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|  | <td ALIGN=LEFT width="60%"><font class=indextop>eclipse test & performance tools platform project</font><br> | 
|  | <font class=indexsub>Project FAQs </font></td> | 
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|  | <p>This project proposal is in the <a href="/projects/dev_process/"> | 
|  | Proposal Phase</a> and is posted here to solicit additional project participation | 
|  | and ways the project can be leveraged from the Eclipse membership-at-large. | 
|  | You are invited to comment on and/or <a href="contributing.html">join the project</a>. | 
|  | Please send all feedback to the <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/newsportal/thread.php?group=eclipse.test-and-performance">eclipse.test-and-performance | 
|  | newsgroup</a> or the <a href="https://dev.eclipse.org/mailman/listinfo/test-and-performance-proposal"> | 
|  | test-and-performance-proposal</a> mailing list.</p> | 
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|  | <td ALIGN=LEFT VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN="2" BGCOLOR="#0080C0"><b><font color="#FFFFFF" face="Arial,Helvetica">Frequently | 
|  | Asked Questions </font></b></td> | 
|  | </tr> | 
|  |  | 
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|  | <td> | 
|  | <p><font size="-1" face="arial,helvetica,geneva">The following is the official | 
|  | Eclipse Test & Performance Tools Platform Project Announcement FAQ.</font></p> | 
|  | Last Modified: <font size="-1" face="arial,helvetica,geneva">July 23, 2004</font></td> | 
|  | </tr> | 
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|  | <br><br> | 
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|  | <tbody> | 
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|  | <td> | 
|  | <b><font face="Arial,Helvetica" color="#000000" size="+1"><a name="toc"> | 
|  | Table of contents: | 
|  | </a></font></b> | 
|  | </td> | 
|  | </tr> | 
|  | </tbody> | 
|  | </table> | 
|  |  | 
|  | <ol> | 
|  | <li><a href="#q1">What is being proposed</a>? </li> | 
|  | <li><a href="#q2">Where did the Test & Performance Tools Platform Project | 
|  | come from</a>?</li> | 
|  | <li><a href="#q3">How is the project managed</a>? </li> | 
|  | <li><a href="#q4">Does the Hyades project still exist as a separate project | 
|  | within the Test & Performance Tools Platform Project</a>? </li> | 
|  | <li><a href="#q5">What is the overall vision of the Test and Performance Tools | 
|  | Platform Project and what are its benefits</a>? </li> | 
|  | <li><a href="#q6">Why is this type of activity being pursued in an Open Source | 
|  | project</a>? </li> | 
|  | <li><a href="#q7">Which organizations are offering to be involved in the Test | 
|  | & Performance Tools Platform Project</a>? </li> | 
|  | <li><a href="#q8">Is this project concerned with test and performance of Eclipse | 
|  | itself, of applications built with Eclipse, or of systems in general</a>? | 
|  | </li> | 
|  | <li><a href="#q9">Does this mean that the project tests, monitors, traces systems | 
|  | on which the Eclipse Workbench is not installed</a>? </li> | 
|  | <li><a href="#q10">Does the project only build infrastructure, or does it provide | 
|  | tools</a>? </li> | 
|  | <li><a href="#q11">What platforms and environments does the Test & Performance | 
|  | Tools Platform support</a> ? </li> | 
|  | <li><a href="#q12">How did the Test & Performance Tools Platform Project | 
|  | contribute to the recent Eclipse Platform 3.0 release</a>? </li> | 
|  | <li><a href="#q13">What priorities drive the content and scheduling of Test | 
|  | & Performance Tools Platform Project releases</a>? </li> | 
|  | <li><a href="#q14">Can I use the Test & Performance Tools Platform Project | 
|  | distributions in my commercial activities</a>? </li> | 
|  | <li><a href="#q15">Please tell me more about the projects within the Test & | 
|  | Performance Tools Platform Top-Level Project</a>? </li> | 
|  | <li><a href="#q16">You've used the term Data Models. I'm not familiar with that | 
|  | term in this context</a>.</li> | 
|  | <li><a href="#q17">Are these data models in any way standard</a>? </li> | 
|  | <li><a href="#q18">Where can I learn more about the Test & Performance Tools | 
|  | Platform Project (white papers, etc.)</a>?</li> | 
|  | </ol> | 
