[seam-dev] the shackles have been removed from seam-gen (upgrade #2)

The seam script (which we all call seam-gen) just got another upgrade tonight, this time focused on the build. Up to this point, the seam script has been a couple steps behind other project generation tools, such as Grails, because the user has been locked into having to run it from a Seam distribution directory. You may know from using Grails that their approach is to add grails to your PATH and set GRAILS_HOME and use it like a system command. I have an approach that falls somewhere in between and frankly is more intelligent. First and foremost, i have unlocked us from having to run the seam script from the Seam distribution directory. Now you can run it out of any directory on the computer and it will work as it does today (meaning your current working directory can be anywhere). Internally it figures out your current directory and the SEAM_HOME environment variable relative to the location of the script (there is really no reason to make the user set this environment variable, that is just a stupid requirement). More on the current working directory in a second. Btw, I also put in a check that the user has JAVA_HOME pointing to a JDK because otherwise the Ant build is going to fail anyway. As you may know, I have been moving build.properties into the project as the file seam-gen.properties since last spring (really since Seam 2.0). We just haven't done anything with it...until now. Here is the big enhancement. If your current working directory happens to be a directory that has a seam-gen.properties file AND and build.xml file, then the seam script recognizes that you are in a Seam project and operates using the seam-gen.properties file in that directory rather than the seam-gen/build.properties from the Seam distribution. If you put the seam script on your PATH, then you can simply enter a project and run "seam generate". If you are too lazy to put it on your PATH, then you have to run something like "~/projects/seam-trunk/seam generate". Either way, it will work. Btw, I also fixed the Windows batch script (which was really no fun at all. Windows sucks. It's like playing with those really big legos that you give 3 year olds). On top of that, the outputs after the generate command are aware of whether you are running the seam script outside a project or inside a project and thus tell you to use seam or ant respectively. For example, if you run "seam generate" from within a project, it will tell you to run "ant restart" (instead of "seam restart") after it is done its work (no need to keep having to go through the seam script). The next steps I guess are for JBossTools to use the seam-gen.properties inside the project (if it doesn't already). As far as JBossTools is concerned, it doesn't really care where the properties file is because it has the advantage of being aware of the workspace. Most of the upgrades here had to happen in the seam script. I am going to take this message and the previous one about the seam-gen upgrades and do a blog entry on in.relation.to in a day or so. Cheers, Dan -- Dan Allen Software consultant | Author of Seam in Action http://mojavelinux.com http://mojavelinux.com/seaminaction NOTE: While I make a strong effort to keep up with my email on a daily basis, personal or other work matters can sometimes keep me away from my email. If you contact me, but don't hear back for more than a week, it is very likely that I am excessively backlogged or the message was caught in the spam filters. Please don't hesitate to resend a message if you feel that it did not reach my attention.