[DevoxxBE2012] Raise Your Java EE 6 Productivity Bar with JBoss Forge
Koen Aers, a Red Hat engineer driving Eclipse integration for JBoss Forge, alongside guest Ivan St. Ivanov from SAP, explored boosting Java EE 6 development efficiency. Koen, with a background in jBPM and workflow editors, refreshed on Forge’s role in simplifying complex setups for novices.
Forge, a command-line tool using CDI, incrementally adds features to projects. Commands scaffold entities, UI, and services swiftly.
They demonstrated creating a project, adding persistence with JPA, generating entities like Speaker and Session, and scaffolding JSF views.
For tasks beyond built-ins, plugins extend functionality. Ivan showed developing an Envers plugin for auditing, installing it, and applying to entities.
Integration with IDEs like Eclipse opens Forge’s power graphically.
Their demo built a conference app, adding history views with auditing, showcasing rapid enhancements.
Koen and Ivan emphasized Forge’s elevation of productivity, enabling faster iterations.
Introducing Forge and Basic Workflows
Koen explained Forge’s shell for navigating projects, setting up Maven builds, and adding facets like JPA for persistence.xml configuration.
Commands generate entities with fields, relationships via annotations.
Scaffolding and UI Generation
Scaffolding creates CRUD operations and JSF views from entities, deploying to servers like AS7.
They customized views, adding fields and relations.
Extending with Plugins
Ivan illustrated plugin creation: facets detect capabilities, commands execute actions like adding dependencies.
The Envers plugin audited entities, integrating seamlessly.
IDE Integration and Real-World Application
Eclipse plugins embed Forge consoles, enhancing workflows.
In demo, they audited entities, added history beans, and viewed changes, proving incremental power.
Koen and Ivan’s insights highlighted Forge’s transformative impact on Java EE development.