|  | <table border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=2 width="100%" bgcolor="#CCCCCC"> | 
|  | <tr> | 
|  | <td width="90%"> <a name="about"><b><font color="#000000" size="+1"> Overview: | 
|  | </font></b></a> </td> | 
|  | <td align="right"> <a href="#toc"> <img src="../../eclipse/faq/up_nav.gif" width="16" height="16" alt="Goto Top" border="0" align="absmiddle">top | 
|  | </a> </td> | 
|  | </tr> | 
|  | </table> | 
|  | <ol> | 
|  | <a name="q1"></a><li><b>What is being proposed? </b> | 
|  | <p>The Eclipse Foundation is proposing a new Top-Level Project to develop | 
|  | a Test and Performance Tools Platform: an open development platform supplying | 
|  | frameworks and services for test and performance tools that are used throughout | 
|  | the software lifecycle (e.g., testing, tracing/profiling, tuning, logging, | 
|  | monitoring, analysis, autonomics, administration, etc.) | 
|  | <p>Intel Corporation has also offered to lead the project and is making a | 
|  | major resource contribution to the Eclipse Foundation and to the development | 
|  | of software within the project<br> | 
|  | </p> | 
|  | </li> | 
|  | <p></p> | 
|  | <hr size="1"> | 
|  | <a name="q2"></a><li><b>Where did the Test & Performance Tools Platform Project come from? | 
|  | </b> | 
|  | <p>The Test & Performance Tools Platform Project is based on and extends | 
|  | the Eclipse community's Hyades Project that was created in late 2002. <br> | 
|  | </li> | 
|  | <p></p> | 
|  | <hr size="1"> | 
|  | <a name="q3"></a><li><b>How is the project managed? </b> | 
|  | <p>The Test & Performance Tools Platform Project is managed by a Project | 
|  | Management Committee (PMC). The work of the Top Level Project is organized | 
|  | into Projects, each with its own Project Lead who is responsible for its | 
|  | success. <br> | 
|  | </li> | 
|  | <p></p> | 
|  | <hr size="1"> | 
|  | <a name="q4"></a><li><b>Does the Hyades project still exist as a separate project within the | 
|  | Test & Performance Tools Platform Project? </b> | 
|  | <p>The scope of the original Hyades project has been partitioned into four | 
|  | new projects: The Hyades Core Platform, provides core elements and interoperability, | 
|  | and three others which leverage that infrastructure and relate to specific | 
|  | types of activity: Hyades Testing, Hyades Tracing and Profiling, and Hyades | 
|  | Monitoring. Additional subprojects may be added, and new features and requirements | 
|  | are being added to each of the four projects. Test & Performance was | 
|  | chosen as a descriptive name for the top-level project, and its scope leaves | 
|  | open the possibility of additional projects being created which do not directly | 
|  | leverage the Hyades Core Platform.<br> | 
|  | </li> | 
|  | <p></p> | 
|  | <hr size="1"> | 
|  | <a name="q5"></a><li><b>What is the overall vision of the Test and Performance Tools Platform | 
|  | Project and what are its benefits? </b> | 
|  | <p>The project provides an open development platform supplying frameworks | 
|  | and services for test and performance tools that are used throughout the | 
|  | software lifecycle (e.g., testing, tracing/profiling, tuning, logging, monitoring, | 
|  | analysis, autonomics, administration, etc.) Included in this platform are | 
|  | data collection services and user interfaces for tracing, test case execution, | 
|  | logging and statistical behavior in local or remote execution environments. | 
|  | <p>In most cases such tools, even if they are sold by the same company, were | 
|  | developed independently. This means that the interoperability is retro-fitted, | 
|  | and tends not to operate at a particularly fine-grained level either for | 
|  | user interface or for the data assets the tools work with (tests, traces | 
|  | etc.). By providing a common infrastructure upon which tools can be built, | 
|  | where possible leveraging existing standards, the Test and Performance Project | 
|  | can drive interoperability into existing tooling, and allow new tooling | 
|  | to interoperate from inception, significantly enhancing the experience of | 
|  | users of the tools. In addition, by allowing flexible combinations of asset | 
|  | type and user interface, the project may offer the possibility of vendors | 
|  | (or even the project itself) providing brand new types of tools function.</p> | 
|  | <p>The integration with the Eclipse IDE allows test and performance to be | 
