2022-09-23-extract-metamodel-and-autodoc

Automated Documentation Tooling

Decision

The tooling code for automatic documentation generation ("autodoc", cf. this decision record) as well as the model code (i.e. the runtime metamodel) will be moved out into a new repository.

Rationale

1. autodoc This feature will be made available through a Gradle plugin, which needs to be available at build time of the EDC code. Gradle plugins are published using the Gradle Plugin Portal. Therefor the plugin needs to be built and published before building/publishing EDC.

2. runtime-metamodel The autodoc feature has compile-time dependencies onto some metamodel annotations, such as @Inject, @Setting , @Extension etc., which are also referenced by EDC. Thus, to break a cyclic dependency, the runtime-metamodel is moved out into the plugin repo as well.

Approach

• Both these aforementioned modules will be moved out into a new repository.
• the runtime-metamodel is built and published to MavenCentral at the following: coordinates org.eclipse.dataspaceconnector:runtime-metamodel:<VERSION>
• the autodoc plugin has its own release cycle and versioning scheme, it will be published with the ID autodoc
• EDC will henceforth reference the runtime-metamodel artifact as compile-time dependency

Caveats

• there is currently a pending discussion regarding rebranding of EDC, group-ids and the release process etc. Until that discussion is finalized, the runtime-metamodel will temporarily be available as version 0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.
• The Gradle plugin does not support SNAPSHOT versions, it will be made available as version 0.0.1. Every version update will follow the SemVer paradigm.