MyEclipse for Spring, the popular Java framework renowned for cutting down development time, got its first public preview on Jan 12. According to MyEclipse developer Genuitec, while the Spring framework handles many mundane tasks in Java, MyEclipse for Spring takes care of many mundane tasks in Spring.
Todd Williams, vice president of technology at Genuitec, said that MyEclipse for Spring can extract architectural design information from existing Spring applications.
“The key thing we’re focusing on is a concept known as scaffolding your application,” said Williams. “Often, when developers go in to build something, they have a database that pre-exists, and part of the drudgework in creating any kind of application like that is going through and writing the data access layers, and services layer, and a Web front end for it.
“One of the key deliverables [in MyEclipse for Spring] is the ability to take different kinds of input sources. Say it’s a raw database and you have access objects in another application; it can reverse-engineer the code all the way to the Web tier from those objects.”
MyEclipse for Spring also includes a Spring Web editor, as well as handlers for JSF and Struts. Genuitec’s UML tools are also included.
That means existing applications that use the same services and supporting tools can be used by MyEclipse for Spring to quickly build a skeleton in the likeness of the previous application. Williams said that generating a data layer from an existing application can be done in a Spring-friendly way, and that all annotations are generated automatically and Spring best practices are followed.
The first preview version of MyEclipse for Spring will be made available to users who attend a Genuitec Webinar on Jan. 28. The product is based on Eclipse 3.5 and Genuitec’s own MyEclipse 8.0. When MyEclipse for Spring is formally released at EclipseCon on March 22, it will be based on Genuitec’s forthcoming MyEclipse 8.5. One user license for one year will cost US$200.
MyEclipse for Spring will feature the enhancements scheduled for MyEclipse 8.5. Chief among those is the inclusion of some of the functionality found in Genuitec’s Pulse 3.0 life-cycle management system, such as the ability to share workspaces and environment configurations from within MyEclipse. Previously, this ability was available only in Pulse.
MyEclipse for Spring is also based on some of the tools made by Skyway. Skyway focuses on building high-level Spring tools for automated code generation and graphical interface design. Both of these capabilities are included in MyEclipse for Spring.