|  | driven early in the software lifecycle, enhancing the quality of software | 
|  | being developed inside Eclipse, and as Eclipse expands into Rich Clients | 
|  | and additional new projects, the Test & Performance project will ensure | 
|  | these applications can easily be subjected to effective testing and performance | 
|  | analysis.<br> | 
|  | </p> | 
|  | </li> | 
|  | <p></p> | 
|  | <hr size="1"> | 
|  | <a name="q6"></a><li><b>Why is this type of activity being pursued in an Open Source project? | 
|  | </b> | 
|  | <p>In an open source model, the cost of building the common infrastructure | 
|  | is shared amongst the participants in the project, and the diversity of | 
|  | intellectual inputs amongst Open Source Committers in open collaboration | 
|  | with their peers ensures that it is naturally based on Open Standards and | 
|  | can be best of breed. The focus on a shared infrastructure means the incremental | 
|  | cost of adding new features or supporting new platforms and environments | 
|  | is small, so the project itself can be nimble, and vendors leveraging the | 
|  | framework can accelerate the rate at which they add value to their own tools, | 
|  | thereby moving the overall Eclipse Ecosystem forward.<br> | 
|  | </li> | 
|  | <p></p> | 
|  | <hr size="1"> | 
|  | <a name="q7"></a><li><b>Which organizations are offering to be involved in the Test & Performance | 
|  | Tools Platform Project? </b> | 
|  | <p>The following organizations are currently committed to participating in | 
|  | the development of the project:<br> | 
|  | </p> | 
|  | </li> | 
|  | <ul> | 
|  | <li> Intel | 
|  | <li> IBM | 
|  | <li> Scapa Technologies | 
|  | <li> FOKUS | 
|  | <li> SAP | 
|  | <li> Compuware | 
|  | </ul> | 
|  | <p></p> | 
|  | <hr size="1"> | 
|  | <a name="q8"></a><li><b>Is this project concerned with test and performance of Eclipse itself, | 
|  | of applications built with Eclipse, or of systems in general? </b> | 
|  | <p>The Test and Performance Tools Platform is concerned with the performance | 
|  | of systems in general, although some special support is provided for systems | 
|  | built in Eclipse and for the Eclipse workbench itself. For example, the | 
|  | tests used to validate the Hyades infrastructure and tooling are stored | 
|  | in the Eclipse.org CVS repository in ways that can be managed and executed | 
|  | by tools that Hyades itself supplies. At this stage, however, the definition | 
|  | and testing of Eclipse builds, and certification of plug-ins against those | 
|  | builds, is not being addressed by the project.<br> | 
|  | </li> | 
|  | <p></p> | 
|  | <hr size="1"> | 
|  | <a name="q9"></a><li><b>Does this mean that the project tests, monitors, traces systems on which | 
|  | the Eclipse Workbench is not installed? </b> | 
|  | <p>Yes. The project leverages core Eclipse subsystems such as SWT for user | 
|  | interfaces and EMF for data persistence, but there are elements of the Hyades | 
|  | infrastructure which operate in target environments which can be remote | 
|  | to the workbench, some of which are written in native code, rather than | 
|  | Java. User interfaces can be built as workbench clients, rich clients, and | 
|  | in some cases the infrastructure can operate without a user interface.<br> | 
|  | </li> | 
|  | <p></p> | 
|  | <hr size="1"> | 
|  | <a name="q10"></a><li><b>Does the project only build infrastructure, or does it provide tools? | 
|  | </b> | 
|  | <p>As is true in general for Eclipse, the project builds both infrastructure | 
|  | and Exemplary Exensible Tools. The open source distribution contains tools | 
|  | that will cover much of the basic activities of tracing, profiling, monitoring | 
|  | and testing, although this will probably primarily apply to small-scale | 
|  | systems, open source systems, and development environments rather than production | 
|  | systems. Individual vendors (both contributing Eclipse members, non-contributing | 
|  | members and non-members) may provide additional functionality through interfacing | 
|  | to the infrastructure, extending sample tools etc. They will also tend to | 
|  | provide support for the combined offering under commercial licensing arrangements.<br> | 
|  | </li> | 
|  | <p></p> | 
|  | <hr size="1"> | 
