[ABATOR] Future Plans

[Jeff Butler <je...@gmail.com>]

In response to some common questions, I want to provide some guidance about
enhancements I'll be making to Abator in the coming weeks.  My hope with the
0.5 release is to gain some additional real world feedback beyond my own
team.  I really appreciate the feedback I've received so far, and I
appreciate the time that several have invested in testing.

There are two major themes for the next release of Abator (which should be
available within the next two weeks):

1. Break the tie with Eclipse as much as possible.

By far the most common request I've heard is that people want to run Abator
outside of the Eclipse environment.  While it is technically possible to do
this now, it is not really practical with Abator in its present form (the
task of documenting how to do this is large).  I am working on a slight
refactoring of Abator that will allow it to more easily run outside the
Eclipse environment ( e.g. as an Ant task, or with some simple Java code).

It turns out that the Eclipse code is only essential in two areas: Java
source formatting and merging of a newly generated Java class with an
existing class.  In the next release, these functions be supported
out-of-the-box only when Abator is running as an Eclipse plugin.  But I will
provide an interface where these functions could be "plugged in" for other
environments.  This should make it easier to integrate Abator into other
platforms (like NetBeans and IntelliJ).  Note that I'm not providing
integration into those platforms with the next release, I'm only saying that
it will be easier to do.

2. Improve extensibility.

I will make it much easier to extend the default code generators and alter
their function (i.e. - you will be able to create additional Java classes,
or change the behavior of one or more generated methods).

If anyone has additional wishes for Abator, I'd be more than happy to hear
them.

 Note that none of these enhancements will change the function of Abator in
the Eclipse environment, or will change the format of the XML configuration
file.  So you can continue to use Abator as is without fear of losing
anything when the new release comes.

Hope that helps -
Jeff Butler

Re: [ABATOR] Future Plans

[Minjae Kim <co...@gmail.com>]

Probably I think the second question embarasses you. Too easy, right? ;-)
I got it how to read dtd file 'cause my friend taught me.


2005/12/22, Minjae Kim <co...@gmail.com>:
>
> Thanks Jeff for making this terrific Eclipse plugin.
> I am thinking the application of this tool to a kind of DB2 CRUD system.
>
> I have  2 things to ask of you.
>
> Is there a way to use DDL file to add table information to Abator
> configuration file instead of 'table' tag?
>
> Another thing is I can't read
> http://ibatis.apache.org/dtd/abator-config_1_0.dtd file. I got just the
> following message.
>
>
> The XML page cannot be displayed
>
> Cannot view XML input using style sheet. Please correct the error and then
> click the Refresh button, or try again later.
> ------------------------------
>
> Cannot have a DTD declaration outside of a DTD. Error processing resource
> 'http://ibatis.apache.org/dtd/abator-config_1_0.d. ..
>
> <!ENTITY % Boolean "(true|false)">
> -----------^
>
>  Thanks a lot,
>
> Minjae Kim
>
>

Re: [ABATOR] Future Plans

[Jeff Butler <je...@gmail.com>]

Thanks for the kind words.

I'm hesitant to do the DDL thing because it would mean that Abator would
have to parse the DDL and that is very difficult given that there are so
many different database dialects out there.  If we went this route, we'd
probably need to come up with an Abator DDL syntax, rather than relying on
any vendor's syntax.  Then we'd probably want a translator to translate the
Abator syntax into a specific database dialect, and then before you know it
you're back in the realm of top down CMP entity beans (shudder).  So I think
that is probably beyond the scope of the tool.

But I do like another idea that's emerging on this thread - using Abator to
generate classes and methods given arbitrary queries.  That should be pretty
simple to accomplish.

Jeff Butler


On 12/21/05, Minjae Kim <co...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Thanks Jeff for making this terrific Eclipse plugin.
> I am thinking the application of this tool to a kind of DB2 CRUD system.
>
> I have  2 things to ask of you.
>
> Is there a way to use DDL file to add table information to Abator
> configuration file instead of 'table' tag?
>
> Another thing is I can't read
> http://ibatis.apache.org/dtd/abator-config_1_0.dtd file. I got just the
> following message.
>
>
> The XML page cannot be displayed
>
> Cannot view XML input using style sheet. Please correct the error and then
> click the Refresh button, or try again later.
> ------------------------------
>
> Cannot have a DTD declaration outside of a DTD. Error processing resource
> 'http://ibatis.apache.org/dtd/abator-config_1_0.d. ..
>
> <!ENTITY % Boolean "(true|false)">
> -----------^
>
>  Thanks a lot,
>
> Minjae Kim
>
>

Re: [ABATOR] Future Plans

[Minjae Kim <co...@gmail.com>]

Thanks Jeff for making this terrific Eclipse plugin.
I am thinking the application of this tool to a kind of DB2 CRUD system.

I have  2 things to ask of you.

Is there a way to use DDL file to add table information to Abator
configuration file instead of 'table' tag?

Another thing is I can't read
http://ibatis.apache.org/dtd/abator-config_1_0.dtd file. I got just the
following message.


The XML page cannot be displayed

Cannot view XML input using style sheet. Please correct the error and then
click the Refresh <javascript:location.reload()> button, or try again later.

------------------------------

Cannot have a DTD declaration outside of a DTD. Error processing resource '
http://ibatis.apache.org/dtd/abator-config_1_0.d...

<!ENTITY % Boolean "(true|false)">
-----------^

 Thanks a lot,

Minjae Kim