Achilles’ Tortoise

I describe in the openarchitectureware post about how I generate code from a model. This process is better and more completely described in the OAW 4.1 EMF Tutorial. Onward to what I have generated:

As a reminder, I created a meta-model that represented a web-based user interface. The model is basically a set of containers:
Scenarios contain Pages. Pages contain Sections. Sections can contain other sections
or Widgets. Widgets can be output text, input fields, menus, calendars, links to other pages, etc.

So, my first workflow creates a Java Server Faces (JSF) application. The macros generate all JSP files and all pagecode Java files. The web.xml and faces-config.xml files are also generated, including the navigation rules between the pages.

My second workflow creates HTML documentation and a input file to graphviz (which is a great free tool from AT&T for quick-and-easy graphing and I highly recommend you play with it). <blogPost topic=”graphviz” todo=”true”/>

After much work on the JSF workflow (due to the requirement to produce a real working application), I have now moved on to an evaluation phase. I am looking at more Ajaxy/Web 2.0-type applications. (aknowledging that you can do Ajax with JSF).

My third workflow creates an Echo2 application. Echo2 is an excellent framework from NextApp. Tod Liebeck, the lead developer of Echo2, has an interesting article comparing GWT and Echo2 on theserverside.com. In order to generate the Echo2 code, I made the assumption that a “Page” model class mapped to a WindowPane in the Echo2 framework. The result is a MDI (multiple document interface) application, where there is a menu bar along the top of the page and the various ‘pages’ popup as movable/resizable windows. I am currently working on producing a single-document interface page that will give people something to compare with the MDI approach.

I think the MDI interface is somewhat dated looking, although many modern desktop applications work this way.

After I complete the SDI look, I will move to developing a GWT implementation workflow.