[Opensource] Visual Expresso

[Guillermo Castro]

It looks like a very good idea, indeed. I would suggest that you try to
create the plugin for both IDE, since netbeans is more common, but
Eclipse is gaining terrain really fast, and I actually prefer Eclipse
over NetBeans.
 
Do you have defined the licensing scheme for the plugin? I would hope
some kind of OS license.
 
I haven't been able to get my hands on testing the expresso framework,
so I don't know how much help I can give.
 
Good luck with your project.
 

Guillermo Castro

-----Original Message-----
From: opensource-admin at jcorporate.com
[mailto:opensource-admin at jcorporate.com] On Behalf Of
Jan.Moons at alcatel.be
Sent: Viernes, 21 de Junio de 2002 02:12 a.m.
To: opensource at jcorporate.com
Subject: [Opensource] Visual Expresso



Hi,

A few weeks ago I posted a message on this forum asking if it was
possible to integrate the Expresso Framework into an IDE like Netbeans
or Eclipse. The main idea behind this was to create some visual tools
(wizards and dialog boxes) to make it easier to create web applications
based on Expresso.

Today, I am starting up the project to develop this kind of tool, but I
can't do this on my own I need help from all of you out there. Sandra
Cann (congratulations Sandra) already told me that JCorporate will
support this project.

Below you can read some of my ideas but feel free to let me know about
your ideas. The ideas of this community are much more important than my
own.

A wizard/dialog for creating an Expresso project :
==>*******give the project/application a name
==>*******create the web application's directory structure
==>*******create the initial web.xml
==>*******create the initial struts-config.xml
==>*******create the initial expresso-config.xml
==>*******configure different database contexts, setting values for the
connection pool

A wizard/dialog for creating the various DBObjects :
==>*******this wizard connects to a specified database schema and lists
all the tables and views in this database schema.
==>*******select a table or view to work with or create a view or table
within this wizard
==>*******give the DBObject a fully qualified name, description, ...
==>*******select the class that should be extended : DBObjects,
SecuredDBObjects, MultiDBObject... 
==>*******select the attributes you want to use, create virtual fields,
read-only fields, multi-valued fields, ...
==>*******options for specifying the getValues() and getValidValues()
methods by means of : literal values, queries, ... .
==>*******options for setting a custom where-clause and for testing this
custom where-clause
==>*******when the wizard finishes the DBObject will be added to the
Expresso schema 
==>*******testing mechanism (using swing/awt) for browsing, editing and
deleting records in a specified DBObject

A wizard/dialog for creating controllers :
==>*******fully qualified class name
==>*******set it's parent class : Controller, DBController, ... 
==>*******define the different states and set one as the default
==>*******define transitions from state to state

A wizard/dialog for the creation of the Expresso schema object :
==>*******fully qualified class name
==>*******give the schema a title
==>*******set the version
==>*******default component code
==>*******set the message bundle path
==>*******select the DBObjects and Controller components from a list of
already created DBObjects and Controller components

A JSP wizard/dialog : 


==>*******wizard for browsing, editing and deleting records



A JSP panel : 


==>*******a panel for selecting Expresso and Struts specific tags



One of the things I find very important about wizards and dialogs is
that they must be re-entrant. This means you can create components using
the wizards, then you can make some changes by hand, but when you start
up the wizard again it must know about the changes you've done manually.

I also have a question about the IDE to use, should we build plug-ins
for Eclipse or modules for the Netbeans IDE ? I know that Eclipse is
supported by a consortium of important enterprises like Borland,
WebGain, RedHat, ... . If we build the tool for Eclipse will we get a
broader audience ?

But if we choose to develop for Netbeans it is maybe possible to get
support from some of Sun's Netbeans engineers. Because Sun is also
interested in incorporating the Expresso Framework into Netbeans/Forte.

Or should we create components for both Eclipse and Netbeans ? But then
we have to agree about creating interfaces so we don't have to write
everything for the both systems from scratch. But is this possible ?

I will stop now so that the discussion about this project can start. If
you don't have any remarks but want to be part of this project, just let
me know.

Maybe it's best to reply to this message or create a message starting
with visual expresso as the beginning of the subject. It will make our
lives easier to differentiate between discussions about this project and
the Expresso framework.


Let the games begin !!!

Jan MOONS 

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