Roadmap for 2.1

Modularity

For a long time we've been on the brink of having an actually modular server, not just a conceptually modular server. As reflected in a lot of recent discussion on the dev list, I think we are so close we should really work hard to make this a pleasant reality. Some of the steps I see:

enhance the plugin framework

enhance the plugin framework so bits of more config files can be added, in particular artifact_aliases.properties and config_substitutions.properties. IIUC Paul has some schema changes and xml handling rewrites in the wings as well

plugable admin console framework

finish up the pluggable admin console work and actually split the admin console into appropriate bits for the plugins

rearrange the build so it is organized by plugin (component/feature)

actually assemble the servers we ship using plugins, perhaps using gshell scripts

have more server-building tools.

For instance, a "button" to push that spits out a server with just what is needed for a set of apps and nothing else.

Clustering

Security

jaspi

triplesec

administration

beyond javaee security for jetspeed and roller

There are some good things about javaee security such as the idea of using Permissions and evaluating them in a policy but there are also a lot of limitations and problems such as no support for restricting access to user generated content that didn't exist when the security was originally configured. At least roller and jetspeed have run into this problem. I think triplesec may provide a fairly generic solution and it might be interesting to see if other projects are interested in this.

Other apps

• roller
• jetspeed
• proximity etc

It would be great to get "all popular apps" available as geronimo plugins.

Management and troubleshooting

ARM

"trace on error" facility.

Have a list of info that each component can add to as the request moves through the system. If there's an error, we can show the entire path taken with all data. Otherwise we discared it.
server farm management (gshell?)

Transaction manager

implement a "do work in a new tx" interface, hook it up to openjpa. IIUC IBM has proposed an interface that lets server pieces submit work to be done in a new transaction, thus eliminating the need to deal with suspend etc yourself. There's been some discussion on the openjpa lists, and we should definitely do this. There may be more commonj work to do also, but I've more or less lost track of that project.
make sure recovery actually works

Core

Logging Reform

We've talked about this here and there, most folks agree we need to reform our logging usage... but so far its yet to happen. It is a fairly simple task IMO, but its huge, since it pretty much touches almost everything. But its something that can be easily staged and then divided up amongst the surfs (and lords) for code weeding.

IMO, we need to...

1. Decide on slf4j or commons-cli
2. Define a general logging usage policy
3. Implement said policy on existing logging usage
4. Improve, add, augment, whatever, existing logging to be more useful (for users and developers)

For #1 I'm obviously for slf4j... for a few reasons which I've outlined in previous emails. I list this as the first step, as if we do go for it, then it has some slight impact on the policy and implementation work (like its varargs support instead of requiring log.isDebugEnabled() guarding).

IMO, this is low handing fruit, which we can easily pick and which our users (and developers) can feast upon the juicy flesh of... yummy.

Better Spring application management

OSGi-aware kernel

Investigate OSGI and figure out how it is different from what we are doing, what it can do better, and what is missing from it. Figure out an integration strategy whether it be "run OSGI as an application" or "replace the kernel with OSGI"

Quote from Felix's Karl Pauls:

"It makes sense to go down the "replace the kernel with OSGi" route. Most projects start with the other approach but in the end realize that it is a lot more work without many of the
benefits "

and further along this path

"Geronimo would be perfect as a starting point because it integrates a lot of other projects (hence, might "convert" them along the way)."

and the last but not least

"I'd be willing to help. Alas, my time is limited as well but I can provide help and insides where necessary."

and as a starting point

"At Apache Felix, we have developed a maven2 plugin that might be helpful in migrating to OSGi. Maybe that can be a starting point:

http://felix.apache.org/site/maven-bundle-plugin-bnd.html

Felix itself is very small (~300k) and can be easily embedded:

http://felix.apache.org/site/launching-and-embedding-apache-felix.html

See [Discuss] What next? for more information on the topic"

Annotation-based gbean configuration injection mechanism

Figure out what to do with our "config.ser" in modules/configurations. At least get it into real xml, maybe using something like jaxb with schema/gbean.