Spring Roo 1.0.0.RC3 Docs

[anujk]

I downloaded the latest version of Spring Roo, now it has reference documentation but the sections i was most interested in Advanced Add - On is TBC. Is it possible to have add ons on different Web_tier technologies based on jsf or struts etc.

Any idea by when the documentation for same would be available.



Regards,
Anuj

[Stefan Schmidt]

Hi Anuj,

The reference documentation is (as you noticed) work in progress. As mentioned in previous posts here Ben has given a 90 min conference session on how to create add-ons for Roo and he wants to use many of these materials for the documentation. Since he is currently still in transit from another conference he will probably not get to it before next week earliest. Apologies for the delays, we know you guys want to get started .

Cheers,
Stefan

[anujk]

Hi Stefan,

Thanks for Reply , are you referring to video presentation "SpringOne Europe April 2009" , there it does mention the possibilities of adding add on but not much details thereof.

Another question is , we have certain set of applications which for historical reasons be built on technologies like struts, is it possible to have add-on based on struts, will it require new controller & jsp projects in spring roo set of projects.



Regards,
Anuj

[Stefan Schmidt]

Anuj,

The video presentation you are referring too is actually 6 months old. I was not referring to that one. There was another SpringOne conference recently in New Orleans, US and Ben and I gave presentations on Roo there. Ben did an introductory talk on Roo (which was video recorded and should appear soon on InfoQ) as well as a specialized 90 minute talk on Roo add-on development (this is the one I was referring too in this thread). I did a talk on Roo Web features. Ben will most likely make the materials of his add-on development talk available by next week. He was also planning to integrate some of these materials into the reference guide.

As for the Struts integration, that would be an excellent candidate for an external developed add-on. Would you be interested in doing that? There are, of course several options available when it comes to integrating that with existing Roo features. For example, you could opt to use the Roo generation functionalities for RESTful controllers and just replace the view artifacts with Struts. I am not sure how well that integrates with your existing application though, so you may end up having to provide your own controller generation add-on as well.

Cheers,
Stefan

[anujk]

Hi Stefan,

Thanks for the reply.
I would be interested in the external add on & modifying security add on.
I think security add on can be decorated with couple of more Cli Options.

Meanwhile, I have made some changes to the jsp add on ,

1. Added a header section.
2. Moved few information from footer to Header like language flag
3. Added Principal Name after successful Login.
4. Added new command welcome to the shell to change the welcome text as per the client application during demos.

I am attaching the same here for your review.

Thanks & Regards
Anuj

[anujk]

Hi Stefan,

Your inputs on my last post is awaited for me to proceed ahead.

Regards,
Anuj

[Stefan Schmidt]

Hi Anuj,

The way you are sharing your changes a slightly unusual and I have not found the time to test them extensively. A quick application of the code to the RC3 source tree resulted in 3 exceptions. Typically you would attach a patch to a Jira ticket and note the revision upon which the patch is based.

Before you do raise a Jira issue though, maybe you can share a few screenshots of the UI changes so I can assess if it makes sense to apply these changes to the Roo standard template / theme or if it would better be suited to be shipped as part of a separate add-on in some way.

Cheers,
Stefan

[anujk]

Hi Stefan,

Apologies for sharing the code in unusual manner. I wasn't aware of the process.
I am attaching the screen shots of proposed changes for your review.

Let me know how to proceed ahead on same.

Regards,
Anuj

[Stefan Schmidt]

Hi Anuj,

Thanks for sharing the screenshots. Let me comment as per your change list:

Meanwhile, I have made some changes to the jsp add on ,

1. Added a header section.
2. Moved few information from footer to Header like language flag
3. Added Principal Name after successful Login.
4. Added new command welcome to the shell to change the welcome text as per the client application during demos.

Points 1 and 2 are related to moving some functionality from the status bar to the main logo. This is interesting but I am not sure if this would improve overall usability of the UI. Have you created a application with the current changes in Roo trunk yet? While these changes are subtle I think the status bar is a better location for the theme and language selectors now that there is a little more space.

Point 3 would be something you should lodge as a Jira ticket (related to Spring Security and MVC artifacts) and then vote for it. I am sure it would not be hard to integrate it where suitable.

Point 4 is interesting as we already have a command which lets you change property files conveniently:

properties set --path SRC_MAIN_WEBAPP  --name /WEB-INF/i18n/messages.properties --key welcome.text --value "new welcome message"

I am sure you were not aware of this command yet. The new documentation guide now has a reference section for all commands in the appendix. So I guess there is no need for your new command after all.

Cheers,
Stefan

[anujk]

Hi Stefan,

Thanks for the comments.

Regarding Point 1 & 2 , Most of the applications I have worked on have such information in header section which also contains the login name & date/time as per Locale , as by changing the locale even the menu entries would also change. I have not created an application with roo trunk yet , i am using RC1.3 release branch.

Point 3:- I would raise a Jira ticket on same.

Point 4:- I was aware of the property but then thought for quick prototype phase it would be handy. But you are right same can be achieved via properties shell command.

Regards
Anuj