I have first use custom MDA code generation techniques in 2004, since then I'm searching for generic MDA code generation Framework and I think I found it.
The idea is that if you put a little more effort in the design phase(drawing more UML) this will boost your development a lot.
Plus the fact that most of web(j2ee) code is tedious and I can't see a reason why it can't be generated easily.
So here how I installed,configured and play with androMDA for 2 days completing their tutorial(can't wait to play with state chart diagrams for FrontEnd generation).
What is androMDA : Pack of build processes,templates and UML Profile with extended stereotypes and datatypes through XMI.
My bundle was: JDK 1.5, maven 1.0.2, androMDA-3.2, MagicDraw 9.5 (CE).
Problems:
- as 90% of the OSS-Free projects...there is exactly 1 way to make all this work(+ some obsolete tutorial sentences) - follow the steps zaelot like
- androMDA 3.2 misleading UML profile: it looks that 3.2 supports UML2... but no, androMDA 3.2 only works with UML1.4 and XMI 1.2 (both pretty old)
- UML Tools - ArgoUML (20 or 24) does not work at all with 3.2 UML profile, however MagicDraw 9.5 (community edition) works ok. Have in mind that most recent UML Tools doesn't support UML 1.4 and XMI 1.2 ( most of them : UML2, XMI 2.1 )
I like:
- it actually worked (yes many "Free" projects I've come across doesn't)
- can generate finders
- is not overhead to the overall development process(it can be hooked at design phase)
- can generate almost everything (currently I was able to generate servies,entities,hibernate xmls, value objects,web part)
- can generate complex FrontEnd (still to be verified - state chart diagram)
- pack everything nicely (into EAR of WAR)
- OSS (don't know if this is a plus but you can modify it)
- can be integrated into complex build process (of course)
- try to separate common,generated and potentially custom implemented sources
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