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[wtp-pmc] Annotation editing in Eclipse
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Hi guys,
As component leads for various projects that will need to support Java
EE 5, I wanted to get a dialog started regarding annotation editing for
Eclipse 3.3/WTP 2.0. The Dali JPA project has been dealing with this
issue for some time now, and I wanted to get everyone I can involved in
this discussion so we can try to devise a strategy for dealing with this
common issue of configuring annotated metadata in Eclipse.
One of the major issues is that Eclipse does not yet have a generic
annotation editing solution (outside of the Java source editor).
Rephrased, there is no common area for a user to go to edit annotations
via a UI (be it a basic properties table, or a rich UI). In the Dali
project, this has led us to create a custom "Persistence Properties
View" which is associated with the java source and a custom "Persistence
Outline", all of which is not very "Eclipse-ish" in terms of platform
integration, but seems required due to the lack of other visible options
when dealing with the JDT UI.
The current paradigm for supporting Java EE metadata in Eclipse is to
write an editor (or use the XML Editor) for the given XML Descriptor.
This allows for rich UI in the editor or in the Tabbed Properties if
desired. For some of the Java EE 5 technologies, such as EJB3, the XML
Descriptor has been left as a secondary option in favor of annotations.
In order to deal with this change, we need to find a way to help users
configure complex JEE 5 annotations in a consistent fashion. Beyond EJB
3 - Web Services (JSR 181) and JAXB 2.0, among many other non-standards
based technologies, will need some sort of annotation tooling support.
Initially, I see a couple of different options here:
1. Rely only on in-source annotation help via code complete and quick
fixes.
2. Push for the creation of a common annotation editing concept, which
could be in the form of an extension to the Properties view (basic
properties table or Tabbed Properties), or perhaps an additional editor
tab beside the java editor (tabbed editors), or maybe a completely new,
extensible annotation editing view.
It is very debatable as to what is best, but I think some sort of common
location for the related technologies to put their annotation
configuration will be necessary (if we are going to have UI for
annotation editing).
Since we are all in this annotation boat together, I figure it would be
good for us to collaborate on the solution. If we can agree that there
is a gap here, I will go ahead and enter an enhancement in bugzilla, and
we can continue the discussion there if that is more appropriate.
Thanks,
Neil Hauge
WTP-JPA (Dali) Lead
Oracle TopLink Tools