1 2 Previous Next 16 Replies Latest reply on Jul 20, 2006 3:31 AM by sgodden

    Setting up the designer to develop in eclipse

      Hi,

      I'm potentially interested in working on the designer. Couldn't find any information about how to set it up for development (let me know if I have been stupid there), so did the following:

      Opened up Eclipse 3.2 and set workspace to jbpm.3/designer/jpdl

      Set up plugin project per org.jbpm... directory, and also the feature project for org.jbpm.gd.jpdl.feature

      I get problems with the org.jbpm.gd.jpdl.ui project. Lots and lots of errors. All seemed GEF-related, so I added org.eclipse.gef as a plugin dependency, and everything went away apart from one error regarding being unable to resolve IContentOutlinePage.

      And in the test plugin project, junit cannot be resolved, so lots of errors there.

      Am I getting the approach wrong here, or are the plugin manifests wrong?

        • 1. Re: Setting up the designer to develop in eclipse
          koen.aers

          Simon, currently the designer is pretty much a moving target... The layout of my workspace is as follows:
          - jbpm.3/designer/jpdl/org.jbpm.gd.jpdl.feature
          - jbpm.3/designer/jpdl/org.jbpm.gd.jpdl.help
          - jbpm.3/designer/jpdl/org.jbpm.gd.jpdl.ui
          - jbpm.3/designer/jpdl/org.jbpm.gd.jpdl.ui.test
          There is *a lot* of dependencies on other Eclipse projects. The best thing to do is have a look at the build.properties file in the jbpm.3/designer/jpdl folder. To make the long story short, if you have WTP 1.5 and all its dependencies all should be okay.

          Hope this helps, don't hesitate to bug me for more info...

          Regards,
          Koen

          • 2. Re: Setting up the designer to develop in eclipse

            By grepping jar contents, I added the necessary plugin dependencies to the manifest for the ui project, and the ui.test project.

            It seems to me that the manifests in CVS are wrong. Should I submit a patch for that?

            And in terms of testing, it seems the only way is to build the feature each time and unzip it into a spare eclipse-3.2 install.

            Is that the way you do it, or should I just be launching a new Eclipse Application config?

            • 3. Re: Setting up the designer to develop in eclipse
              koen.aers

              There is no problem with the manifests in CVS AFAIK.
              And as for testing, I launch a new Eclipse Application config. Also, the test plug-in is obsolete. As I told you, you are basically looking at a moving target ;-)

              Regards,
              Koen

              • 4. Re: Setting up the designer to develop in eclipse
                koen.aers

                Before I forget, to actually build the feature, the best thing to do is to check out the jbpm.3/designer/jpdl project and invoke the ant build. Make sure that you have the correct cvs client and the correct zip/unzip software installed on your system path. Info on this is somewhere in these forums and also somewhere in the Eclipse cvs.
                But then again, there will be more changes in the near future...

                Regards,
                Koen

                • 5. Re: Setting up the designer to develop in eclipse

                   

                  There is no problem with the manifests in CVS AFAIK.


                  Then I must be doing something wrong.

                  I checked out the project, started up eclipse with the workspace pointed at ROOT/jbpm.3/designer/jpdl

                  Then I added plugin projects and feature project as necessary for:

                  * org.jbpm.gd.jpdl.core
                  * org.jbpm.gd.jpdl.db
                  * org.jbpm.gd.jpdl.feature
                  * org.jbpm.gd.jpdl.db.help
                  * org.jbpm.gd.jpdl.db.site
                  * org.jbpm.gd.jpdl.db.ui
                  * org.jbpm.gd.jpdl.db.ui.test

                  Result: loads of red crosses in the 'ui' project. After editing the manifest to include further plugin dependencies, the crosses go away.

                  (OK ui is obsolete)

                  Would it be possible for you to do a quick WIKI page on how you set it up and run it. I know that will change, but the WIKI page shouldn't take long.

                  Alternatively just scribble your instructions as a reply here, and I will validate them and do the WIKI page myself, if that helps.

                  Before I forget, to actually build the feature, the best thing to do is to check out the jbpm.3/designer/jpdl project and invoke the ant build. Make sure that you have the correct cvs client and the correct zip/unzip software installed on your system path.


