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Thursday May 10, 2007

JPack - install your software easily !

I would like to announce a new project called JPack, which will provide a GUI application for managing different types of packages for Solaris Operating System.

The first release is already available on the JPack project site

Current version features include:

  • Get packaging information from installed Solaris packages, folders including Solaris packages, spec-files and packages from Blastwave.org
  • Build packages using the JDS Common Build Environment
  • Search for packages by name, and description
  • Search for files (installed or packages within folders)

    • If you find this project interesting, please let me know what do you think about this prototype, what is good and what is not.

    If you are interested in contributing, there is a list of "Getting involved" tasks on the JPack project site

    To quickly try it out:
    1. Please look at the requirements:
    Mandatory
    * JRE >= 1.6
    Optional
    * JDS Common Build Environment
    * pkg-get from Blastwave.org

    2. Download the file:
    JPack.jar

    3.Run the project from the command line, using:

    java -jar JPack.jar

    -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Some of the screen shots from the JPack (click on the image to get better resolution):

    General view:

    Blastwave.org packages and search options:

    Searching results:

    Output from building spec-files using the JDS Common Build Environment

    In this place I would like to thanks:
    Calum Benson
    John Rice
    Ghee Teo
    Alberto Ruiz
    Steven Xusheng Hou

    --
    all the best
    Michal Pryc

    Posted at 01:14PM May 10, 2007 by migi in Sun  |  Comments[10]

    Comments:

    i'll just assume your project will be endorced by at least the desktop community right?

    Posted by nacho on May 10, 2007 at 01:33 PM UTC #

    As for now it is a prototype under Java Desktop System task, to see if the people will like it (use it, contribute).

    Posted by Michal Pryc on May 10, 2007 at 01:40 PM UTC #

    Michal, good work! Let's make OpenSolaris have a sane packaging tool set :)

    Posted by Alberto Ruiz on May 10, 2007 at 01:51 PM UTC #

    Any reason you didn't go with C and the gnome libs to better tie into JDS? It seems to me that java is a strange choice for a gnome desktop tool.

    Posted by Mark on May 10, 2007 at 03:00 PM UTC #

    Mark,
    Writing such app in C would take much, much longer time than in Java. There are other programming languages, but I think that java fits in this project and is fair enough.

    Posted by Michal Pryc on May 10, 2007 at 03:15 PM UTC #

    Congrats Michal - looking forward to using it!

    Posted by John Rice on May 11, 2007 at 01:44 AM UTC #

    Was java with the gtk-bindings considered? That way you could have the best of both worlds - a gui that actually integrates well with the desktop and an easy to use programming language.

    Posted by Mark on May 11, 2007 at 09:56 AM UTC #

    The java-gnome bindings 2.x are even integrated in the newer builds (48=<)
    of Solaris Nevada, but there was a big change of java-gnome bindings (http://java-gnome.sourceforge.net/) and as for now this was not a good choice for me.
    You are right that application written in language that supports GTK+ would look better on the JDS, but this is not a purpose of this project.
    I am really open for any kind of contribution to the project, so if you think that the project would look much better, you are welcome to help changing the GUI for the java-gnome one.

    Posted by Michal Pryc on May 11, 2007 at 10:44 AM UTC #

    Ok, well I'm glad that java-gnome was considered. I may take a look at the source and see what sort of effort would be required to port it to java-gnome... And just in case its not clear from my comments - I DO think that jpack is a great idea!

    Posted by Mark on May 11, 2007 at 11:56 AM UTC #

    Have you looked at prodreg(1m) and how Jpack can re-use/replace some of what it does?

    Posted by Matt Williamson on May 11, 2007 at 06:33 PM UTC #

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