[xwiki-devs] [Brainstorming] Use cases for an alternative filesystem format (alternative to XAR)

Hi, This is a follow-up on the threads: * "Designing the perfect FS representation of a wiki”: http://markmail.org/message/3yghqwetmdt5woez * "XAR source projects should allow source files”: http://markmail.org/message/432o36r4klh7yv24 It’s also a continuation of the work done here: http://design.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Design/DirectoryStructureforXWikiApp… Once we get convergence on those thread (or even if we don’t), I’ll update design.xwiki.org with the results. The goal is to define the use case for an alternate filesystem to XAR. Issues with the XAR format ====================== * XML is not an easy to edit format and doesn’t allow use a specific editor to edit content * XML also requires content to be XML-encoded and thus is really not easy to make modification (there’s a risk of breaking the XML easily) Can you see more issues? Use cases for an alternative filesystem format =================================== (some UC taken from http://design.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Design/DirectoryStructureforXWikiApp…) * UC1: the structure should be (as) easy (as possible) to navigate in an IDE style view * UC2: it should be easy to add content (a new script or attachment on an existing structure). It should allow using specific editors for different content types, e.g. if a page content is in markdown, it should be editable with a MD editor, js and css should be editable with web editors, etc. * UC3: It should be possible to build a packaged version of the sources with Maven * UC4: It should be possible to import the packaged version into a running XWiki instance * UC5: It should be possible to export a portion of a running XWiki instance in this format * UC6: This format should be able to fully replace the XAR format . The new format should support at least all features supported by the XAR format (versioned, etc). Note: XE will need to be refactor a bit so that the XAR format can be swapped out by introducing extension points/APIs. The idea would be to deprecate the XAR format and introduce this new format instead, and the 2 formats should be avle to cohabit next to each other in XWiki. * UC7: When importing in a wiki and exporting again (without making any change in the wiki), it should generate an identical structure and content, with no difference. Any more? Thanks -Vincent