GSoC: ShrinkWrap Tasks

[alrubinger]

This Thread is one we'll use to field questions related to the ShrinkWrap Tasks for Google Summer of Code.  Likely we'll point out to other resources like JIRA tasks, Wiki Pages, etc, as appropriate.

To see the discussion, contributor Andre Leite asked the following:

Provide ShrinkWrap with Export to: RPM, ISO, RAR, BZIP Formats.
I'm very interested on this particular task although I have no experience with JBoss. Since it's mostly about Java and compressing protocols I feel quite confident to accomplish this task. What would you recommend me to do in order to participate? 

Fantasic, and welcome!

To start in, first fork the source and ensure you've got your environment set up to properly import into the IDE and run the tests:

ShrinkWrap | Development and Contribution

After you've got that all set, which of the formats would you like to tackle?  I'd probably recommend the BZIP (BZIP2) filter first; if you have a look at the existing sources you can see the structure where I forked off an implementation of a GZIP filter from another open source project, applied its use, and have it tested.  The JIRA issue is:

https://issues.jboss.org/browse/SHRINKWRAP-391

In addition to the filter itself are the API hooks such that files may be imported/exported using the TAR archive format.  Again, look for examples where this is previously-done with TarGzExporter and TarGzImporter.

Let me know if you need any further guidance!

S,

ALR

[minalb]

Hi Andrew,
I am greatly interested in developing open source projects and I find "Provide ShrinkWrap with Export to: RPM, ISO, RAR,BZIP Formats" project from GSoC 2012 interesting where I can apply my Java skills.
I would like to know more details about the project and need some clarifications.

1] Export as RPM : Does it mean that we have to create a package ( RPM package ) for the respective archive using rpm-build, so thatShrinkwrap will use it to deploy an application?

2] Export as ISO : Are we allowed to use existing library such as Java ISO image creator ( JIIC )?

Thank You!

  Minal Bhadale.

[alrubinger]

minalb wrote:

1] Export as RPM : Does it mean that we have to create a package ( RPM package ) for the respective archive using rpm-build, so thatShrinkwrap will use it to deploy an application?

Not really using rpm-build, but more using ShrinkWrap to create RPM Format: http://www.rpm.org/max-rpm/s1-rpm-file-format-rpm-file-format.html  It's the responsibility of the developer to put the correct contents into the ShrinkWrap archive.

minalb wrote:

2] Export as ISO : Are we allowed to use existing library such as Java ISO image creator ( JIIC )?

Hmm, this one gets a bit tricky as JIIC appears to be LGPL, and ShrinkWrap Core is ASL2.  So we couldn't copy/fork any of the code into place, though we *could* create a separate ShrinkWrap module for the ISO Export feature, and this would carry a dependency upon JIIC.  Is JIIC in Maven Central?

S,

ALR

[cosminstefanxp]

Hello,

I would also like to express my interest in this project. I have sent an email a few days ago to [e-mail], but I haven't received any reply and I've discovered this post just now.

My name is Cosmin Stefan-Dobrin and I am a student at the Politechnics University of Bucharest, Computer Science faculty. I am an extremely passionate programmer (and soon-to-be engineer), who's always interested in the latest technologies and latest trends in IT development. I am interested in applying for Google Summer Of Code 2012, and the projects proposed by JBoss are extremely interesting. I have quite a lot of experience in Java, C/C++, HTML, CSS, JS and using git as I've worked on numerous projects at the university and on my spare time (one of the biggest projects I've recently worked on is www.feedrz.com, which is only at its beginnings and which I have developed with a friend, during the free time).

I have one question (not necessarely a technical one). I am going to ask pretty straight and honest, how important is this project for JBoss (as I know only some of the projects will be selected in the end)?

Thank you,

Cosmin

[alrubinger]

Cosmin Stefan Dobrin wrote:

I would also like to express my interest in this project. I have sent an email a few days ago to [e-mail], but I haven't received any reply and I've discovered this post just now.

