[TOREE-268] Plugin System

• Type: New Feature
• Status: Closed
• Priority: Major
• Resolution: Fixed
• Affects Version/s: 0.1.0
• Fix Version/s: 0.1.0
• Assignee: Chip Senkbeil
• Reporter: Chip Senkbeil
• Created: 24/Feb/16 02:03
• Updated: 02/Mar/16 15:01
• Resolved: 02/Mar/16 15:01

Description

https://github.com/apache/incubator-toree/pull/8

Currently, we do not have a robust system for others to extend the Toree kernel. The only extensible component is magics, which allow you to add unique functions to the kernel that have access to various dependencies.

A plugin system will enable us to do the following:

1. Enable users to provide code that executed when the kernel is started
2. Magics are no longer limited to

   org.apache.toree.magics.builtins

3. Enable users to tap into Akka messages such as code execution, code completion, and more to produce side effects
4. Clean up our bootstrapping code, which has a specific ordering of dependency creation (can be moved to separate classes)
5. More easily extend dependencies available to magics (currently have trait per dependency and a dependency map class with a method per dependency)
6. Provide internal access to dynamic events like SparkListener
7. Add comm initialization code (thanks to #1) without needing to send a code execution request from the client
8. Better standardize adding new interpreters (currently we have hard-coded logic to support our four interpreters)
9. Extend the actor system with new actors through plugins
10. Provide alternative, pluggable inputs to the kernel