NetBeans Architecture Answers for Error Stripe module

General Information

Question (arch-what): What is this project good for?
Answer:

The Error Stripe shows an overview of important information of an edited source code. It shows this information for the whole source code (regardless of its size).

Question (arch-overall): Describe the overall architecture.
Answer: The Error Stripe gathers the information to show from three sources:
• (A subset of) editor annotations. See TextAPI - OpenIDE Text API for more details.
• Up-to-date status providers. This is the ErrorStripeSPI - public SPI provided by the Error Stripe. The Up-to-date status provides affects the "global" status view in the Error Stripe.
• ErrorStripePrivateSPI - Private mark provider SPI.
Question (arch-usecases): Describe the main use cases of the new API. Who will use it under what circumstances? What kind of code would typically need to be written to use the module?
Answer:

Augment Annotations to be shown in the Error Stripe

Use the TextAPI - OpenIDE Text API.

Provide Up-to-date Status for the Error Stripe

A module in the IDE has information whether data shown in the Error Stripe is up-to-date or not. The Error Stripe may change the appearance according to this knowledge.

Implement the UpToDateStatusProvider that provides up-to-date status. Be sure that it fires PropertyChangeEvent when this status is changed.

Implement the UpToDateStatusProviderCreator that creates an instance of your UpToDateStatusProvider for a given JTextComponent and install it as described here.

Question (arch-time): What are the time estimates of the work?
Answer:

Pre-API review work is mostly done. After integration, only maintanance work is awaited, for 20% of one developer's time.

Question (arch-quality): How will the quality of your code be tested and how are future regressions going to be prevented?
Answer:

The non-visual parts of the Error Stripe will be covered by the automatic unit tests. The visual parts of the Error Stripe are going to be covered by a manual test specification.

Project and platform dependencies

Question (dep-nb): What other NetBeans projects and modules does this one depend on?
Answer:

The Error Stripe module depends on the Editor - editor API. It uses this dependency to add the overview component to the editor window, to use various editor utilities and to gather the information about the Annotations.

Question (dep-non-nb): What other projects outside NetBeans does this one depend on?
Answer:

This module does not depend on any non-NetBeans projects (except the JRE).

Question (dep-platform): On which platforms does your module run? Does it run in the same way on each?
Answer:

This module runs on any platform that provides the required JRE.

Question (dep-jre): Which version of JRE do you need (1.2, 1.3, 1.4, etc.)?
Answer:

JRE1.4

Question (dep-jrejdk): Do you require the JDK or is the JRE enough?
Answer:

JRE is enough.

Deployment

Question (deploy-jar): Do you deploy just module JAR file(s) or other files as well?
Answer:

The Error Stripe requires only standard NetBeans module files.

Question (deploy-nbm): Can you deploy an NBM via the Update Center?
Answer:

The NBM can be deployed via the Update Center.

Question (deploy-shared): Do you need to be installed in the shared location only, or in the user directory only, or can your module be installed anywhere?
Answer:

This module does not depend on installation directory.

Question (deploy-packages): Are packages of your module made inaccessible by not declaring them public?
Answer:

The Error Stripe module provides a public package org.netbeans.spi.editor.errorstripe which provides the ErrorStripeSPI - Error Stripe SPI.

Question (deploy-dependencies): What do other modules need to do to declare a dependency on this one?
Answer: OpenIDE-Module-Module-Dependecies: org.netbeans.modules.editor.errorstripe.api/1 >${OpenIDE-Module-Specification-Version}

Compatibility with environment

Question (compat-i18n): Is your module correctly internationalized?
Answer:

This module should be correctly internationalized.

Question (compat-standards): Does the module implement or define any standards? Is the implementation exact or does it deviate somehow?
Answer:

This module does neither define nor implement any standard.

Question (compat-version): Can your module coexist with earlier and future versions of itself? Can you correctly read all old settings? Will future versions be able to read your current settings? Can you read or politely ignore settings stored by a future version?
Answer:

The module does not have any settings. The module was distributed through the autoupdate and manual uninstallation may be necessary for upgrade.

Access to resources

Question (resources-file): Does your module use java.io.File directly?
Answer:

No.

Question (resources-layer): Does your module provide own layer? Does it create any files or folders in it? What it is trying to communicate by that and with which components?
Answer: The module uses layers for two purposes:
• To register the sidebar component throught the Editor - Editor API.
• To register providers of the ErrorStripePrivateSPI - private mark provider SPI.
Question (resources-read): Does your module read any resources from layers? For what purpose?
Answer:

The Error Stripe reads providers of the ErrorStripePrivateSPI - private mark provider SPI from the layer.

