[Pat Osterday]

I hope this isn’t off topic for this group, but I am asking specifically about MyEclipse for project development…

I would like to know if there is some documentation/information/experience on MyEclipse and team development – including things such as daily builds, etc. Using the MyEclipse IDE is great, but can I use EAR (or EJB/Web) projects to create ANT build files that an automated process would use? We are just getting into using Subversion (and version control in general) and I haven’t found really good documentation on how the best way to set up everything when using an IDE, particularly MyEclipse. Do I need to create my automatic daily build ANT file by hand, etc. Is it a good practice to check in the project “dotfiles” from MyEclipse – all the team members are using MyEclipse. There is plenty on using version control, CVS and Subversion, but nothing from a whole system – development, daily builds, deployment, including IDEs – at least nothing I could find.

I’ve seen several posts regarding these issues and have seem some answers, but if there was documentation on this, that would be great!

Thanks!
-Pat

[Riyad Kalla]

but can I use EAR (or EJB/Web) projects to create ANT build files that an automated process would use?

Not currently, we don’t generate Ant scripts for our project types because we currently support concepts and ideas that don’t map very closely to Ant. This may become a possibility post 5.0 though.

Do I need to create my automatic daily build ANT file by hand, etc.

Yes generally, building the project will be different for each and every team, so a custom Ant script is the way to go here.

Is it a good practice to check in the project “dotfiles” from MyEclipse – all the team members are using MyEclipse.

Yes, if you are careful about not having fully qualified “External” resources in your build path, and everything is either a JAR or resource from the projects themselves, then including the dot files in your SC repo will provide a “check out-and-build” experience for the other developers.

but nothing from a whole system – development, daily builds, deployment, including IDEs – at least nothing I could find.

This is a lot like walking into your freshmen advisor’s office in college and saying “Can you give me a document outlining exactly how I should study/socialize/eat/sleep/exercise while I’m here at college for my undergrad?”, it can be so totally different for each team that no one has really taken the time to sit down and do the WHOLE picture in a doc. You can find some very good documentation on how to setup individual projects and build them and things like that… but a doc covering the whole project cycle is really going to be a needle in a hay stack, and when/if you do find one, I can imagine it will be VERY specific to the IDE that the author was using.

I’ve seen several posts regarding these issues and have seem some answers, but if there was documentation on this, that would be great!

My suggestion is to read all these posts and read up some guides on how to develop the individual projects and get a feeling for each one and what feels right for you and your team. Try experimenting, check in an Ant script that builds the project and see if people are good about using it. If not, then assign someone to build the project from MyEclipse at the end of every day, see if that works better. The source control is self explanitory: Don’t check in broken code, and make sure you are up to date when you start to code 😉

[Pat Osterday]

Riyad,

Thanks for the reply. I’ve been digging into the “proper” methods for Continuous Integration concepts and XDoclet. I was hoping MyEclipse might be able to help out in some of those areas. We are developing using Windows XP, but deploying on Linux, so I’m not sure if we can get the MyEclipse XDoclet build files working for Linux. I was also hoping the the MyEclipse deployer would generate an Ant build file that could at least be used as a reference instead of starting from scratch. I really love what MyEcplise does for me as an IDE and am looking into how it can also help the entire team – keep up the good work!

Thanks again! Your post was a big help!
-Pat

[Riyad Kalla]

so I’m not sure if we can get the MyEclipse XDoclet build files working for Linux.

Correct, the generated build files use absolute paths to the resources it uses, to stop build problems with teams on multiple OSs we added the ability in 3.8.0 to generate this file dynamically right before running XDoclet, so it does not stay in your project, only the Xdoclet settings do, so when you “Run XDoclet” the settings are read, a xdoclet-build.xml file generated and run then erased. This fixed the problem for teams having incompatibilities between OSes and differing installs but it won’t help in the case you are mentioning.

You could use the generated xdoclet-build.xml file as a template and then write a custom one from there if you desired.

I was also hoping the the MyEclipse deployer would generate an Ant build file that could at least be used as a reference instead of starting from scratch.

It really should and we know it should, but we have been focusing so heavily on the tooling for the last year that the “nuts and bolts” of J2EE dev didn’t get as much love. That will change in 5.0 and on.

[Pat Osterday]

Great! I’m really looking forward to 4.0 and now I will wait (as patiently as possible) for 5.0! I was planning to check into the xdoclet-build.xml to see if I can use that as a starting point.

-Pat

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