|  | <a name="q11"></a><li><b>What platforms and environments does the Test & Performance Tools | 
|  | Platform<br> | 
|  | support ? </b> | 
|  | <p>The user interface components of the Hyades Infrastructure can run on any | 
|  | Eclipse-supported platform. The various test execution, monitoring and tracing | 
|  | components typically run on a broad range of infrastructure and interface | 
|  | with a broad range of systems. One notable deficiency at present is that | 
|  | the various trace facilities are currently Java-specific, although the project | 
|  | has a goal to extend additional language support in due course. For the | 
|  | other agents there is a reasonable coverage implemented or planned for popular | 
|  | operating systems, application servers, web servers etc, with a particular | 
|  | focus on providing support for other open source products.<br> | 
|  | </li> | 
|  | <p></p> | 
|  | <hr size="1"> | 
|  | <a name="q12"></a><li><b>How did the Test & Performance Tools Platform Project contribute | 
|  | to the recent Eclipse Platform 3.0 release?? </b> | 
|  | <p>The key Test and Performance Tools Platform capabilities for the Eclipse | 
|  | release 3.0 we delivered as part of the Hyades 3.0 release and are:<br> | 
|  | </li> | 
|  | <ul> | 
|  | <li> Eclipse Modeling Framework based implementations of data models for trace, | 
|  | log, statistical data, test execution history and tests (including an early | 
|  | implementation of the OMG U2TP Test Profile standard) | 
|  | <li> Extensive Java performance profiling support for local and distributed | 
|  | applications | 
|  | <li> Sample test execution engines for JUnit, HTTP URL, and manual testing | 
|  | environments | 
|  | <li> Statistical performance data collection agents for Microsoft environments | 
|  | <li> Apache log collection agents | 
|  | <li> Java trace agents and Java probe insertion kits | 
|  | <li> An integrated extensible framework of generic interoperable data model | 
|  | editors and viewers | 
|  | </ul> | 
|  | <p></p> | 
|  | <hr size="1"> | 
|  | <a name="q13"></a><li><b>What priorities drive the content and scheduling of Test & Performance | 
|  | Tools Platform Project releases? </b> | 
|  | <p>The Test and Performance Tools Platform Project Requirements, Architecture, | 
|  | and Planning Groups guides our project. Each of these groups are aligned | 
|  | with their respective Eclipse Foundation Committees. | 
|  | <p>Requirements are gathered from Eclipse member companies, research organizations, | 
|  | independent projects and projects hosted by the Eclipse Foundation. Feedback | 
|  | from these groups and investment in our meritocracy help prioritize implementation | 
|  | of the new technology in the Test and Performance Tools Platform as we take | 
|  | a generic view of how the frameworks could be reused. Ultimately, however, | 
|  | contributing organizations and individuals need to make long-term commitments | 
|  | to developing, documenting, testing and enhancing elements of the infrastructure, | 
|  | and new contributors are always welcome.<br> | 
|  | </p> | 
|  | <p> | 
|  | </li> | 
|  | <p></p> | 
|  | <hr size="1"> | 
|  | <a name="q14"></a><li><b>Can I use the Test & Performance Tools Platform Project distributions | 
|  | in my commercial activities? </b> | 
|  | <p>The projects that are hosted by Eclipse make all distributions available | 
|  | under licenses that are certified by the <a href="http://www.opensource.org/" target="_blank">Open | 
|  | Software Initiative</a>. Test and Performance Tools Platform Project distributions | 
|  | are made available under the <a href="http://www.opensource.org/licenses/eclipse-1.0.php">Eclipse | 
|  | Public License</a>. It makes the Test and Performance Tools Platform available | 
|  | for commercial re-distribution without royalty or the obligation to donate | 
|  | software back to Eclipse. See the license for more detail.<br> | 
|  |  | 
|  | </li> | 
|  | <p></p> | 
|  | <hr size="1"> | 
|  | <a name="q15"></a><li><b>Please tell me more about the projects within the Test & Performance | 
|  | Tools Platform Top-Level Project? </b> | 
|  | <p>The Hyades Core Platform project covers the common infrastructure in the | 
|  | areas of user interface; EMF based data models, data collection and communications | 
|  | control, as well as remote execution environments. In addition, the platform | 
