Test & Performance Tools Platform (TPTP)
www.eclipse.org/tptp
TPTP provides an open platform supplying powerful frameworks and services that allow software developers to build unique test and performance tools, both Open Source and commercial, that can be easily integrated with the platform and with other tools. The platform supports a broad spectrum of computing systems including embedded, standalone, enterprise, and high-performance and will continue to expand support to encompass the widest possible range of systems.

"TPTP provides a rich set of test, profiling, and monitoring tools. However its true value can only be realized by being part of a core typical user use case. By integrating with the WTP project and providing a 'profile on server' action TPTP becomes an easy link to collecting and analyzing your Web application performance characteristics. By further providing the ability to function and load test based on http requests TPTP helps the developer prove the quality of the Web application. Finally by providing customized extended reporting of the rich data TPTP collects with the use of BIRT the user can get the test and performance data they want and need to best manage their own project.
- Harm Sluiman, TPTP committer, IBM

WebTools Platform (WTP)
www.eclipse.org/webtools
The WTP Project extends the Eclipse Platform with tools for developing J2EE Web applications. The WTP project includes source editors for HTML, JavaScript, CSS, JSP, SQL, XML, DTD, XSD, and WSDL; graphical editors for XSD and WSDL; J2EE project natures, builders, and models, and a J2EE navigator; a Web Service wizard and explorer, and WS-I Test Tools; and database access and query tools and models.

"WTP's 1.5 release in the Callisto train will include several new features and a number of stability and performance enhancements. Users of WTP Web Services will appreciate the upgrade to Axis 1.3 and streamlined Web Service and client wizards. XML Schema and WSDL graphical views have also been revamped to make them easier to navigate and read. WTP tackled some major infrastructure work in the Callisto release, moving to the platform's common navigator and undo stacks. The tabbed property support is also transitioning from WTP-only to the platform level in this release. Finally, the Dali and JSF projects are planning to do a technology preview around the Callisto timeframe and will provide some exciting 'first looks' at Java EE 5 tooling support that will preview support in WTP 2.0."
- Tim Wagner, WTP PMC lead, BEA

Visual Editor Project (VE)
www.eclipse.org/ve
Ever wondered if there was a way to create user interfaces visually, using the simple semantics of drag-and-drop? The Eclipse project provides VE, which is a open development platform for supplying frameworks to create GUI builders. VE has two exemplary implementations of Swing/JFC and SWT/RCP.

"The Visual Editor project (www.eclipse.org/vep/) adds the ability to visually develop SWT and Swing user interfaces in Callisto. The main focus of this release was to add initial support for creating Rich Client Platform (RCP) components with the VE. Towards that goal we've added: the ability to develop Views and Editors visually, support for the Forms UI toolkit, and the ability to work with JFace viewers. Other notable new features in this release include significantly enhanced tooling for SWT's GridLayout and support for VE on the Mac OS X platform."
- Jeff Myers, VE committer, IBM

Callisto's Challenges
There are two main challenges with Callisto. The first one and for many people the most obvious one is developing Callisto. Aligning 10 large projects for simultaneous release is very challenging. But once you actually get the release, you have to deliver it and that's a challenge on its own.

The method of choice for delivering Callisto is the Eclipse built-in update mechanism. So you only have to download the Eclipse Platform binary for your system and then you start Eclipse, use the Update Manager to visit the Callisto Update Site, and select the Callisto features you'd like to have installed in your environment. The Eclipse Update Manager will do the rest for you.

You can imagine that this will put a burden on a single update site (in terms of bandwidth use). In Eclipse 3.2, the Update Manager and the Eclipse.org infrastructure were enhanced to deliver Callisto. The goal for the Update Manager was to reduce the volume of data that's transferred and the goal for the Eclipse.org infrastructure was to create a reliable mirroring story for the Callisto Update Site.

Callisto's Advantages
Callisto brings several advantages to users and plug-in developers (adopters) of Callisto projects. Let's start with the user's perspective.

The User's Perspective
From the user's perspective Callisto radically changes the way Eclipse and the participating Eclipse projects get on the desktop. It takes away the need to read through the requirements sections and collect them manually from several download pages. You just download one Platform binary and select your desired projects from the Callisto Update Site after installing and starting the Platform binary.
Q: Which projects does WTP depend on?
A: Who cares. The Eclipse Update Manager will handle this.

Callisto also has another great advantage for Eclipse users. It creates some kind of accountability for all participating projects and their committers. Because Callisto creates a reference platform of Eclipse projects that are intended to work together. And if they don't now it's easier to report cross-project issues because you only need to reference the Callisto platform instead of collecting all dependencies.

The Developer's Perspective
From a developer and adopter's perspective, Callisto introduces stability (in terms of dependencies and investments). Before Callisto, it was up to you to select the projects you'd like to depend on. But often the result was disappointing because of some incompatible dependency conflicts. Now with Callisto the dependencies are clearly defined.

With clearly defined dependencies you get a target platform that will be valid and current for a long time. So Callisto also ensures that the investment you put in your adoptions are well spent in the long term.

Conclusion
On the whole, we hope you enjoyed this quick tour of Callisto and some of the challenges Callisto faced. We think Callisto will make it easier for end users to tailor their Eclipse experience by selecting what they want included in their Eclipse installation. Now, the only logical thing to do is give Callisto a try. See www.eclipse.org/callisto.