Hi Pierre Sharan and all, In reply to your question Pierre, I will create a JIRA to which people can contribute.
Although I worked very hard on this feature, I really need help with thorough testing and feedback. I look forward to your help if you'd like to contribute. Regards, Taher Alkhateeb So how does the PMC envision the way contributors collaborate on this new feature? Best regards, Pierre On Monday, June 20, 2016, Sharan Foga <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Pierre > > My understanding is that this will not be done as a branch - it will done > directly onto the trunk. If you refer back to the notes from the > re-factoring team meeting a few months ago, we decided not to use branches > as they become abandoned and hard to integrate. We also wanted to use the > trunk to innovate (and this definitely fits that!) > > Thanks > Sharan > > > On 2016-06-20 15:09 (+0200), Pierre Smits <[email protected] > <javascript:;>> wrote: > > Will this be done in a separate dev branch available in the OFBiz repo, > so > > that contributors can assist? > > > > Best regards, > > > > Pierre Smits > > > > ORRTIZ.COM <http://www.orrtiz.com> > > OFBiz based solutions & services > > > > OFBiz Extensions Marketplace > > http://oem.ofbizci.net/oci-2/ > > > > On Mon, Jun 20, 2016 at 2:50 PM, Sharan Foga <[email protected] > <javascript:;>> wrote: > > > > > Hi Everyone > > > > > > This is the second of two emails to inform the community about what has > > > been happening around how we are planning to handle external > dependencies > > > in the trunk. Two weeks ago the community discussed and agreed to the > use > > > of Gradle to help us put together a unit test framework. While trying > to > > > get this set up while Ant remained as our build tool became very > difficult. > > > This was because our Ant scripts: > > > > > > - are massive and contain a lot of code > > > - are complex > > > - are very brittle and make it very hard to change things > > > - have no dependency management > > > - need everything to be declared > > > > > > We realised very quickly that the re-factoring issues and limitations > we > > > are facing are because of our build tool – Ant. > > > > > > Ant is verbose so it needs everything to be declared. We did a brief > > > assessment of Maven and found it better than Ant but not a good fit for > > > OFBiz because it has strict requirements for the > > > convention-over-configuration rules to work. Instead we decided to > take a > > > closer look at Gradle. > > > > > > So why Gradle? > > > As Taher was already looking at Gradle for unit testing, we decided to > > > look at what we would need to do to totally replace Ant with Gradle. We > > > received some great support and feedback from David, who is already > using > > > Gradle with Moqui. > > > > > > After some preliminary tests we found that Gradle has some very good > > > features such as: > > > > > > - a much shorter code base (e.g. one single file of around 250 > lines of > > > code replaces all the build.xml files and thousands of lines of code) > > > - Programming is DSL based and links in well with Groovy (e.g. the > > > script is short because despite heavy custom requirements for OFBiz, > two > > > small functions took care of the complex directory structure) > > > - It handles all the external jar files by downloading any > dependencies > > > directly via internet > > > - Jars can be upgraded by simply changing a string > > > - It has matured a lot and has a high level of support in > tools,IDEs, > > > books, documentation > > > - It also has a lot of plugins which means that it works with pretty > > > much all build systems, supports multiple programming languages, and > many > > > other features (e.g. OSGi) > > > > > > We understand that it can help us make OFBiz more modular and also > setting > > > up a framework for managing addons would be a lot easier. > > > > > > So what's been done? > > > Taher has been working very hard on a patch for the trunk that > completely > > > replaces Ant with Gradle. (Huge thanks to David for providing some > example > > > scripts to help us get started!) The patch is now ready to be applied > to > > > the trunk and includes the following: > > > > > > - java -jar ofbiz.jar is now replaced with -> gradlew 'ofbiz > > > --whatever-options-here' > > > - In addition to gradlew 'ofbiz' we also have gradlew 'ofbizDebug > > > --whatever'. What does that mean? It means we can run debug on ALL > ofbiz > > > commands, not just start > > > - If we decide to change the source directory structure in > components > > > say from /src to /src/main, it would literally be a change of 5 > characters > > > in the build script > > > - We can immediately move all jar files if we want to a unified > > > location in /lib for example > > > - We can delete most of the jars and declare them as dependencies > > > saving space and resources > > > - We can automate the creation of the .classpath file so when we > > > update libraries no need to do this manually (under development) > > > - We can ignore components that are not define in the xml files for > > > loading (under development) > > > - We can introduce unit tests with about 10 minutes of work > > > > > > We are finding that the flexibility and control we are getting with > Gradle > > > is truly amazing. We know that Gradle will be a major change to the > project > > > but we think that it will significantly improve the project by > removing a > > > lot of build complexity and take care of that essential dependency > > > management that we need to comply with. > > > > > > Our next steps will be to apply the patch to the trunk and then > continue > > > the re-factoring work. We will need to organise some knowledge > transfer so > > > that all our committers understand what the changes are and how they > would > > > need to work in the future. > > > > > > The PMC are very, very excited about having Gradle as part of future of > > > OFBiz and we hope that the community will think so too. As always, > feedback > > > welcome. > > > > > > Thanks > > > Sharan > > > > > > -- Pierre Smits ORRTIZ.COM <http://www.orrtiz.com> OFBiz based solutions & services OFBiz Extensions Marketplace http://oem.ofbizci.net/oci-2/
