Migrate or replace BATS capability into ICE

[jayjaybillings]

We have a request to migrate or replace the capabilities of the Basic Artifact Tracking System (BATS) prototype that I wrote a couple of years ago into ICE. This will add the capability to connect to and publish an RDF API with Apache Jena.

The BATS repo is at https://github.com/jayjaybillings/bats . The source code in question is roughly ~500 lines and there are a number of utilities that would need to be addressed as well.

The way that I see this, we can do this in one of two ways:

1. Since that code is copyright UT-Battelle, an ORNL staff member can make the necessary changes to conform to our project license, etc. and submit it as a PR.
2. We can reimplement the capability directly in ICE. At first it would be mostly a straight port, but in time it could be an Persisted annotation available for any Data Element.

[jayjaybillings]

I heard from @marshallmcdonnell and he said that he prefers option 1 above so that he can learn about the contribution process. I have added @SmithRWORNL as an assignee to this ticket since he is working with Marshall.

@marshallmcdonnell here are the steps to contribute the code:

1. Follow all of the instructions in our contributing.md file to get started.
2. Create a fork of the ICE repository.
3. Create a fork of BATS and update the license to the EPL and change the license headers in all source and test files to the EPL header. Make sure that the copyright is still assigned to your organization.
4. Change all package names from gov.ornl.rse.bats to org.eclipse.ice.bats.
5. Copy BATS as a subdirectory into your working copy.
6. Submit your PR and we'll review it.

Any questions, just holler at me!

[marshallmcdonnell]

Perfect! Thanks @jayjaybillings!

[marshallmcdonnell]

@jayjaybillings so I do have a question.

For another project (say "project X") to use just the BATS package, how would this look in that other project X?
Specifically, in the pom.xml?

Right now, in the project X pom file, I am able to add BATS via JitPack, so just a mvn install pulls it in, no extra steps.
Yet, if we move it into ICE, I believe the same thing would actually build all of ICE (I could be wrong since I can provide the "artifactID").

Do you have any thoughts on how I add BATS as a dependency to project X after the migration to ICE?
Thanks!

[marshallmcdonnell]

Chatting with @dbluhm and @osbornjd offline, came up with a possible solution!

Looking at an example in the JitPack repository for multi-module repositories, it could be included as long as there is a top-level pom file for the ICE project with the modules listed.

This looks exactly like what is in the org.eclipse.ice.build pom file.

Moving this to the top-level seems to make a lot of sense for my use case but not sure how this will affect the project.

Thoughts?

I'll continue the migration of BATS, just going through the "contributing" guide still 😁

[marshallmcdonnell]

Just to comment as well, PR #478 is my first stab at adding BATS to ICE.

[jayjaybillings]

Good question! There are two answers:

1. Until we do a release of ICE to Maven Central, it will be as you describe. org.eclipse.ice.build is our top-level pom.
2. Once ICE is in Maven Central, then I think you'll be able to just pull it in directly as a dependency.

[marshallmcdonnell]

Okay great, sounds good!

@jayjaybillings do you have any thoughts on if we move the org.eclipse.ice.build pom.xml file to the top-level of ICE (above all the org.eclipse.ice.* sub-directories)?

If I understand correctly, org.eclipse.ice.build only hosts that pom.xml file, correct?
I think if I use the JitPack method I described above, ICE would need to have that structure (pom at the head of the repo)
There might be a workaround if that top-level pom isn't there, though. I'll look into this if we can't move it.

@dbluhm may have some insights as well, he pointed me towards the JitPack multi-module example!

[jayjaybillings]

Yes, I think that is a good idea. IIRC it used to be bigger in 2.x when it was called org.eclipse.ice.aggregator. I would greatly prefer to have it at the top level directory so that I can just checkout and build the whole thing in one go.