Ejen-1.0-pre2 is released (see http://ejen.sourceforge.net for details).
1. Introduction
---------------
The Ejen program is a text generation system ("text" means, including, but not limited
to, source code in any kind of programming language). It makes use of Java/XML/XSLT
technologies and is implemented for now as an Ant task. This implementation allows the
setup of a complete generation, compilation and deployment sequence, by maintaining
only one "build" file that indicates the order in which each of these actions must be
achieved.
Generally speaking, Ejen should be understood as a system that organizes a data flow,
whose initial source is an XML file containing a (minimal) set of data (required by
the generation process). The data flow grows by the fusion with other XML files and by
going through XSL "filters", until it is sufficiently detailed. It finally goes
through XSL "templates" to produce the resulting text files.
A salient feature of this system is that it allows the use of almost any kind of text
file as input, without the need of developing lengthy and complex Java extensions. The
use of the JavaCC compiler compiler, when corresponding grammars ("Chomsky grammars")
are provided, allows the transformation of those files into DOM tree representations.
Resulting DOM trees may then be used in the generation process, as well as other
native XML files.
Ejen is not therefore by itself a code generator. It is rather a system based on
Java/XML/XSLT technologies that makes the actual creation of code generators easier
and faster.
2. The EJB 1.1 demonstration
----------------------------
A complete EJB 1.1 generation process (with test JSP files) has been written for the
JBoss-[Jetty or Tomcat] server (using the HSQLDB database). This demonstration
produces the entire set of Java source and XML files required by an Entity Beans (of
"bean managed" type) deployment : the primary key classes, the home and remote
interfaces, the complete implementation of the beans and the ejb-jar.xml deployment
descriptor file. Basic JSP files, for testing purposes, are also generated in order to
manage the EJB from an internet browser : database column
creation/modification/destruction is managed this way, just as basic finding methods.
This demonstration has the following special feature : home and remote interfaces are
deduced from a syntactical analysis of the generated bean. This feature allows the use
of the generator not only to create the first EJB implementation, but also to
synchronize (update) the dependent interfaces from a manual bean modification (for
example, after the addition of a new and specific "findBy" method). As this system is
open and flexible, this feature could be also used in order to synchronize other
dependent classes (like client classes that encapsulate EJB calls).
3. Licence (GPL)
----------------
Ejen (code generation system).
Copyright � 2001, 2002 Fran�ois Wolff ([EMAIL PROTECTED]).
Ejen is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the
GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
Ejen is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY;
without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.
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