MyEclipse Examples On-Demand

1. Examples On-Demand Introduction

When learning or evaluating a technology, framework, architectural or design techniques, software developers will tell you there is nothing more valuable than a working example to solidify one’s understanding of what is required for adopting and applying that element successfully in their development practice. To facilitate rapid developer learning, Genuitec provides Examples On-Demand, a website that provides software developers a catalog of ready-to-run example applications that demonstrate how to quickly and successfully use popular programming technologies and frameworks, such as Ajax frameworks, JSP, JSF, Struts, Spring, Hibernate, JPA and EJB3.  Each of the example applications are designed to run directly on the server-sandbox provided in MyEclipse with zero configuration and can be downloaded directly into MyEclipse with a 1-click installation process.

“Show me, don’t tell me” is the motto of Examples On-Demand. You can find “How-to” tutorials for every technology and framework available on the web. Yet most provide limited value at best because unless you actually set up development and runtime environments and then implement the typically simplified tutorial examples without flaw, the knowledge gained is mostly abstract head-knowledge; you can’t say with confidence that what you learned will work in practice. Examples On-Demand doesn’t talk just about technologies and frameworks, but rather it shows you through a wide range of technology, single, and multi-framework examples that download in seconds directly to your MyEclipse workspace and run with 1-click on the MyEclipse integrated technology frameworks and runtime stacks.

Examples On-Demand provides you the “simpler working examples” that Grady Booch talks about in his famous quote “Every complex working application evolved from a simpler working example.”

Additional key benefits of Examples On-Demand include:

• A working example is worth more than a 10,000 word tutorial
• Installs in seconds using Examples On-Demand Browser
• Examples run on the MyEclipse Server Sandbox with zero configuration
• From the insight of running and experimenting with an example, developers quickly gain confidence that they can replicate the successful experience in their own application of the same technologies and frameworks
• Developers can use the examples as templates for creating their own applications
• All example code is open-sourced under the Apache 2 license, allowing developers to reuse any of the example code for their own purposes with no additional open-source requirements

1.1 MyEclipse Server SandBox

All Example On-Demand projects are developed with the goal that they can be run immediately after being added to the developer’s workspace without needing to install and configure additional resources (like an application or datasource). This is made possible by the MyEclipse integrated Server Sandbox. The MyEclipse Server Sandbox has evolved with the addition of the MyEclipse Derby and Tomcat Servers within MyEclipse. Combined, these two integrated servers provide a complete “out of the box” application development runtime solution for use by example applications.

2. Examples On-Demand Browser

MyEclipse provides an integrated Examples On-Demand Browser. The Examples On-Demand Browser is an innovative application of rich internet application (RIA) technology enabling you to seamlessly browse online example applications and then rapidly download, install and run those example resources from directly within the MyEclipse workbench in a matter of seconds.

To launch the Examples On-Demand Browser, select Help>Examples On-Demand from the menu; or, click the Show Dashboard icon , and click the Examples tab on the Dashboard.

You can use the search box to locate specific projects. Hover a project name to see a brief description along with technologies included in the project. If you want to view the source, right-click and select View Source.

Note: If your Dashboard looks different than the following screen, you may be on an older version. The MyEclipse dashboard received a refresh in 2020.

Examples On-Demand Browser

3. Example Download and Installation

Double-click any example (or right-click and select Install) to download and install the projects that make up the application into your workspace. During the installation process, all projects are compiled and validated. In some cases, migration is required for a project to run on a new version of MyEclipse. In this case, the Project Migration wizard, which makes project migration quick and easy, opens automatically.

Installing an Example On-Demand sample application

Each example project provides a README.txt file in its root folder that provides project details.

Viewing the project’s Readme.txt file

After you install an example to your workspace, feel free to change the source code and experiment with the application.

Examples On-Demand projects installed to your workspace are still connected to a public CVS repository. You can safely disconnect the project from the CVS repository by right-clicking the project, and selecting Team>Disconnect from the menu.

4. 1-Click Example Launch and Test

If the project is a Web Project, you can run it immediately using the MyEclipse 1-Click Application Launcher. Right-click the root of the project, and select Run As>MyEclipse Server Application from the menu. The 1-Click Application Launcher performs the following operations:

• Allows you to select a server to deploy to or define a new server. MyEclipse Tomcat is immediately available.
• Packages and deploys the application automatically to the selected server
• Starts the server
• Launches a Web Browser opened to the root of the application

Note: If the application you are running requires a database connection, don’t forget to start MyEclipse Derby before running the example application or you will most likely get a ConnectionException when the application tries to access the DB and cannot connect.

After the application is running in the appserver, MyEclipse opens a Browser View to the home page of your example application. You can then run your application immediately, and even edit it or debug it on the fly if you want.

Application runs on MyEclipse Sever Sandbox

5. Getting Examples in Archive Form

Some developers might have corporate firewall restrictions that prevent accessing the Internet from development machines. Follow the steps below to get example projects into your workspace from an archive.

1. Download one or all of the examples on demand archive files.
   Java EE Examples
   Cloud Example
   Spring Examples
   RCP Examples
   Reports Examples
2. In MyEclipse, choose File>Import.
3. Expand General, choose Existing Projects into Workspace, and click Next.
   
   Selecting import source
4. Choose the Select archive file option, and browse for the archive you downloaded.
5. Click Finish. The samples appear in your workspace.