Future Themes and Priorities for App Builder

Collection of ideas for sebring; to be sorted out later

• performance improvements
  • the base navigation and text editor need to be very responsive
  • locating and eliminating memory leaks - having the AB open for a development time scale, rather then a browsing time scale, results in a huge memory consumption that suffocates the developers machine
  • reduce the need for polling. for example, click Start should trigger an immediate status update -- no need to wait for polling to update the status. occasional background polling is still useful to catch external changes
  • Adding a new dependency to my repo takes too long. Why does the "local repo" dialog reload every time? Why does it reload when I go from add dependency->manage repository? Can't we cache this in memory?
  • Better use of Dojo packaging
  • Set a target for performance - <.2 seconds for all clicks
• support for native browsers (IE and Safari)
• code cleanup for maintainability
  • e.g. refactoring Groovy-based resource handlers into Groovy for HTTP + Java for core implementation (no HTTP); see the refactoring of applications.groovy (zero.admin.resources) into applications.groovy + Java classes (zero.appbuilder.core.resources)
• plug-in model
  • plug-ins should be enabled based on whether the app's dependencies meet the plug-ins requirements; plug-ins should be able to contribute editors, menu entries for New File, templates, start/stop helpers, etc.
• Usability
  • consistent L&F and behavior of editors (including palettes and dnd behavior)
  • much more in place help for the developer
  • decreasing the level of complexity of the AB
  • layered profile builds; e.g. form editor takes a long time to load, but don't want to put it into the AB profile build (startup time)
• Port DataGrid to dojo's 1.2 DataGrid; will allow us to take advantage of type validation and type-specific editors
• Means to deal with "virtual" files that doesn't require one-off hacks (e.g. iWidget support).
• Means to show that applications/files contain errors without having to open the app/file.
• I18N. Look at the pattern used by model and form editors (designed to improve overall client performance)
• UI tests. Need to expand the Selenium tests to cover more UI features/scenarios and other browsers.
• Expose Dojo profile build tools to sMash developers
• Need support for Find/Replace/ReplaceAll inside an application and across applications.
• Dependencies Tab needs to be able to support adding peer applications
• Open Existing Application should show a list of actual applications in the selected directory, and allow selection of one or more actual applications.
• Editor Enhancements
  • Ability to add Dojo widgets to the palette and drag-drop them on to my page
  • Ability to create a Dojo widget template from an HTML page
  • Ability to display images - launch in a new frame, for example
  • Can't edit Dojo templates in Page Editor
  • Ability to view image files in IFrame
  • Template for Java files that includes package names
  • Integration with cookbook/snippets support - a new tab?
  • Ivy Log viewer
• Logical views so we can copy/delete/etc. iwidgets, Dojo widgets, etc.
• Ability to list files from console for use in commands (e.g. runsql, svn)

Silverstone

Base Improvements

• Continuous code and usability Improvements (High)
• Performance and scalability (High)
• Real command prompt (High)
• Improve Dependencies tab (Medium)
• SCM integration (e.g. SVN, CVS, Merge/Diff tool…) (Medium)
• Browser Compatibility (Medium)

App Editing and Utilities

• Logical views - Forms, Widgets, Resources, Configuration, Security, etc. (High)
• Dojo widget wizards (High)
• Database interaction (e.g. PhpMyAdmin, RunSQL) – (High)
• Search – (High)
• Editor Enhancements – Syntax checking, code complete (High)
• Style sheet helpers – (High)
• Empower the LOB to build the integration process with flow editor (High)
  • Refactor the visual appearance of flow editor with the BPMN graphical elements
  • Drive synergy between flow editor and BPM Zero front-end tooling
  • Change the artifact oriented UE to task oriented one
• Add templates (eventually user configurable) – (Medium)
• Doc wizards - (Medium)
• Snippets – (Medium)
• New editors – Images (Low)

Debugging

• Unit Testing support (High)
• Improved Error Handling and Error Messages, including CLI (High)
• Groovy Debugging (High)
• PHP Debugging (High)
• Integration with Firebug (Medium)
• RestDoc/Poster-like functionality (Medium)
• Better flow monitoring and management (Medium) - Flow engine will expose the flow runtime information as the REST resources. The AppBuilder provide the integrated UI to manage flows and visualize related information
• Java Debugging (Low)

Remote Access (High)

• Hosted environment
• Security
• Teaming

Integration and Extension

• General extensibility – plug-in points, dynamically added features (High)
• IWidget import/export support (High)
• Mashup Maker and Mashup Hub (High)
• Jazz (Medium)
• Integrate the flow editor with page editor to edit the generated Web UI (Medium)
• Integrate the flow editor and Lotus Mashups Builder (High) - The iWidget in Lotus Mashups can initialize or participate the Assemble flow.
• Integrate the fow editor and Mashup Hub which is as the feed repository (Medium)
• Wizard for creating the extension activity (Medium)