Get your build configuration in one click with B3 and MoDisco
Henrik Lindberg (Cloudsmith Inc. ), Gabriel BARBIER (Thales Global Services SAS )
Making For Eclipse · Lightning (12 mins)
Monday, 17:02, 13 minutes | Lafayette
Tags: Build and Continuous Integration , Java , Modeling , Tools
Henrik Lindberg
Gabriel BARBIER
Current software are no longer monolithic, but composed of products, sub-products, etc.. This has induced the need for tools able to build such applications, and to configure continuous integration (nightly build).
These tools may be Eclipse plug-ins like PDE, Buckminster, Athena, B3, etc. But only B3 provides a unique file to define your build process, and the good part is that this file is an EMF model. The not so good is that you have to define your build process manually. And to define your build process easily, you have to discover or express different kind of information. And because it is not so easy, MoDisco project provides some tools to help in discovery process (discoverers definition, composition, execution …). As a use case, several discoverers have been implemented to manage bundles, features (like other tools) and plain old java projects (quiet new) and inject discovered information into B3 models.
Main idea is to repoduce Buckminster entry point : in a few clics, you should be able to build a product packaged like a p2 repository (eclipse update site). But, with added value ! For instance, Buckminster feature is only for eclipse bundles, it could be great to have the same tooling for usual java projects, with external libraries (Maven repository ?), etc..
And the next step is to leverage the learning curve from easy build to custom build. It means a build process independent from the local computer (build server), repeteable and automatic (Hudson configuration) …
Henrik is a founder and CTO of Cloudsmith Inc., an Eclipse strategic member and EclipseCon Gold Sponsor(?2010). Henrik has over 20 years of experience architecting and developing innovative infrastructure and application software and tooling. Past positions include leadership of BEA's Java Run-Time Group (JRockit) and CTO and/or technical founder of several publicly and privately held software companies. Henrik leads the Eclipse b3, Eclipse Buckminster and Spaces projects and is a committer on Eclipse p2, and EPP.
Gabriel Barbier works as R&D software engineer for Mia-Software and is committer in Eclipse MoDisco project. He participates also to Modelplex, a research project co-funded by the European Commission to provide Eclipse-based tools to develop complex systems. Before joining Mia-Software, he was a real-time and software engineer at Thales Naval SA where he developped MDA solutions dedicated to component frameworks.