Application Generation

Overview

Our goal is to generate complete J2EE applications from the XML descriptions, described above.  At present, we can get close to that goal, but not all the way.  Consequently, we have embedded our generation tools within IBM's WebSphere Studio (WSAD) and Rational Application Developers Studio (RADS) products.  This allows developers to easily clean up the generated code and descriptor files and to add any additional elements that are desired but not generated.  For a simple application with three data components -- e.g., user data, login information, and, say, an address book -- a user with a little experience should be able to clean up and complete the application in 10 to 15 minutes.

The generation tools are included in two Eclipse plugins -- one for WSAD and the other for RADS.  They generate not just code but also project structures and deployment files appropriate for the particular development environment.  The views below show the structures and files generated within several WSAD projects.

Views of Generated projects

• Eclipse plugin used to specify appl and impl files as well as a general project and java package prefixes.  The plugin then generates project structures and inserts code and descriptors file into them.
• J2EE Application Project provides the "umbrella" for the whole system;  sometimes referred to as the EAR (Enterprise Archive) project.
• EJBEntity Project provides a Java object view of and interaction with the database.
• EJBSession Project provides the api to the domain model as well as support for transactions and method-level access control on data objects by user type.
• Web Container Project provides view and control layers for the user interface as well as navigation among views.  It also provides connection to EJBSessions for interaction with the domain model and persistent storage system.