Richard,
You are totally right by saying than maintaining a 500 characters long line
will be a nightmare and the current implementation was just a first try.
Vineet as started to factorize the code into macros, you can see it here :
But in the same time, we are working on an architecture that will have a
single/common point of entry for the "widget choosing code" and we can plug
whatever widget renderer template into it. To make this easier, I have
created a simple project ,just for you ;) , to demonstrate the main
concept.
You will see the default renderer (renderer.tpl) and a custom renderer
(custom.tpl). The testcases will use the same "widget selector" but their
"own" renderer. A custom widget renderer template can override all the
widgets or only some of them, it is very flexible.
Please feel free to provide any feedback.
Best Regards,
Seb
On Tue, Feb 26, 2013 at 10:49 PM, Richard Kennard <
richard(a)kennardconsulting.com> wrote:
Seb,
Thank you for your feedback.
I'm afraid we'll need to agree to disagree that Freemarker is a good
medium for implementing 'widget choosing' code. Your current implementation
is
basically a single line that is 500 characters long. I fear this will
become a rapidly worsening maintenance problem.
However you make a good point about using Freemarker for the layout. I
will look at implementing a FreemarkerLayout into Metawidget.
Regards,
Richard.
On 26/02/2013 8:48 PM, Sebastien Blanc wrote:
>
>
> On Tue, Feb 26, 2013 at 10:40 AM, Richard Kennard <
richard(a)kennardconsulting.com <mailto:richard@kennardconsulting.com>>
wrote:
>
> Seb,
>
> It sounds like there may be some convergence here. Your 'macros'
library may end up looking very similar to Metawidget's existing HTML5
> WidgetBuilder. And
> your 'composition plugins' may end up similar to Metawidget's
LayoutDecorators and Layouts.
>
> I'd like to make sure you're not re-inventing the wheel here? Is
your main driver that you prefer writing templates in Freemarker to Java
code?
>
>
> Absolutely :) ! A user should be able to read and understand a template
/ overload them and not forced to write a Java class, a mid-term vision is
to be
> more and more polyglot.
> Seb
>
>
> Regards.
>
> Richard.
>
> On 26/02/2013 8:31 PM, Sebastien Blanc wrote:
> > Hi Richard,
> > Thanks for your remarks and questions, see my comments inline.
> >
> > On Tue, Feb 26, 2013 at 10:06 AM, Richard Kennard <
richard(a)kennardconsulting.com <mailto:richard@kennardconsulting.com>
> <mailto:richard@kennardconsulting.com <mailto:
richard(a)kennardconsulting.com>>> wrote:
> >
> > Hi Vineet,
> >
> > Thanks for your detailed response.
> >
> > I'm not opposed to the idea of a FreemarkerWidget (or
VelocityWidget, or StringTemplateWidget). Indeed, the early versions of
Metawidget looked
> much like
> > you describe: a separate, pluggable inspection layer, then a
Metawidget to render it.
> >
> > However, we subsequently got a lot of feedback and did many
interviews, adoption studies and case studies. This ultimately led to the
> architecture of
> > pluggable WidgetBuilders, WidgetProcessors and Layouts. Let me
give you 3 examples of the feedback we got:
> >
> > 1. Widget choice needs to be orthogonal to layout. If you look
at your 'master.html.ftl' and 'detail.html.ftl' you have a lot of
duplicated
> code between
> > them. Both templates contain <#if... #else to choose between a
'select' box and a 'text' box. This code is going to inflate rapidly
once
you
> add your
> > date
> > pickers, telephone numbers, URLs etc. to the mix. Worse, such
code will need to be duplicated across both templates.
> >
> >
> > Vineet is currently factorizing all the duplicated code into
Freemarker's Macros, this Macros library will be shared along the different
plugins.
> >
> >
> > 2. Equally, layout needs to be orthogonal to the wider page.
