[m2e-dev] Proposal: Dependency Catalogue for Maven Eclipse

[Ricardo Gladwell <ricardo.gladwell@xxxxxxxxx>]

Problem: Thanks to the indexing remote repositories dependencies can
be quickly searched and added to projects through M2Eclipse. However,
normally developer's still need to be aware that a particular
dependency exists first before they can search for. It would be nice
if developers had the ability to discover new projects or APIs in the
Central repository.

Solution: I propose a Maven Catalogue GUI based on the iPhone App
Store or Eclipse Marketplace. In addition to being able to search
dependencies based on tags, descriptions, titles, etc., users could
also order searches based on ratings. Alternative panes for "just in"
dependencies, or "best rated" could also be included, allowing
developer's to find alternatives or discover new dependencies through
the Eclipse IDE.

Other metrics for Maven dependencies could be included, such as file
size and number of dependencies, etc. to encourage developer's to
minimise their dependencies.

Sub-catalogues: For example, while Android apps can use regular JAR
files, there are now many Android-specific APIs packaged with fewer
dependencies and minimalist coding. It would be nice to present an
Android/Mobile sub-catalogue from which Android developers could
select dependencies in the confidence that they would not bloat their
apps. Other sub-catalogs could include reporting plugins and
archetypes.

The Eclipse Marketplace points the way towards achieving this: we
could leverage the UI code they have already written. Similarly the
back-end web service/site was put together very quickly and simply
using the Drupal content-management.

The last bit of good news is that many websites such as Ohloh,
freshmeat.net, etc. already have ratings and comments/reviews for the
various projects hosted in the Central Repository. Most of these sites
already provide APIs. And of course there is lots of
catalogue-friendly project meta-data already included in POM files.

Thoughts?

--
Ricardo Gladwell <ricardo.gladwell@xxxxxxxxx>
http://www.google.com/profiles/ricardo.gladwell
Twitter: @rgladwell - MSN: axonrg@xxxxxxxxx