Integration with IDE

This chapter will help you to configure a development environment so that you can create, develop, test and debug a project faster.

If you have found some more settings that helped you to develop the XINS API faster using Eclipse, send the procedure to anthony.goubard@japplis.com.

Integration with Eclipse.

The Eclipse version used for this manual is 3.2 and can be found at http://www.eclipse.org/platform.

Note

As described in the install section, if you're using the Ant distribution included with Eclipse, you may need to copy xercesImpl-2.6.2.jar to the plugins\org.apache.ant_1.6.5\lib directory to avoid putDocumentInCache error messages. If you still have the error, install Ant and go to Window -> Preferences -> Ant -> Runtime -> Ant Home... and choose the Ant directory.

As Eclipse locks the opened files, you choose close them before calling the create-xxx targets. For example xins-projects.xml should be closed before calling create-api.

xins eclipse

  • If the xins-project.xml is not already created, create it in a new directory with the content specified in the section called “xins-project.xml”.

  • In Run -> External Tools -> External Tools, create a new program with the name xins, the location set to the xins\bin\xins.bat file and the working directory to the directory containing xins-projects.xml. Then you need to add in the arguments the ${string_prompt} variable and add in environment the variable XINS_HOME with the value of the XINS directory.

  • If the API is not created, click on the run button and enter create-api. This target will ask a series of question in order to create the API including the first function of the API.

  • Click on the run button and enter eclipse. Enter the name of the API.

  • The command will create a xins-eclipse.userlibraries in the xins\src\tools\eclipse directory. Then go to Window -> Preferences -> Java -> Build Path -> User Libraries -> Import... -> Browse and select the xins-eclipse.userlibraries file. This step only needs to be done once.

  • After the eclipse command, depending on the directory location of the api:

    • If your project is outside your workspace, choose File -> New -> Project... -> Java -> Java Project -> fill the project name -> Create project from existing source and choose the apis\<api name> directory -> Finish.

    • If your project is in your workspace, choose File -> Import... -> General -> Existing Projects into Workspace -> Next -> choose the apis\<api name> directory -> Finnish.

Run it with Tomcat plug-in.

In order to be able to run and debug your web application, you'll need to install Tomcat (http://jakarta.apache.org/tomcat/) and the Tomcat plug-in for Eclipse (http://www.sysdeo.com/eclipse/tomcatplugin).

Configure the Tomcat plug-in in the Preferences:

  • Set the Tomcat home to the location where you have installed Tomcat

  • Add, in the JVM settings, the JVM parameter -Dorg.xins.server.config=c:\java\tomcat\conf\xins.properties (the xins.properties could also be in another directory). For more details about the xins.properties, read the section called “The runtime properties”.

  • Change the Configuration file to apis\<api name>\tomcat-server.xml.

  • Start Tomcat.

Run it and debug it with Jetty plug-in.

You can also use the Jetty plug-in for Eclipse. To install it, go to Help -> Software Updates -> Find and Install... -> Search for new features to install -> Add Update Site. Then enter the name JettyLauncher and the URL http://jettylauncher.sourceforge.net/updates/.

  • Create an Jetty XML file to link a directory to the build/webapps/<api>/<api>.war file.

  • Go to Run -> Run...

  • Create a new Jetty Web project

  • Set a name for the project, set the Jetty home

  • Click on Use a Jetty configuration file and set the value to the Jetty XML file you've created

  • Go to the argument tab and add the parameter -Dorg.xins.server.config=<jetty_home>\etc\xins.properties.

  • Now you can run, add breakpoints and debug your web application using the buttons on the toolbar

Other improvements.

With Eclipse, by changing the code and saving it you can run your modification without recompiling if the modification is minimal. If you modified a lot of code, you will need to regenerate the war file.

If you have also generated the specific documentation you may want to use the test forms or the example to test your project. To do so, create a new External tool named specdocs with the main program linked to your HTML Browser and the arguments set to build\specdocs\<api>\index.html file.

In order to be able to edit the specifications that are in XML, we also advise that you install a XML plug-in for eclipse such as XMLBuddy (http://www.xmlbuddy.com/) or XML Author (http://www.svcdelivery.com/xmlauthor/). Then in Preferences -> Workbench -> File Associations, add *.fnc, *.typ and *.rcd associated with the XML tool.

If you execute the clean target, you may have afterwards a window popping up asking you to choose between build.xml and build.xml (1). To remove this window go to External Tools... menu and remove the build.xml (1) configuration.

Integration with NetBeans

The version of NetBeans used for this manual is 5.0 and can be downloaded at http://www.netbeans.org/.

Setting up the project.

An Ant script for NetBeans 5.0 or higher is provided with XINS. It requires a correctly set XINS_HOME environment variable.

  • Add the DTD catalog by clicking on the runtime tab, right click on the DTD and XML Schema Catalogs item and add the OASIS catalog located at src\dtd\xinsCatalog.xml.

  • Register some extension as XML files in Tools -> Options -> Advanced Options -> IDE Configuration -> System -> Object Types -> XMLObjects -> Extensions and MIME Types by adding the items fnc, typ, rcd and cat. Check also at the same time the XML Indentation Engine settings. From NetBeans 6.5 Tools -> Options -> Miscellaneous -> Files

  • Open the project in demo\xins-project\apis\petstore.

  • If the API already exists, execute the copy-nb-files target of the nbbuild.xml.

  • If you want to create a new API, execute the create-api target. This target will ask a series of question in order to create the API including the first function of the API.

  • Open the project by selecting the directory of the API: <project dir>\apis\<api name>

  • You can now open your function implementation file and write it's implementation in the Result call(Request request) method.

  • Click on the Compile button to compile, on the Run button to run your API, on the Debug button to debug it or on the Apply Code Changes if you have modified the code with debugging.

  • To profile the API, install NetBeans profiler (http://profiler.netbeans.org/) and execute the profile target.

In NetBeans, the targets can be executed by right-clicking on the nbbuild.xml and Run target or by right-clicking on the project icon or by using the toolbar if your project is the main project.

In NetBeans you can set conditional breakpoints or exception breakpoints that stop the debugger whenever an exception is thrown.

Targets to deploy your API in Tomcat are provided. You can then use the Netbeans HTTP Monitor with it.

If NetBeans 6 has problems to recognize the Request and Result objects, you can add the option -J-DCacheClassPath.keepJars=true in the Netbeans etc\netbeans.conf file.