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Lessons Learned Writing the AWS Toolkit for Eclipse

Lessons Learned Writing the AWS Toolkit for Eclipse. Zach Musgrave & Jason Fulghum Amazon Web Services March 28, 2013. AWS Toolkit For Eclipse. Lessons Learned. Error Reporting Build Automation and Distribution Responsive UIs Resource Management Data Binding

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Lessons Learned Writing the AWS Toolkit for Eclipse

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  1. Lessons Learned Writing the AWS Toolkit for Eclipse Zach Musgrave & Jason Fulghum Amazon Web Services March 28, 2013

  2. AWS Toolkit For Eclipse

  3. Lessons Learned • Error Reporting • Build Automation and Distribution • Responsive UIs • Resource Management • Data Binding • Build on Eclipse Platform Projects • Tips and Tricks

  4. Error Reporting When your software inevitably breaks.

  5. Use the Error Log • Use Plugin’s getLog() method: • getLog().log(new Status(Status.ERROR, PLUGIN_ID, errorMessage, e)); • Or… use StatusManager directly, for more control

  6. Fail Gracefully in UIs

  7. Proactively Debug Problems • Help your customers collect basic debugging information before you have to ask • Make it as easy as possible to report problems, or you might not find out about bugs before you start losing customers

  8. Build Automation Release early and often; make it easy!

  9. PDE Build • Eclipse’s standard release engineering tools • Built on Ant, so easy to integrate into existing build processes

  10. Automated Version Numbering

  11. Update Site Hosting • Plugins and features stored in Amazon S3 • Distributed through Amazon CloudFront for fast downloads from edge locations all over the world • Old versions remain in Amazon S3 if needed • Use Amazon CloudFront access logs feature for download metrics

  12. Responsive UIs The UI thread is for UI, and nothing else. Really.

  13. Number One Tip: DON’T DO SYNCHRONOUS IO IN THE UI THREAD! Seriously, not even once.

  14. Jobs Framework • For work that needs customer visibility, but will take some amount of time

  15. Cancelable Thread • Pattern for short-lived, but potentially disruptive IO work • Example: populate a Combo using data from a web service call

  16. Cancelable Thread • From the UI: cancel any running thread, then start a new one • From the CancelableThread: do non-UI work (web services calls), then: • Check if canceled • If not, update UI • Otherwise exit • Synchronization is important

  17. SWT Table Trees • Better performance than regular Tables • Use SWT.VIRTUAL to speed them up more

  18. Display Thread Execution • Display.asyncExec(Runnable) • Display.syncExec(Runnable)

  19. Resource Management Why make X copies when 1 will do?

  20. Sharing Images with the Registry • Override AbstractUIPlugin#createImageRegistry()

  21. Font Management • Remember: fonts use file handles! • Don’t create a font just to apply it to a control • Share fonts as much as possible, and remember to dispose() of them when they aren’t needed anymore • Or use shared fonts, like in JFaceResources

  22. JFace Data Binding A cleaner way to implement MVC, but with a steep learning curve.

  23. JFace Data Binding API • The basic idea: bind your data model to a UI element, and when one changes the other does too IObservableValue model = PojoObservables.observeValue(pojo, “field”); IObservabletarget = SWTObservables.observeText(text, SWT.Modify); bindingContext.bindValue(target, model);

  24. Demo: Elastic Beanstalk Configuration Editor

  25. Validation • Fields can validate themselves • Aggregate status gets rolled up

  26. Validation

  27. Build on Eclipse Platform Projects Stand on the shoulders of giants.

  28. Web Tools Platform (WTP) • Tools for developing and deploying web and Java EE applications • Used in the toolkit for: • Deploying AWS Java web apps to AWS Elastic Beanstalkthrough custom server types

  29. Data Tools Platform (DTP) • Vendor neutral platform and tools for working with relational and non-relational data sources • Used in the toolkit for: • Connecting to Amazon RDS databases • Browsing and editing Amazon SimpleDB data sources

  30. Common Navigator Framework (CNF) • Aggregates data contributed by multiple plugins into a single, hierarchical tree view • Good support for drag and drop actions • Used in the toolkit for: • AWS Explorer view

  31. Tips and Tricks A miscellany of time-saving advice.

  32. Grid Data Factory

  33. Message Dialog • Easy pluggable dialog box with an optional custom control area

  34. Eclipse Forms • Easy way to create clean, easy to use UIs

  35. IDialogSettings • Used to store hierarchical data to persist preferences and history for views, dialogs, and wizards • Allows UIs to be prepopulated with users’ previous selections and history

  36. Get the Source • Look for “SDK” packages on update sites

  37. F4 Hierarchy • Q: How do I implement this interface? • A: Copy someone else!

  38. Questions and Answers

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