|  | provides the extension points for leveraging or extending the common infrastructure | 
|  | in solution specific tooling or runtime. This includes Eclipse workbench | 
|  | plugins as well as runtime plugins on a target and optionally remote system. | 
|  | <p>The Hyades Testing project provides specializations of the platform for | 
|  | testing (e.g. test editors, trace/test conversion support), and exemplary | 
|  | extensible tools for specific testing environments. Initially this includes | 
|  | 3 test environments: JUnit, manual and URL testing. These specializations | 
|  | provide optimized editing and reporting experiences for these use cases.</p> | 
|  | <p>The Hyades Tracing and Profiling project extends the platform with specific | 
|  | data collection for Java and distributed applications that populate the | 
|  | common trace model, additional language and protocol support is anticipated. | 
|  | There are also viewers and analysis services that draw data from the common | 
|  | trace model. Capabilities are provided to collect and analyze both heap | 
|  | and stack information as well as generic toolkits for instrumenting running | 
|  | applications.</p> | 
|  | <p>The Hyades Monitoring project collects, analyzes, aggregates and visualizes | 
|  | data that can be captured in the log and statistical models. The typical | 
|  | examples are the collection of system or application resources such as CPU | 
|  | or memory utilization and support for the viewing ,aggregation and analysis | 
|  | of that data. Logs can also be transformed into the common format and model | 
|  | allowing for symptom and pattern analysis. The correlation of the data in | 
|  | these models is of particular interest when it is associated with other | 
|  | model instances of statistical or log data as well as traces and tests.<br> | 
|  | </p> | 
|  | <p> | 
|  | </li> | 
|  | <p></p> | 
|  | <hr size="1"> | 
|  | <a name="q16"></a><li><b>You've used the term Data Models. I'm not familiar with that term in | 
|  | this context? </b> | 
|  | <p>The Data Models are abstract descriptions in UML of the types of assets | 
|  | (tests, traces, logs etc.) that the project deals with, and they are provided | 
|  | with a concrete implementation through the Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF). | 
|  | This means that tools inside the Eclipse Workbench can manipulate objects | 
|  | which correspond to those abstract descriptions, which are managed and persisted | 
|  | inside the eclipse asset model and can be stored in projects, subjected | 
|  | to version control, etc. When they actually hit a filesystem they are in | 
|  | an open XMI format, but individual tools vendors don't have to go through | 
|  | the effort of manually constructing code to map that XMI into and out of | 
|  | an object format they can usefully manipulate, they merely speak to the | 
|  | EMF-generated API. Furthermore if two tools both speak to that API they | 
|  | can interoperate through shared use of the stored assets inside the asset | 
|  | management model provided by Eclipse.<br> | 
|  | </li> | 
|  | <p></p> | 
|  | <hr size="1"> | 
|  | <a name="q17"></a><li><b>Are these data models in any way standard? </b> | 
|  | <p>The Test data model is an implementation of the UML 2 Test Profile (U2TP) | 
|  | defined by the Object Management Group. The Log Model is derived directly | 
|  | from a standard currently proposed at OASIS known as Common Base Event. | 
|  | The Trace Model is ad-hoc but maps quite closely to the data formats of | 
|  | JVMPI and JVMTI. The statistical model is also ad-hoc, but maps well onto | 
|  | the formats used by JMX and the Microsoft PerfMon counters.<br> | 
|  | </li> | 
|  | <p></p> | 
|  | <hr size="1"> | 
|  | <a name="q18"></a><li><b>Where can I learn more about the Test & Performance Tools Platform | 
|  | Project (white papers, etc.)? </b> | 
|  | <p>The Test and Performance Top-Level Project Proposal and associated documents | 
|  | are at <a href="/proposals/eclipse-tptp/index.html" target="_top">/proposals/eclipse-tptp/index.html</a> | 
|  | <br> | 
|  | The Hyades Project Website is at /Hyades | 
|  | until it merges into the proposed new structure.<br> | 
|  | <br> | 
|  | </li> | 
|  | <p></p> | 
|  | <hr size="1"> | 
|  | </ol> | 
|  | <p> </p> | 
|  | <p> </p> | 
|  | <p> </p> | 
|  | </body> | 
|  | </html> |