Spring Extension for JDeveloper - An Overview
Shay Shmeltzer
January 2007
The Spring extension to JDeveloper was developed by Duncan Mills and provides an integrated support for the open source Spring framework inside the JDeveloper IDE. The extension adds the Spring jar files as a library to JDeveloper and adds a wizard and editing features for creating Spring xml files.
Installation
The Spring extension is available through the Help->Check for Updates menu of JDeveloper and is provided as part of the "Open Source and Partners" center. Choose the extension from this location and follow the wizard. This will automatically download the extension and ask you to restart JDeveloper.
Once you restart JDeveloper the extension will be installed. To verify the installation visit the Tools->Preferences->Extensions menu and look for the Spring extension entry.
Spring Library
The extension adds a new library to JDeveloper with the JAR files of the Spring framework. You can access this library definition through the Tools->Manage Libraries menu option. The spring library would be added to your project automatically when you use the beans.xml creation wizard. You can also add it to project manually.
beans.xml Creation Wizard
The beans.xml file is the key file for mapping the beans that compose a Spring based application. The Spring extension adds a new wizard to JDeveloper that allows you to create this file and also automatically configures the project to include the Spring library. Once the bean.xml file is created you can start editing it and leverage the advance editing features provided by JDeveloper.
Note: you can create other Spring xml files using the New->XML->XML file dialog.
Editing Spring Files
JDeveloper includes an advance XML editing framework that you can leverage while editing the Spring XML files. The framework offers several capabilities:
Code insight
JDeveloper will offer code insight while editing both XSD and DTD based Spring file. Just start by typing < and wait for a second - JDeveloper will then pop-up the possible entries appropriate for the specific location.
Note that if the tag you chose has mandatory attributes, JDeveloper will automatically add them to your tag.
While you are coding JDeveloper will underline errors with a curly red line.
Note: JDeveloper can automatically complete the closing tags while you are editing XML. To set this up visit the tools->Preferences->Code Editor->XML and JSP/HTML.
Also note that JDeveloper offers auto formatting of your XML through the right click context menu.
Structure Window
The structure window allows you to quickly navigate the hierarchy of your XML file and also offers editing features. Right clicking on nodes in the structure window will allow you to add more components. The Structure pane is also the location where error messages are displayed.
Property Inspector
The property inspector window allows you to edit the properties of tags. Changes in the property inspector are kept in synch with the code editor view. The property editor will offer a list of values when relevant to a specific property. You can also see a description of each property.
Components Palette
The component palette lets you select Spring tags and then drag and drop them directly into the code editor or the structure pane to visually build the spring XML files. Note that you'll only be able to drop tags in places that are legal in terms of syntax.
Note that the components in the component palette are grouped into various tabs. Make sure you are aware of the other tabs offered for other Spring files.
Help
The Spring extension adds the Spring documentation to the JDeveloper Help menu option.