Say I decide I want to use tables with rows and columns, instead of a
div-based
> layout.
> > Or say
> > I want to use different CSS classes to your 'control-group'
and 'controls'. I will have to do it in both templates. But what is
*actually*
> different
> > about
> > the templates is the choice of search buttons/results versus
save/cancel buttons. So the 'middle bit' of each page needs to be
orthogonal. This
> will get
> > worse as you add more templates, such as separate 'search',
'view' and 'edit' templates (see the JSF scaffold).
> >
> > With Forge 2.0 in mind, where Plugins/addons will be able to be
dependent from each other, inherit from each other, we plan to end up with
some basic
> > plugins which will offer a lot of flexibility to deliver
"Composition plugins". We are also going to introduce a lot of convention
over
> configuration but
> > with keeping in mind that the user can always override the
conventions.
> >
> >
> > 3. Developers like to use third-party widget libraries, and
also in-house custom widget libraries. If I want to add RichFaces, or
PrimeFaces, or a
> > mixture
> > of both, I want to be able to do so in a way that is
orthogonal to all of the above
> >
> > So my concern would be that a FreemarkerWidget would tightly
couple widget choice (WidgetBuilders) and layout, and not allow widget
processing
> (which is
> > important for other reasons I haven't touched upon).
Freemarker does, I agree, offer an attractive level of immedicay and
ease-of-editing
> templates.
> > But I
> > wonder what your thoughts are on how it scales for some of the
points above?
> >
> >
> > "Scaling" will be partly solved by the new architecture
explained
above. For sure, there will always be situations where the user wants to
> introduce his
> > supra cool custom widget that don't fits without a lot of hacking
but IMO that's beyond the scope of scaffolding. Scaffolding is just to
"boost up"
> a new
> > project, it's a one time action, for sure, we can offer entry
points for customization but we can't (or don't want to) cover all the
specific
> situations.
> >
> > Regards,
> > Seb
> >
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Richard.
> >
> > > On 22 February 2013 13:56, Vineet Reynolds Pereira <
vpereira(a)redhat.com <mailto:vpereira@redhat.com> <mailto:
vpereira(a)redhat.com
> <mailto:vpereira@redhat.com>> <mailto:vpereira@redhat.com
<mailto:
vpereira(a)redhat.com>
> > <mailto:vpereira@redhat.com
<mailto:vpereira@redhat.com>>>>
wrote:
> > >
> > > Hi Richard,
> > >
> > > I'm glad you brought this up, since we've been
looking to provide feedback once we've finalized on our usage of the
Metawidget APIs.
> By the way,
> > > I'm the one responsible for the use (or abuse) of
Metawidget in this manner.
> > >
> > > The rationale behind the use of Metawidget inspectors
alone, is mostly because we want to allow users to modify the generated
> scaffold. One
> > of the
> > > examples thrown around was to enable users to generate
master-detail views instead of the plain CRUD forms generated by Forge.
Another
> driving
> > factor
> > > was the need to create or enable creation of scaffold
generators for several JS frameworks including but not restricted to
AngularJS,
> Backbone.js,
> > > Aerogear etc. Furthermore, there is also a possibility
of users needing to bring in plugins and extensions to these frameworks,
like
> Angular-UI or
> > > Backbone.Forms, since the base frameworks may not
satisfy all needs. From my understanding of the Metawidget pipeline and
it's use in the
> Forge
> > Faces
> > > and (the earlier) Aerogear scaffold plugins, this would
have been possible if a metawidget were created for every use case (one per
> framework, per
> > > widget-type). We attempted to bring in the use of
templates written in a familiar templating langu!
> > > age (like Freemarker/Velocity/StringTemplate) into the
scaffold generation phase to make it easier for users to modify the
generated
> scaffold.
> > This
> > > is somewhat on the lines of what the Yeoman generators
do.