                  OK understood, and I have done that successfully.

                  • 6. Re: Setting up the designer to develop in eclipse
                    koen.aers

                    Simon,

                    1. Install Eclipse 3.2 with all the dependencies of WTP 1.5. (I think you can download an all-in-one on the Eclipse download pages)
                    2. Check out the following project:
                    - jbpm.3/designer/jpdl/org.jbpm.gd.jpdl.ui
                    3. Start the Eclipse runtime workbench and you should be able to use the plug-in
                    4. If you need to work on something different (mess with feature dependencies, update the site, update the help, docs or build) you should also checkout the corresponding projects in your workspace...

                    Remark: checking out the entire jbpm.3/designer/jpdl tree and pointing your workspace to it does not work well in Eclipse. Or at least I have never made it to make it work...

                    Hope this helps,
                    Koen

                    • 7. Re: Setting up the designer to develop in eclipse

                       

                      1. Install Eclipse 3.2 with all the dependencies of WTP 1.5. (I think you can download an all-in-one on the Eclipse download pages)


                      ok understood and done.

                      2. Check out the following project: - jbpm.3/designer/jpdl/org.jbpm.gd.jpdl.ui


                      ?? - surely we have to check out more than this. There isn't even a build script in that directory. The entire designer project has to be checked out doesn't it, and the build.xml script in the designer/jpdl directory has to be run to produce the zipped up feature?

                      3. Start the Eclipse runtime workbench and you should be able to use the plug-in


                      Sorry, but I don't understand. What do you mean by the "Eclipse runtime workbench"? I have run the build script mentioned above, and unzipped the feature into the eclipse-3.2 I installed, and run it successfully that way. Is that what you mean?

                      Also, from your instructions, I still do not see how you are actually working on the source. Are you doing it in Eclipse? If so, how are you setting up the ui project in Eclipse?


                      • 8. Re: Setting up the designer to develop in eclipse
                        koen.aers

                        Simon,

                        Regarding the first quote: Great!

                        Regarding the second quote: If you simply want to view and edit the code of the designer in your workspace, this is the only project you have to checkout...

                        Regarding the third quote: Starting the 'Eclipse Runtime Workbench' is for testing the modifications I mentioned in 'regarding the second quote'... It is done by choosing 'Run...' and then creating a new Eclipse Application launch configuration. Are you familiar with this?

                        • 9. Re: Setting up the designer to develop in eclipse

                          Koen - thank you so much for your continued patience!

                          Turns out it couldn't be simpler - I was familiar with all the concepts you describe, but from checking out the overall source none of it was obvious. A small WIKI page describing the process would be great for the future.

                          I guess I can do that myself?

                          Thanks Koen.

                          • 10. Re: Setting up the designer to develop in eclipse
                            kukeltje

                             

                            "sgodden" wrote:
                            A small WIKI page describing the process would be great for the future.

                            I guess I can do that myself?


                            I'm fairly confident you qualify for this ;-) Just make a JBoss account (I think you can use the same as you usae for the jira) and make a page

                            • 11. Re: Setting up the designer to develop in eclipse
                              koen.aers

                              I'll have to thank you for being persistent in your trial to become familiar with the designer code... It is in the best interest of all that there are more contributors to the GPD. So indeed please go ahead and describe the process on a wiki page.
                              But as you may have already seen, the project layout has changed again overnight. So the wiki might page might need a change now and then. ;-)

                              Thanks and regards,
                              Koen

                              • 12. Re: Setting up the designer to develop in eclipse

                                I put a new section on the contributions page for development instructions, with a link off to instructions for the designer. I'll keep that up to date.

                                • 13. Re: Setting up the designer to develop in eclipse

                                   

                                  I'll have to thank you for being persistent in your trial to become familiar with the designer code...


                                  My pleasure :-;

                                  But as you may have already seen, the project layout has changed again overnight.


                                  Has it? Doesn't seem that the org.jbpm.gd.jpdl.ui is affected at least?

                                  • 14. Re: Setting up the designer to develop in eclipse
                                    koen.aers

                                    No that is not affected...

                                    Cheers,
                                    Koen

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