Eclipse Tooling for multi-step transformations

[erhard]

Hi,

I played around with multi-step transformations and have some issues with the eclipse tooling.

I need a transformation A->C and I have B->C. With the multi-step feature ([SWITCHYARD-1489] Add support for multi-step transformations in Switchyard - JBoss Issue Tracker) I just need to add a Transformation A->B to get A->B->C

I had to following problems.

1) I was not able to add the Transformation with the GUI. When I go to Properties->Transforms->Add I see no way to choose FROM and TO other than the proposed direct transformation A->C. Of course it is possible to edit switchyard.xml in an text-editor.

2) After adding the transformation A->B with a text-editor the validation fails. There is always the error: Required transformation missing: from="..." to="..."

Is this a (known?) bug? Is there a workaround other than turning off validation?

Despite the error-message from eclipse the multi-step transformation works (cool feature).

[jorgemoralespou_2]

Can you paste some sample code to help you with this? At least:

• Switchyard.xml with transformations definitions
• Code for your transformers
• Log with error

Cheers,

[kcbabo]

The issue here is that the tooling does not work with multi-step transformations at the moment.  Two issues:

1) Tooling validation does not recognize multi-step paths.

2) New transformer creation is constrained by the tooling to only include transformation paths that the tooling recognizes.

Rob and I had a discussion about this some time back, but I don't remember if there's an actual JIRA for it.  Rob - do you remember?  I can file an issue if one does not exist at present.

[rcernich]

I remember the discussion, but I don't remember much else.  I vaguely recall that there's a runtime setting that constrains the number of "steps" the runtime takes when searching for a transformer between two types.  I had thought that was set to "1" but maybe that has been relaxed in 2.0.  Regardless, if this is possible, the tooling should be updated to:

1. Allow users to create arbitrary transformers
2. Allow users to specify the number of steps (assuming this parameter is externally configurable)
3. Adjust validation to account for the "steps"

[kcbabo]

OK, I will file a JIRA once I find the details of our last discussion on the topic. :-)

FWIW, the default number of hops is 2 and that's been the case since this was pushed for 1.0.

1. Allow users to create arbitrary transformers

Yes

1. Allow users to specify the number of steps (assuming this parameter is externally configurable)
2. Adjust validation to account for the "steps"

Interesting idea!

[erhard]

Thanks for the answers.

Keith, can you please link to the JIRA here when you created it?

In my opinion the more urgent issue is the

1. Adjust validation to account for the "steps"

When I show FSW (Switchyard) to a customer and use the multi-step feature, there is always this error on the project. The missing feature to create arbitrary transformers is easier to hide.

Kind regards

Erhard