Hi all,

Java EE 7 is out... and one day will come Java EE 8, 9 and so on. So we should be able to ask JBoss Forge to either generate a Java EE 6 or 7 application... and if we want to be more precise, you could even go into choosing from Java EE 6, Web Profile 6, Java EE 7 and a Web Profile 7 application. But how to choose a version with JBoss Forge ?

Today, with JBoss Forge 1.x, you create a project with a CLI without giving any version indication :

new-project --named app1 --topLevelPackage org.app1 --type war

Then, when you setup your project, you give Forge some hints :

persistence setup --provider ECLIPSELINK --container GLASSFISH_3 --named testPU ;
validation setup --provider HIBERNATE_VALIDATOR ;

If the idea is to use Forge to create Java EE applications running in a container (and not just in standalone Java SE), the CLI to create a project misses some information, and the setup is redundant. I would think of something like :

new-project --named app1 (...) --version JAVAEE_7 --container GLASSFISH
new-project --named app1 (...) --version JAVAEE_6 --container GLASSFISH
new-project --named app1 (...) --version JAVAEE_WEBPROFILE_6 --container GLASSFISH
new-project --named app1 (...) --version JAVAEE_WEBPROFILE_7 --container GLASSFISH

Note that I didn't put the version of GlassFish because the version of Java EE implies the version of GlassFish (eg. Java EE 6 == GlassFish 3, Java EE 7 == GlassFish 4). But note that you could also specify the container if needed (e.g. generate a Java EE 6 app running on GlassFish 4)

new-project --named app1 (...) --version JAVAEE_6 --container GLASSFISH_4

And, of course, the following would be illegal (GF 3 cannot run a Java EE 7 app) :

new-project --named app1 (...) --version JAVAEE_7 --container GLASSFISH_3

On this comment, Lincoln says that the application should only depend on Java EE APIs. So I think the pom.xml should only contain one of the following dependency (depending on the version of Java EE 7) :

<dependency>
  <groupId>javax</groupId>
  <artifactId>javaee-api</artifactId>
  <version>7.0</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
  <groupId>javax</groupId>
  <artifactId>javaee-api</artifactId>
  <version>6.0</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
  <groupId>javax</groupId>
  <artifactId>javaee-web-api</artifactId>
  <version>7.0</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
  <groupId>javax</groupId>
  <artifactId>javaee-web-api</artifactId>
  <version>6.0</version>
</dependency>

You do not need any extra dependency if you want an application to depend only on Java EE. So that means the following commands can also be changed from :

persistence setup --provider ECLIPSELINK --container GLASSFISH_3 --named testPU ;
validation setup --provider HIBERNATE_VALIDATOR ;

to

persistence setup --named testPU ;
validation setup ;

No need to specify the provider. That's because you will use the JPA/Bean Validation/... default implementation of the container (GlassFish uses EclipseLink, JBoss uses Hibernate...). And to ease the configuration and portability, this means that you don't need the <provider> element in the persistence.xml :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
<persistence xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/persistence" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" version="2.0" xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/persistence http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/persistence/persistence_2_0.xsd">
  <persistence-unit name="javaone2013PU" transaction-type="JTA">
    <provider>org.eclipse.persistence.jpa.PersistenceProvider</provider>
    (...)
  </persistence-unit>
</persistence>

Nor do you use the <default-provider> element in the validation.xml (and so on).

I think the Java EE version should be specified when the project is created, and then all the setups would use the default container implementation.