[forge-issues] [JBoss JIRA] (FORGE-286) Forge needs a de-centralized plugin distribution and repository system

Forge needs a de-centralized plugin distribution and repository system ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Key: FORGE-286 URL: https://issues.jboss.org/browse/FORGE-286 Project: Forge Issue Type: Feature Request Components: Brainstorming, Plugin API Affects Versions: 1.0.0.Alpha1 Environment: All Reporter: Lincoln Baxter III Assignee: Lincoln Baxter III Priority: Critical Labels: Maven Fix For: 1.0.0.Beta1 There is no disputing the value of this type of feature, as has been shown with App-stores of all kinds. This would be relatively simple to implement as a Maven-based system, delegating all of the artifact resolution and dependency management to Maven. Features Forge would need to provide: 1) Built-in plugins and native APIs to search/install/remove/update plug-ins (easy using forge Resource APIs + Aether to add/remove JARs.) This internal plugin/commands could be called "forge" for simplicity ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ $ forge plugin-find prettyfaces Forge found the following plugins in specified repositories: <--- notice the 'forgeplugin' classifier used to identify forge plugins from other artifacts. * http://ocpsoft.com/repository ...... [prettyfaces] com.ocpsoft.pretty.faces:prettyfaces-forgeplugin:[... 3.1.0, 3.2.0, 3.2.1] * http://repo1.maven.org/ .............. [prettyfaces] com.ocpsoft.pretty.faces:prettyfaces-forgeplugin:3.1.0 $ forge plugin-install prettyfaces --version 3.1.0 ***SUCCESS*** [prettyfaces] plugin was successfully installed. You will need to restart forge to see these changes. $ forge plugin-list Listing installed plugins: * prettyfaces [3.1.0] * forge-scaffold [1.0.0.Alpha1] * forge-javaee6 [1.0.0.Alpha1] * home-control [1.0.0.Alpha1] $ forge plugin-remove prettyfaces Are you sure you you want to remove the plugin(s) [prettyfaces] [Y,n]? Y ***SUCCESS*** [prettyfaces] plugin was successfully removed. You will need to restart forge to see these changes. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2) Plugin repository management (add/remove/edit/list current plugin repository targets.) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ $ forge repo-list Currently using the following plugin repositories: * 1. https://repository.jboss.org/nexus/content/groups/public/ * 2. http://ocpsoft.com/repository * 3. http://example.com/forge/plugin-repository $ forge repo-add http://jboss.org/forge/repository/ <-- These two will be KEY, we NEED THESE to happen $ forge repo-add http://javaee.org/forge/repository/ $ forge repo-list Currently using the following plugin repositories: * 1. https://repository.jboss.org/nexus/content/groups/public/ * 2. http://ocpsoft.com/repository * 3. http://example.com/forge/plugin-repository * 4. http://jboss.org/forge/repository/ * 5. http://javaee.org/forge/repository/ $ forge repo-del 5 ***SUCCESS*** removed repository [http://javaee.org/forge/repository/]. Plugins installed from this repository will no longer be auto-updated, and can be removed using [forge plugin-remove {plugin-id}] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 3) Auto-update functionality Periodically search for updates to existing plugins (or search on request) - ask users if they would like to see a list of updates or perform an automated update / update individual plugins. 4) A meta-data system of identifying compatible versions of plugins w/running version of forge. Possibly need to create a maven packaging type and build plugin in order to facilitate this type of additional metadata and artifact resolution. (Or could require a <classifier>forgeplugin</classifier>. We already have the maven GAV (GroupId : ArtifactId : Version) information. Supplemented with this classifier, we could easily identify forge plugins from other artifacts in maven.