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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> |
| <table BORDER=0 CELLSPACING=5 CELLPADDING=2 WIDTH="100%" > |
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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> |
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| |
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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> |
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| </table> |
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| <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> |
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