> > >
> > > Thanks to the APIs you've made available for the
Metawidget pipeline, the inspection results could be processed before
feeding them to the
> > > templates. Every scaffold plugin that could potentially
be written, would more or less use this approach, with the sole difference
being
> in the
> > > contents of the templates themselves. I hope this
explains why I used the Inspectors alone, and not the
InspectionResultProcessors and
> the rest of
> > > the pipeline. The inspectors just fit in naturally into
the Forge scaffold generation pipeline.
> > >
> > > Based on the above, I personally think that a
FreemarkerWidget (or VelocityWidget, or StringTemplateWidget) would be
something to
> investigate.
> > > This is of course a raw idea of mine, and I would like
to see if it is possible to use such a metawidget in a type-safe manner
with the
> ability to
> > > configure the templates that it would consume. I'm not
sure if creating such a widget would deviate from the intention behind the
Metawidget
> > project.
> > >
> > > As a side note, I'd also like to point out that there
has been interest in supporting various additional HTML5 form input types
(telephone
> > > numbers, URLs etc.) in the generated scaffold, and this
would require extending the JPA/Bean Validation Inspectors in Metawidget.
> > >
> > > Best regards,
> > > Vineet
> > >
> > > PS: CC'ing the forge-dev list.
> > >
> > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > > From: "Richard Kennard"
<richard(a)kennardconsulting.com<mailto:
richard(a)kennardconsulting.com> <mailto:richard@kennardconsulting.com
> <mailto:richard@kennardconsulting.com>> <mailto:
richard(a)kennardconsulting.com <mailto:richard@kennardconsulting.com>
> > <mailto:richard@kennardconsulting.com <mailto:
richard(a)kennardconsulting.com>>>>
> > > > To: aerogear-dev(a)lists.jboss.org <mailto:
aerogear-dev(a)lists.jboss.org> <mailto:aerogear-dev@lists.jboss.org
> <mailto:aerogear-dev@lists.jboss.org>> <mailto:
aerogear-dev(a)lists.jboss.org <mailto:aerogear-dev@lists.jboss.org>
> > <mailto:aerogear-dev@lists.jboss.org <mailto:
aerogear-dev(a)lists.jboss.org>>>
> > > > Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2013 5:17:29 AM
> > > > Subject: Re: [aerogear-dev] Aerogear Forge Plugin
> > > >
> > > > Seb,
> > > >
> > > > This looks very cool. I see you have used parts of
Metawidget for
> > > > some of the implementation? I'd love to hear your
thoughts on how it
> > > > went and/or any
> > > > changes you'd like me to make to Metawidget. For
example:
> > > >
> > > > 1. You have some code in Html5Scaffold that processes
the inspection
> > > > result returned by CompositeInspector. It does things
like
> > > > 'Canonicalize all numerical
> > > > types in Java to "number" for HTML5 form input
type
support' and
> > > > 'Extract simple type name of the relationship
types'.
Was there a
> > > > reason you didn't factor
> > > > this into a Metawidget InspectionResultProcessor
> > > > (
http://metawidget.org/doc/reference/en/html/ch02s03.html)?
> > > > Specifically BaseInspectionResultProcessor has
> > > > some methods to help?
> > > >
> > > > 2. You appear to be using FreeMarker templates rather
than
> > > > Metawidget's WidgetBuilders, WidgetProcessors and
Layouts (see the
> > > > existing Forge JSF scaffold,
> > > > Forge GWT scaffold, and Forge Spring scaffold). Could
I ask what the
> > > > reasons were behind this?
> > > >
> > > > 3. I have recently implemented a pure client-side,
pure run-time,
> > > > AngularJS version of Metawidget. If you were
interested in a
> > > > non-static version of your
> > > > scaffold, perhaps you could give it a try?
> > > >
http://blog.kennardconsulting.com/2013/01/metawidget-meets-jquery-ui-and-...
> > > >
> > > > Regards,
> > > >
> > > > Richard.
