/with_php.html
Ironically, I stumbled upon Adobe Flex 2 at Adobe's booth at EclipseCon,
last March, in Santa Clara. I've been developing with it ever
since.

Respectfully submitted,
Pete Mackie
Seaquest Software

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