Hi, Cosmin!  Glad to have you here; I've searched my inbox for something from you, but am only coming up with this post.  Please attempt a re-send so we can at least iron out why you're not getting through to me directly?  (Of course my reply would have been to take things to the forums here anyway. )

I have one question (not necessarely a technical one). I am going to ask pretty straight and honest, how important is this project for JBoss (as I know only some of the projects will be selected in the end)?

What's leading you to think that only some projects will be selected?  Unless my understanding is mistaken, all projects under the JBoss GSoC umbrella are valid for contribution under the program.

ShrinkWrap's importance is primarily tied to our developer usability initiative, as it powers the deployment mechanism for the Arquillian Testing Platform.  Of course, it's much more generic in scope as a virtual filesystem, so the tasks we've laid out for GSoC are in broadening its reach.  I'm also keen to any new features or ideas we haven't yet thought of.

S,

ALR

[cosminstefanxp]

Hello again,

Well, the email was sent to [e-mail] (I think I found the address on your account on JBoss Community or on github, I don't remember) and I didn't get any "Email delivery failed" message. I don't know what happened, but it's allright. I'm glad  I found this thread.

Regarding ShrinkWrap, I was thinking of some other project ideas, that could be developed maybe also in the GSOC (together with the export). I'm not sure if they are feasible, as maybe they do not follow the purpose or roadmap of ShrinkWrap, so I need some feedback:

• creating a web REST/SOAP interface (or Java Remote MEthod Invocation - RMI) for ShrinkWrap, so can be deployed on a remote (or local) server that handles the archive creation. Of course, this would only make sense when creating huge archives.
• creating a simple wrapping application for the library, so people can use it not only in other apps.
• adding .7z format (as it's an open standard that is getting more and more used)

What I meant regarding importance of the project is that, from what I've read in the rules, not all projects proposed by an organisation will be chosen to be developed and an ordering of the proposals by importance for the organisation will be made.

Thank you and have a wonderful day,

Cosmin

[alrubinger]

Cosmin Stefan Dobrin wrote:

Regarding ShrinkWrap, I was thinking of some other project ideas, that could be developed maybe also in the GSOC (together with the export). I'm not sure if they are feasible, as maybe they do not follow the purpose or roadmap of ShrinkWrap, so I need some feedback:

• creating a web REST/SOAP interface (or Java Remote MEthod Invocation - RMI) for ShrinkWrap, so can be deployed on a remote (or local) server that handles the archive creation. Of course, this would only make sense when creating huge archives.

Very interesting idea.  We try to address new features on a use-case basis, so can you outline in greater detail how this would be used, and who would be looking to use it?

• creating a simple wrapping application for the library, so people can use it not only in other apps.

Not sure what you mean by this?  ShrinkWrap can be used directly by any JRE5+ runtime,

• adding .7z format (as it's an open standard that is getting more and more used)

You're actually not the first to suggest this, so absolutely, consider .7z another export format for implementation, sure!

S,

ALR

[alrubinger]

Andrew Rubinger wrote:

This Thread is one we'll use to field questions related to the ShrinkWrap Tasks for Google Summer of Code.  Likely we'll point out to other resources like JIRA tasks, Wiki Pages, etc, as appropriate.

To see the discussion, contributor Andre Leite asked the following:

Provide ShrinkWrap with Export to: RPM, ISO, RAR, BZIP Formats.
I'm very interested on this particular task although I have no experience with JBoss. Since it's mostly about Java and compressing protocols I feel quite confident to accomplish this task. What would you recommend me to do in order to participate? 

Andre later asked me this, additionally:

Andrew, its andr? leite (I sent you one email about jboss shrinkwrap and you told me to implement a bzip2 filter... the thing is i've found one on an open source project and i would like to know if i could use some of their code and what you think i should use and shouldnt. thanks!

That'll depend on the license of the open source project you've found, and whether or not it's compatible to be forked as ASL2 (or else we *could* simply bring it in as an optional dependency, but we try to avoid all external dependencies in shrinkwrap-api and shrinkwrap-impl-base, so this would make it an add-on module).