Question (resources-mask): Does your module mask/hide/override any resources provided by other modules in their layers?
Answer:

No.

Lookup of components

Question (lookup-lookup): Does your module use org.openide.util.Lookup or any similar technology to find any components to communicate with? Which ones?
Answer:

The module does not use the global lookup. The module uses the lookup internally to access UpToDateStatusProviderCreators.

Question (lookup-register): Do you register anything into lookup for other code to find?
Answer:

Internally, the FolderLookup is used to register providers of the ErrorStripePrivateSPI - private mark provider SPI.

Question (lookup-remove): Do you remove entries of other modules from lookup?
Answer:

This module does not mask any Lookup entries.

Execution Environment

Question (exec-property): Is execution of your code influenced by any environment or Java system (System.getProperty) property?
Answer:

org.netbeans.modules.editor.errorstripe.AnnotationView - This property sets the logging level. See org.openide.ErrorManager.getInstance for more details.

Question (exec-component): Is execution of your code influenced by any (string) property of any of your components?
Answer:

No.

Question (exec-ant-tasks): Do you define or register any ant tasks that other can use?
Answer:

This module does not define any ant tasks.

Question (exec-classloader): Does your code create its own class loader(s)?
Answer:

No.

Question (exec-reflection): Does your code use Java Reflection to execute other code?
Answer:

No.

Question (exec-privateaccess): Are you aware of any other parts of the system calling some of your methods by reflection?
Answer:

No.

Question (exec-process): Do you execute an external process from your module? How do you ensure that the result is the same on different platforms? Do you parse output? Do you depend on result code?
Answer:

No.

Question (exec-introspection): Does your module use any kind of runtime type information (instanceof, work with java.lang.Class, etc.)?
Answer:

instanceof is used to detect BaseDocument in the JTextPane.

Question (exec-threading): What threading models, if any, does your module adhere to?
Answer:

The Error Stripe conforms to Swing threading for interaction with Swing. It accepts changes of annotations from any thread.

Question (security-policy): Does your functionality require modifications to the standard policy file?
Answer:

The module uses org.netbeans.modules.editor.errorstripe and org.netbeans.spi.editor.errorstripe and does not need any special priviledges.

Question (security-grant): Does your code grant additional rights to some other code?
Answer:

No.

Format of files and protocols

Question (format-types): Which protocols and file formats (if any) does your module read or write on disk, or transmit or receive over the network? Do you generate an ant build script? Can it be edited and modified?
Answer:

No files are read or written.

Question (format-dnd): Which protocols (if any) does your code understand during Drag & Drop?
Answer:

The error stripe does not use Drag & Drop.

Question (format-clipboard): Which data flavors (if any) does your code read from or insert to the clipboard (by access to clipboard on means calling methods on java.awt.datatransfer.Transferable?
Answer:

This module does not work with clipboard.

Performance and Scalability

Question (perf-startup): Does your module run any code on startup?
Answer:

No.

Question (perf-exit): Does your module run any code on exit?
Answer:

No.

Question (perf-scale): Which external criteria influence the performance of your program (size of file in editor, number of files in menu, in source directory, etc.) and how well your code scales?
Answer:

The performance of the Error Stripe module should depend mostly only on the number of showed annotations/marks. There is also an implied dependency on the number of lines in the document through variable utility methods.

Question (perf-limit): Are there any hard-coded or practical limits in the number or size of elements your code can handle?
Answer:

There are not hardcoded limits. But, the number of Marks shown in the Error Stripe should be held as low as possible (while still being usefull), because the user would get confused by too many shown Marks. Also the performance of the redrawing of the Error Stripe degrades rapidly when there are many marks (~1000).

Question (perf-mem): How much memory does your component consume? Estimate with a relation to the number of windows, etc.
Answer:

There is one component per opened JTextComponent. If no providers are registered through the ErrorStripePrivateSPI - private mark provider SPI, the memory consumption of each component should be constant.

Question (perf-wakeup): Does any piece of your code wake up periodically and do something even when the system is otherwise idle (no user interaction)?
Answer:

No.

Question (perf-progress): Does your module execute any long-running tasks?
Answer:

No.

Question (perf-huge_dialogs): Does your module contain any dialogs or wizards with a large number of GUI controls such as combo boxes, lists, trees, or text areas?
Answer:

No.

Question (perf-menus): Does your module use dynamically updated context menus, or context-sensitive actions with complicated and slow enablement logic?
Answer:

This module does not use any context menus.

Question (perf-spi): How the performance of the plugged in code will be enforced?
Answer:

Currently, there is no way to enforce the performance of the plugged in code.