> > > >
> > > > On 20/02/2013 11:49 PM, Jay Balunas wrote:
> > > > > Wow!!! Really awesome work guys!!!
> > > > >
> > > > > On Feb 15, 2013, at 11:15 AM, Sebastien Blanc
wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > >> Hi all !
> > > > >> I'm pleased to announce that the first
version of
the Aerogear
> > > > >> Scaffold Plugin for forge is available !
> > > > >> It's still an alpha but thanks to the
excellent
work and help from
> > > > >> Vineet we have a working plugin :
> > > > >>
> > > > >> - CRUD Scaffolding based on your entities.
> > > > >> - One-to-one , many-to-one relation supported.
> > > > >> - AngularJS and bootstrap responsive based.
> > > > >> - Aerogear Pipe and Store used.
> > > > >>
> > > > >> There is still a lot to do but you can already
play
with it, a
> > > > >> quickstart is available here and you should be
able
to create
> > > > >> your first Aerogear App in
> > > > >> 5 minutes ;)
https://gist.github.com/sebastienblanc/4961324
> > > > >>
> > > > >> An example of a generated application can also
be
found here :
> > > > >>
https://github.com/sebastienblanc/scaffoldtester
,
please review
> > > > >> the generated code (at
> > > > >> least the JS and HTML) and report it to me and
I
will update the
> > > > >> templates accordingly.
> > > > >>
> > > > >> Next steps are :
> > > > >> - Integrate Search feature (using the DataStore
filter facilities)
> > > > >> - Integrate Aerogear Pagination (although
generic
pagination is
> > > > >> present now)
> > > > >> - Integrate jQueryMobile (will probably be
another
plugin)
> > > > >>
> > > > >> Enjoy !
> > > > >>
> > > > >> Seb
> > > > >>
> > > > >> _______________________________________________
> > > > >> aerogear-dev mailing list
> > > > >> aerogear-dev(a)lists.jboss.org <mailto:
aerogear-dev(a)lists.jboss.org> <mailto:aerogear-dev@lists.jboss.org
> <mailto:aerogear-dev@lists.jboss.org>> <mailto:
aerogear-dev(a)lists.jboss.org <mailto:aerogear-dev@lists.jboss.org>
> > <mailto:aerogear-dev@lists.jboss.org <mailto:
aerogear-dev(a)lists.jboss.org>>> <mailto:aerogear-dev@lists.jboss.org
> <mailto:aerogear-dev@lists.jboss.org> <mailto:
aerogear-dev(a)lists.jboss.org <mailto:aerogear-dev@lists.jboss.org>>
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aerogear-dev(a)lists.jboss.org> <mailto:aerogear-dev@lists.jboss.org
> <mailto:aerogear-dev@lists.jboss.org>>>>
> > > > >>
https://lists.jboss.org/mailman/listinfo/aerogear-dev
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > _______________________________________________
> > > > > aerogear-dev mailing list
> > > > > aerogear-dev(a)lists.jboss.org <mailto:
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aerogear-dev(a)lists.jboss.org>>>
> > > > >
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> > > >
> > > > _______________________________________________
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> > > > aerogear-dev(a)lists.jboss.org <mailto:
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aerogear-dev(a)lists.jboss.org>>>
> > > >
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> > > >
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > aerogear-dev mailing list
> > > aerogear-dev(a)lists.jboss.org <mailto:
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aerogear-dev(a)lists.jboss.org>>>
> > >
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> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > aerogear-dev mailing list
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aerogear-dev(a)lists.jboss.org> <mailto:aerogear-dev@lists.jboss.org<mailto:
aerogear-dev(a)lists.jboss.org>>
> > >
https://lists.jboss.org/mailman/listinfo/aerogear-dev
> >
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<mailto:aerogear-dev@lists.jboss.org <mailto:aerogear-dev@lists.jboss.org
>>
> >
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> >
> >
> >
> >
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> >
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