S,

ALR

[cosminstefanxp]

Hello again,

Regarding the previous post, what I meant with the second suggestion was a simplet GUI for the library that, for example, would allow users to use ShrinkWrap using a more graphical aproach (e.g. drag-and-drop).

Also, I would like to ask one more thing regarding application process. In our proposal (project) we should include all the mentioned formats for export, or you believe doing all of them is a bit to much for the time window we have?

Thanks,

Cosmin

[alrubinger]

Cosmin Stefan Dobrin wrote:

Regarding the previous post, what I meant with the second suggestion was a simplet GUI for the library that, for example, would allow users to use ShrinkWrap using a more graphical aproach (e.g. drag-and-drop).

This is something we've actually discussed w/ Max Andersen, who leads the JBoss Tools project.  In that way it could be implemented as a plugin for Eclipse.  Recommend raising this issue with him, or if this makes sense to you, I'll set up an introduction.

Also, I would like to ask one more thing regarding application process. In our proposal (project) we should include all the mentioned formats for export, or you believe doing all of them is a bit to much for the time window we have?

It's really hard to gauge this, given that everyone contributes at different rates.  I don't think that accomplishing each of these is necessarily out of the question given the time constraints, but it might be easier to judge while taking one issue at-a-time.  For the project proposal, perhaps it'd be helpful if I made the exact description of the contributions a bit more vauge?  We can also safely assume that others may want to pick up related tasks and work in parallel, or that new features/issues could pop up while in-process which would make great GSoC candidate tasks as well.

S,

ALR

[rashoodkhan]

Hey,

I plan to participate in GSoC'13, and would like to start off with this project. I just have few questions, Was this project proposed for last year? Because all the post I see here from 2012.

This was the only project, where I could qualify to use the skills I have. I have been programming in Java from 6 months, and love the language already.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Thanks and Have a Good Day!

[james.francis]

Andrew,

I notice this project has been proposed the previous 2 years. If the project is still available I would like to help. Additionally I have sent my application to the gsoc email provided. I am not familiar with JBoss, but more than willing to take some time prior to May to get myself oriented with the application.

Looking forward to working with you.

Have a great Day!

[kpiwko]

Hello James,

we are always interested in improving capabilities of ShrinkWrap library. Having proposal not listed at GSOC14 Ideas does not mean that you can't propose it ;-) For instance, there is one student interested in APK support for ShrinkWrap - Android APK Proposal.

Do you have any specific idea what packaging you'd like to cover and why? If so, I suggest you to create a new thread in ShrinkWrap Development and we can work on details there.

I'm looking forward to hear from you soon!

Karel

[ajay.bhat]

Hi Karel,

I'd like to participate in GSOC 2014 for this issue in JBoss. I have some good knowledge of Java IO, streams and readers, having used them for 3 years, and I'm very much willing to read up on the protocols specified in the issues. Can you give me some links to read up on ISO, RAR formats which I could use as a starting point for writing up a good proposal?

Thanks.

[kpiwko]

Hi Ajay,

using Google I've found following list:

• http://jiic.berlios.de/ for ISO
• http://catacombae.org.preview.binero.se/jlrarx.html for RAR
• http://code.google.com/p/raroscope/ for RAR
• http://docs.docker.io/en/latest/reference/builder/ for Docker

I guess that you can google more implementation in Java. The only requirement is that RAR library is compatible with ASL2 license, we use in ShrinkWrap.

As for the proposal, I guess that with RAR we need the same functionality as we have for Zip - shrinkwrap/api/src/main/java/org/jboss/shrinkwrap/api/importer/ZipImporter.java at master · shrinkwrap/shrinkwrap · GitH… and shrinkwrap/api/src/main/java/org/jboss/shrinkwrap/api/exporter/ZipExporter.java at master · shrinkwrap/shrinkwrap · GitH… are the most important.

ISO might be more challenging, as apart from getting ISO format, an API to work with IsoArchive should be created. E.g ISO supports different encodings, bootable flag. I also believe that ISO support would be more appropriate for testing. ISO can even be replaced by images for Docker.

For a good proposal, you need to define tasks you want to achieve and provide a roadmap.

HTH,

Karel