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AppFuse, by default, is configured to be an Eclipse

project. When you run ant new -Dapp.name=yourApp -Ddb.name=yourDatabase you will get the .project and .classpath files to start your project with. However, you will need to make a few easy setting changes in Eclipse (particularly to run Ant

). This tutorial shows you how to setup Eclipse to develop your AppFuse project.

: In general, I don't use Eclipse for much more than a fancy text editor. I do most of my compiling, testing and deployment from the command line. This howto will hopefully make it easier for you to use Eclipse for building and testing, but if it doesn't work for you - the best fallback is to use the command line for running the Ant tasks. Of course, if you figure out ways to make the Eclipse integration better - please let me know.

This tutorial is based on Windows XP and Eclipse 3.0.1 and should work on any platform. You can download Eclipse 3.0.1 if you don't already have it installed. I also recommend downloading my Eclipse plugins bundle or purchasing MyEclipse. A pipe dream of mine is to be able to use create a MyEclipse/AppFuse project - but that would likely require an entire rewrite of AppFuse's directory structure and build file and I just don't have the time or energy. Besides, the current system works pretty well if you don't mind using Ant.

[1] Create New Java Project in Eclipse
[2] Configuring Ant in Eclipse
[3] Add junit.jar to Ant's classpath
[4] Add build.xml to Ant View
[5] Run Ant
[6] Run JUnit Tests in Eclipse
[7] Tips for Debugging and UI Editing

Create New Java Project in Eclipse [#1]

Open Eclipse (either with an existing or a new workspace) and to go File → New → Project. Then select "Java Project" and hit the Next button. In the Project Name field, enter the name of the directory that your project lives (i.e. c:\source\appfuse).

If you try to build the project at this point, you'll likely get numerous errors. Most of them involve the fact that the UserForm class can not be found. This is because all of the ActionForms in AppFuse (if you're using the Struts version) are generated from POJOs with XDoclet.

All of the tasks for XDoclet are configured in the Ant build.xml file so the easiest thing to do is to run "ant gen-forms" to generate the ActionForms. If you have Ant 1.6.2+ installed and in your path, you can do this from the command line. The next step shows you how configure Eclipse to run your AppFuse build.xml.

TIP: Here's a way to hide the JARs you see in Eclipse's Package Explorer.

Add J2EE_HOME to Classpath Variables [#2]

Go to Window → Preferences. Navigate to Java → Classpath Variables. Click the New... button and enter J2EE_HOME for the name field. In the path field enter the pathname to the directory of your J2EE JDK or click the Folder.. button and select the directory. Click on OK one or more times to return to the main Eclipse window. Eclipse will now rebuild your project and the Unbound class variable problem should be gone.

Add JUnit to Ant's classpath [#3]

Adding junit.jar to Ant's classpath is pretty easy. Open Eclipse and go to Window → Preferences. Navigate to Ant → Runtime and you should a window similar to the one below.

Note - in Eclipse 3.0 the dialog has changed. I found you had to add junit.jar to the "Ant Home Entries" as it didn't work under "Global Entries".

You will need to add junit.jar to the additional classpath entry in the bottom pane. If you have Ant installed, and junit.jar in it's lib directory, I'd use that. Otherwise, you can use the junit.jar file in the lib/junit3.8.1 directory.

Note: Sometime between M4 and M7, the layout of the Runtime properties page has changed. Be sure to add junit.jar to the Ant Home Entries rather than the Global Entries.

Add build.xml to Ant View [#4]

Now we need to add the build.xml to Eclipse's Ant View. To do this, go to Window → Show View → Ant. Then click on the first icon in this view (screenshot below) to add AppFuse's build file.

Run Ant [#5]

After adding the build.xml, you should be able to expand it in the Ant View and execute any of the targets. You should make sure that your $J2EE_HOME environment variable is set (not just the Classpath Variables you configured above), since AppFuse relies on this. At this point, you should see something similar to the screenshot below.

Run JUnit Tests in Eclipse [#6]

It's also possible to run your JUnit tests in Eclipse. I should note that if you're running an ActionTest, you'll need to execute "ant deploy-test-war" and then start Tomcat before running them. To configure Eclipse to run AppFuse's JUnit Tests, all you need to do is define a J2EE_HOME variable. To do this, go to Window → Preferences → Java → Classpath Variables. Add a new variable called J2EE_HOME and point it to the location where you have the J2EE SDK

installed. AppFuse already has its classpath configured (in the .classpath file) to include J2EE_HOME/lib/j2ee.jar.

Also, before running any JUnit Tests in Eclipse, you need to run "ant test-all" from the command line. After you have successfully done so, in Eclipse open a test you'd like to run (i.e. UserDaoTest) and go to Run → Debug As → JUnit Test. If this doesn't work, make sure you have AppFuse 1.0.1+

Tips for Debugging and UI Editing [#7]

For debugging, I use the Tomcat Plugin

in Eclipse and set breakpoints. For little changes, I use "ant deploy-web" which only takes a couple of seconds. For truly minor tweaks, it's sometimes easier to edit the file in Tomcat's webapps folder. For major design changes, I usually run the app, view source on a page and save it to a "sandbox" folder in the same directory as my project. Then I do a find/replace and change all "/appfuse/" references to "../web/". This allows me to change CSS and JS files and just refresh the file in the sandbox.

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This particular version was published on 06-Nov-2006 13:52:23 MST by MattRaible.