Impala Roadmap

The following gives an outline of some of the features which are envisaged, post Impala 1.0.

Documentation and Samples

• Whistle and bells samples. Impala really shines when dealing with large applications with complex configuration requirements. It would be great to have a more advanced sample application which demonstrates it's capabilities.
• More documentation.

Features

• Web administration tool for visualising and administering modules at runtime.
• Module plugins. Provide a packaging structure which will allow for chunks of reusable functionality to be packaged and deployed within a module, potentially using custom module type.

Integration

• Scala support, with built in support in Impala build for compiling Scala classes.
• Groovy support, with a simple mechanism for picking up Groovy scripts and exposing these as part of module functionality.
• Integration with Grails. Either with Impala embedded within Grails, Grails embedded within Impala, or both.

IDE

• IDE integration (IntelliJ, Netbeans). Currently, Eclipse is explicitly supported, for example, in the documentation, samples and scaffolding. It would be good to provide support for IntelliJ, Netbeans and potentially JDeveloper.
• Eclipse plugin for interactive test runner.
• Eclipse WST platform support.

Build

• Better Maven build support, allowing Maven users to build Impala applications using Maven, and to structure projects according to Maven document structure conventions.
• Maven archetypes, for creating new modules.

JMX

• Extensions to JMX administration capability. Currently, JMX can be used for certain administration functions. The idea would be to extend this capability, and also improve on the range and sophistication of JMX deployment options
• Further extensions to the JMX support.

Deployment

• New deployment options, for example via Amazon's EC2 service.

Testing

• JUnit 4.0 support. Specifically, the interactive test runner should be usable with JUnit 4.0-based tests.

Web

• Further web framework integration. Target additional web frameworks not covered in 1.0 release.

OSGi

• Better OSGi support, including support for web applications, easier OSGi integration testing, and better out the box OSGi deployment.
• Extensions to the Service registry API, potenially allowing for OSGi compatibility when exporting and looking up service registry.