[kepler-dev] [Bug 3947] - Create a module manager

[bugzilla-daemon at ecoinformatics.org]

http://bugzilla.ecoinformatics.org/show_bug.cgi?id=3947





------- Comment #2 from welker4kepler at gmail.com  2009-04-09 16:02 -------
Here is the current status of the module manager.

It is currently under the tools menu. It allows scientists or developers to
retrieve published modules (which are located at
https://code.kepler-project.org/code/kepler/tags/published/modules/). There are
two panes. In the left pane there is a tree in which modules and suites can be
selected. The right pane is essentially a virtual modules.txt file. By default,
only published suites, which are a set of modules that a particular development
team intends to work together are visible. Multiple suites can be selected and
ordered, and they will be merged just as they would be if multiple suites were
in a modules.txt file. Clearly, selecting multiple suites is adventurous and in
general no guarantee of compatibility can be made. Only individually published
suites (which may themselves referenced in one or more other suites) are known
and certified by a particular development team to be compatible. The most
common use case for a scientist will be to select a single published suite with
perhaps zero or more other modules that on feels are likely compatible with
that suite (perhaps that other module is nothing more than a suite of actors).

By default, individual published modules are not visible in the tree on the
right. However, clicking the modules check box renders individual modules
visible. They can be moved to the right hand pane just as suites can (when
suites are moved to the right, they appear with a * in front of their name.
When individual modules are moved, they appear without a *. Priorities are in
play too, with suites or modules higher in the list taking priority over suites
and modules lower in the list. Overall, just like a modules.txt file.

However, with an appropriate caveat. When you select a particular suite or
module, it is the latest published revision that is retrieved and used, not the
trunk version of that suite. Further, you can control precisely which revisions
are used by clicking on the revisions check box, which will make revisions
visible. In that case, you can either select a particular revision, or the
latest revision (by selecting the module with the highest revision number or
the unqualified root).

Before clicking on restart, you can see precisely how a particular selection of
modules and suites will be resolved by clicking on preview. When you finally do
click on restart, all of the modules (which are zipped) are retrieved using
https and unzipped. When these processes take a noticeable amount of time,
status bars will appear letting you know what is occurring.) After the
appropriate modules are retrieved and unzipped, Kepler will automatically
restart itself and you will have the functionality of those modules (assuming
compatibility between the modules).