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Background for this is on bug 193546. The generic Web Connector is part of the "extras" update site based on the argument that it has an overly sophisticated UI. The criteria for having features graduate to the main update site are currently listed at: http://wiki.eclipse.org/Mylyn_Contributor_Reference#Feature_Maturity Let's use this bug report to discuss whether or when this feature should be moved to be available on the standard update site.
From my comments on bug 193546: The bigger the addressable impact of the connector the more desirable it is to have it available to as many users as possible. In this respect the Generic Web Connector is orders of magnitude more desirable than other connectors. However, it is not feasible to desirability alone as the reason for including a connector in the default Eclipse downloads. The first measure has to be the maturity as currently defined by the criteria at: http://wiki.eclipse.org/Mylyn_Contributor_Reference#Feature_Maturity In order to argue that the Generic Web Repository connector be included we need either: 1) A change to the guidelines (comment on bug 193546). 2) Evidence that it matches the simplicity criteria 3) The connector to be updated so that it provides a simplified user experience. Regarding (2), I think that beyond what's mentioned in the linked wiki section a good complexity bar is that the a connector does not require the user to specify implementation details (e.g. URL or service internals) and only to specify connection and authentication parameters. The web connector currently has the user specify implementation details (e.g. see second screenshot at http://www.jroller.com/eu/entry/web_connector_is_groovy ). Regarding (3), I think that approaches such as that described on bug 195660 would be a great mechanism to move the burden of specifying the screen scraping configuration from the user to an administrator, and the current UI linked in the above blog would be a great "designer" for creating the project-specific configurations.
For the record, I don't think comment regarding (2) is accurate or even relevant. First of all user can simply choose predefined configuration from the drop down list without even going into these advanced settings. Little before 2.0 release UI was actually more consistent because relevant parts of the configuration, such as repository parameters were part of the main configuration like they supposed to be. I think it was significant regression as I already stated on other bug reports. You also well aware that UI shown on the screenshot you referred to is part of the advanced configuration, but even then it is practically the same UI as editor templates, and it also comparable or even less complex then UI of Java / Debug / Detail Formatters or Logical Structures.
Eugene: could you please summarize the changes in the Web Connector since the 2.0 release and any additional ease-of-use added? Is bug 195660 (my main suggestion for improving ease-of-use) on the map?
(In reply to comment #3) > Eugene: could you please summarize the changes in the Web Connector since the > 2.0 release and any additional ease-of-use added? bug 204020 and bug 195059 are awaiting input or action from you bug 195382 is related to synchronization and need to be investigated. I still see some odd behavior major fixes and new features: bug 189787: [web connector] Make regexp parsing of web pages more flexible bug 196549: [web connector] completion proposal for query configuration bug 195251: [web connector] Login request URL and password with & bug 196568: [web connector] rss query is broken > Is bug 195660 (my main suggestion for improving ease-of-use) on the map? As far as I know Google SoC student haven't added explicit repository export/import. However repository configuration is neatly included with query export data. Here how it look like for one of my web repositories <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <TaskRepositories OutputVersion="1"> <TaskRepository kind="web" label="ASM" url="http://forge.objectweb.org/tracker" version="unknown" encoding="UTF-8" timezone="" org.eclipse.mylyn.tasklist.repositories.proxy.usedefault="true" org.eclipse.mylyn.tasklist.repositories.anonymous="true" org.eclipse.mylyn.tasklist.repositories.proxy.hostname="" org.eclipse.mylyn.tasklist.repositories.proxy.port="" taskUrl="${serverUrl}/?group_id=${group_id}&amp;func=detail&amp;atid=${atid}&amp;aid=" taskCreationUrl="${serverUrl}/?group_id=${group_id}&amp;func=add" queryUrl="${serverUrl}/?group_id=${group_id}&amp;atid=${atid}&amp;_status=100&amp;set=custom" queryPattern="&lt;a class=&quot;tracker&quot; href=&quot;/tracker/index.php\?func=detail&amp;aid=(.+?)&amp;group_id=${group_id}&amp;atid=${atid}&quot;&gt;(.+?)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;" queryMethod="GET" loginRequestUrl="" loginFormUrl="" loginTokenPattern="" param_group_id="23" param_atid="100023" lastsynctimestamp=""/> </TaskRepositories>
No plans to do this at this time.
