A JBoss Project
Red Hat

Latest posts

In this article I’m happy to introduce brand new JBoss Bower Tools:

Bower JBoss Tools

Bower is a front-end package manager which works by fetching and installing frameworks, libraries, assets. It offers a generic, unopinionated solution to the problem of front-end package management, while exposing the package dependency model via an API that can be consumed by a more opinionated build stack. Bower provides declarative dependency management (dependencies are declared and tracked in a manifest file, bower.json).

Pre-Requirements

JBoss Bower Tools fall back on native Node.js and Bower calls. Hence, the following software must be pre-installed:

  • Node.js

  • npm

  • Bower

Installation instructions for Node.js and npm can be found here. Bower is a command line utility which is installed via npm command npm install -g bower

Quick Start Guide

For now only init and update commands of Bower API are supported. In order to initialize Bower one need to select File → New…​ → Other…​ and choose "Bower Init" wizard:

Bower Init wizard

This wizard helps to create bower.json file depending on set of preferences:

Bower Init wizard page

After pressing "Finish" button bower.json will be created under specified directory:

Default bower.json

In order to add new dependencies one need to specify them in bower.json:

Bower dependencies

For updating dependencies user should right-click on the bower.jsonRun As…​Bower Update

In most cases Bower and Node.js will be detected in the system automatically. However, if the detection failed warn dialog will be shown for specifying location in preferences:
Bower preferences

"Bower Update" launch shortcut makes a native call which will install required packages or update them to the newest version according to bower.json:

Bower Update launch

Specified packages will be created under bower_components folder after "Bower Update" execution:

Bower components

Basically, that is all - one can now use those packages for future front-end development.

Demo

Here is a short demo video which describes a basic use case of JBoss Bower Tools:

How to give it a go ?

Bower support will be available in 4.3.0.Beta2 release and above. You can also use our nightly update site in order to try Bower Tools (JBoss Tools JavaScript Tools category) before the official release:

Bower dependencies

Conclusion

We are trying our best to make our tools as good as possible. User feedback is what we are seeking for now. We look forward to hearing your comments, remarks and proposals.
Have fun!

Ilya Buziuk
@ilyabuziuk

The JavaEE part of the Tools now contains support for JSR-352 batch files. I’d like to show you the main features of the new visual editor available in JBoss Tools 4.3 and Developer Studio 9.

It extends the tree-form editor previously developed by the JBoss Tools team. There are now 3 ways to edit the batch XML files, represented by the 3 editor tabs:

  • Source (XML text editor)

  • Design (tree-form editor)

  • Diagram (visual editor)

Visual Editor for JEE Batch

Focus on Structure

The goal of the Diagram tab is to visualize the flowchart-like structure of batch jobs. Don’t bother editing the XML by hand and tracking down paths in your batch’s workflow. Instead, you can manipulate batch elements directly with your mouse.

Just select the proper objects from the palette, place them in the diagram and draw transitions among them. The editor visualizes all step, flow, split and decision elements, transitions using next attribute and next on elements and also terminating elements (fail, stop, end). If you need to edit elements nested inside a flow, just double-click its icon to switch the contents of the editor to the flow internals.

You also don’t need to reorder XML elements to set an element as a start. Just use Set as Start action.

Properties View

The diagram is useful for displaying structures but sometimes we would like to different things like to assign a Java bean to a batchlet. That’s when the Properties View comes in handy. Its content is changed according the current selection in the diagram and it serves for filling in various form data.

Properties View

Tip: Use Ctrl+Space to get content proposal.

Edit Anywhere

The diagram editor is integrated with the tree-form editor and the XML text editor in the way that all changes are propagated immediately between these three views. Use any of the editor tabs and you’ll see the changes reflected in the other tabs.

Content Assist

The editor is aware of the batch nature of your project and provides content proposal. It helps to fill in names batch artifacts such as jobs or flows, specific Java classes (your subclasses of ItemReader ItemWriter etc.) or exception classes. You may refer to your beans also by their name defined by the @Named annotation.

Get It Now

Just download the latest 9 release of JBoss Developer Studio or 4.3 version of JBoss Tools to get started. To quickly create a new file, try e.g. the wizard for creating batch files by selecting File  New  Other  Batch  Batch Job XML File.

Enjoy using the editor and give us some feedback!

Tomáš Milata
@tomas_milata

JBoss Tools 4.29.1.Final for Eclipse 2023-09

by Stéphane Bouchet on Jun 13, 2024.

JBoss Tools 4.29.0.Final for Eclipse 2023-09

by Stéphane Bouchet on Nov 02, 2023.

JBoss Tools 4.28.0.Final for Eclipse 2023-06

by Stéphane Bouchet on Jul 03, 2023.

JBoss Tools for Eclipse 2023-06M2

by Stéphane Bouchet on Jun 05, 2023.

JBoss Tools 4.27.0.Final for Eclipse 2023-03

by Stéphane Bouchet on Apr 07, 2023.

Looking for older posts ? See the Archived entries.
back to top