Integrating your repository's support with the platform starts with good solid design. The goal is to integrate the workflow that your repository users know with the concepts defined in the workbench. Because there are many ways to extend workbench UI and functionality, you have a lot of flexibility in how you achieve integration. So where to start?
Building a team provider is not just a matter of learning Team API. (Subsequent sections will focus on the specific support introduced by the team plug-in.) It's a matter of understanding workbench integration. So let's start with the big picture. We'll be using the CVS client as a case study for integrating a team provider with the platform. Let's look at some of the functionality the CVS provider supplies and what workbench and team facilities you can use to achieve similar levels of integration.
The CVS client integrates seamlessly with the existing workbench resource perspective. It allows users to configure a project for CVS, adds functionality to a resource's menu, decorates resources with team-specific information, provides customized views that show team-specific information, adds team-oriented tasks to the task list... The list goes on and on. How can your provider achieve similar integration? Here are some basic steps to start with and links for information (both team-specific and workbench-oriented) on these topics.
| Define a RepositoryProvider that represents your implementation. | |
| Provide a configuration wizard so that users can associate your provider with their projects. | |
| Add your actions to the Team menu. |
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| Add provider-specific properties to the properties page for a resource. |
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| Implement specialized decorators to show team-related attributes |
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| Reduce clutter by filtering out any resources that are used in implementing team support. |
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| Intervene in the saving of resources so you can check permissions before a user changes a file. |
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| Intervene before a user edits a file to see if it's allowed. |
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| Track changes to resources in the workspace so you can allow associated changes in the repository. |
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| Ensure that the proper resource locks are obtained for resource operations that invoke the move/delete hook or fileModificatonValidator. |
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| Enable the use of linked resources. |
| Provide an easy way to export a description of your projects. |
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| Reduce clutter in the repository by ignoring files that can be regenerated. |
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| Add provider-specific preferences to the preferences page. |
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| Implement custom views to show detailed information about repositories or their resources. |
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| Add your views or actions to existing workbench perspectives if appropriate. |
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| Implement a repository-specific perspective to streamline repository administration or browsing. |
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