[Tfug] Eclipse add-ons

[Bexley Hall]

Hi Leo,

On 6/6/2013 5:12 PM, Leo Przybylski wrote:
> What you could do is setup a proxy and configure Eclipse to use the
> proxy. Then the proxy could just dump it's request information. You
> could leave the proxy disconnected as well. This would simulate the
> same behavior as the machine being completely disconnected because it
> still is. Only you have a proxy logging all the request traffic. You
> could alternatively configure the proxy to log traffic from the
> Eclipse user agent to a special location somewhere.

Yes, this is comparable to just watching network traffic.
The problem with both approaches is they assume the client
(Eclipse) is just going to do a blind "GET", or equivalent.
I.e., if there is some interaction between the client and
the "server", all I would see is the initial request from
the client -- nothing beyond that.

E.g., if the protocol was:

client:  "Hi!"
server:  "Hello.  Who (what) are you?"
client:  "I'm Eclipse 4.2.blahblah"
server:  "OK, 4.2.blahblah... what can I do for you?"
client:  "What versions of package <fuggle> do you have?"
...

then all I would be able to capture would be "Hi!".  :<

I.e., to get beyond this, the proxy would have to chat
with the actual server so that the complete conversation
can be observed (in which case, why bother observing it
since the client will now *have* what it needs).

I was hoping for some log file that said "attempt to
GET <url> failed..."

(alternatively, an understanding of the various details
embedded in the archives themselves that would enable me to
act AS IF i was the client.  E.g., contents.jar/xml seems to
call out the provides/requires of the archive in question
but, so far, I haven't been able to get from there to a
concrete URL...)

--don