Archi 4.5 Beta

Started by Phil Beauvoir, June 21, 2019, 15:47:08 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Phil Beauvoir

Hi folks,

Since the last version of Archi, version 4.4, I've been focussing on (amongst other things) optimising Archi for better speed, memory management and better handling of larger models. Also, as we have to move with the times, supporting Java 11 which means also that we have to build on the latest version of Eclipse (4.11).

I'm making the beta available now because I made a lot of under the hood changes, so I might have broken things. I've tested it as much as I can, and you might like to test it too.


Main changes:

Built on Eclipse 4.11
Archi is built on Eclipse. The previous version of Eclipse used for Archi was 4.7. Eclipse 4.11 includes many bug fixes and solves some issues for each OS platform. However, Eclipse 4.11 only supports 64-bit operating systems so we can no longer ship 32-bit versions of Archi.

Java 11 is bundled with each version
Archi now bundles a Java Runtime version 11. This has many security fixes and better memory management. We use AdoptOpenJDK.

Optimisations to speed up many actions (delete, rename, find folders, load models, properties window)
We've changed some of the internal code to optimise many actions. If you use large models, you should see some speed improvements.

Memory is freed when closing models
After some analysis we found that models were not being freed from memory under certain circumstances. This should now be greatly improved and you'll notice a difference when opening and closing large models.

Installing plug-ins works differently
Because Eclipse 4.11 no longer supports simply copying plug-in jar files into the "plugins" folder, we've had to utilise a different approach. You can either install official Archi plug-ins (these are packaged in a zip file) in the new "Manage Archi Plug-ins" menu item under the "Help" menu, or you can manually copy the jar files into the "dropins" folder.

Bug fixes and features
These can best be tracked by viewing the GitHub Commit Log.

https://www.archimatetool.com/beta/

Cheers,

Phil
If you value and use Archi, please consider making a donation!
Ask your ArchiMate related questions to the ArchiMate Community's Discussion Board.

Hervé

Thank you very much (again) for your hard work  ;D

Phil Beauvoir

Cheers, Hervé.

This will affect your Archi plugins, but only in that users will have to copy the jar files to the new "dropins" folder rather than the "plugins" folder. Actually this is a better way to manage things.

Phil
If you value and use Archi, please consider making a donation!
Ask your ArchiMate related questions to the ArchiMate Community's Discussion Board.

Hervé

Yes, I've seen ...

I need to study more in details this dropins folder, or maybe begin to provide zip files :-)

By the way, once you studied the possibility to implement a way to automatically install plugins from a plugin repository. It didn't work because of a bug in the Eclipse frameword. Do you know if this could be done with the new framework version ?

Phil Beauvoir

The Eclipse "P2" system of remote plug-in installation is more suited to Eclipse itself. It uses "update sites", Eclipse "Features", and manages osgi dependencies.

Far better to use the "dropins" system and a custom update mechanism.  8)

See https://github.com/archimatetool/archi/issues/429

Regarding the Archi zip format - this is simply a case of putting the the jar file(s) in a zip file and adding a marker file called "archi-plugin" which is marking that this is an Archi plug-in zip. When Archi installs it via the menu, it looks for this file then unzips the jar files, copies them to the "dropins" folder and also deletes any older versions of the plug-in.
If you value and use Archi, please consider making a donation!
Ask your ArchiMate related questions to the ArchiMate Community's Discussion Board.

Hervé


Phil Beauvoir

Beta 2 available:

https://www.archimatetool.com/beta/

(only a few changes since beta 1. See GitHub Commit Log.)

Phil
If you value and use Archi, please consider making a donation!
Ask your ArchiMate related questions to the ArchiMate Community's Discussion Board.

Phil Beauvoir

If you value and use Archi, please consider making a donation!
Ask your ArchiMate related questions to the ArchiMate Community's Discussion Board.

Phil Beauvoir

#8
Archi 4.5 Release Candidate 1 available:

https://www.archimatetool.com/beta/

I'd like to release Archi 4.5 by the end of July.

Archi developers, at that time, should use Eclipse 4.11 and Java 11. I'll update the developer wiki then to mention this.

Phil
If you value and use Archi, please consider making a donation!
Ask your ArchiMate related questions to the ArchiMate Community's Discussion Board.

Phil Beauvoir

Archi 4.5 Release Candidate 2:

https://www.archimatetool.com/beta/

The code base at GitHub is now targetted to Eclipse 4.11 and Java 11 (although Java 8 will still work fine). The developer wiki has been updated.

Phil
If you value and use Archi, please consider making a donation!
Ask your ArchiMate related questions to the ArchiMate Community's Discussion Board.

Phil Beauvoir

#10
Archi 4.5 Release Candidate 3:

https://www.archimatetool.com/beta/

This improves the management of plug-ins and removes the problem of re-installing plug-ins each time you install a new version of Archi.

Plug-ins are now installed in the user's home directory with all of the other Archi files. Plug-ins are copied to a "dropins" folder located in the following places depending on OS:

Windows: %user.home%/AppData/Roaming/Archi4/dropins
Mac: %user.home%/Library/Application Support/Archi4/dropins
Linux: %user.home%/.archi4/dropins

This location is set in the Archi.ini file, so a user can change it if they want. If this line is not present in the Archi.ini file then the "dropins" folder is located by default in the Archi installation folder. This way, all use cases are covered.

This is all managed by the new "Manage Plug-ins" dialog available from the Help menu, so users don't normally have to worry about any of this.

It will make life a lot easier. :-)

Phil
If you value and use Archi, please consider making a donation!
Ask your ArchiMate related questions to the ArchiMate Community's Discussion Board.