Hi,
I am slowly starting to like the idea of putting deployment descriptors alongside the
Java code. I was lately looking at XDoclet and it's amazing how much time can be saved by writing relevant deployment information inside Java source files. For example one can put deployment descriptor tags(XDoclet tags) inside the
EJB source code and have the tool generate the remote interface, the home interface and deployment descriptor files. In a way it's the ultimate non-repeating coding technique.
But on the other hand, it looks like the code is being littered with pieces of non-Java constructs. These are not traceble and clutter the interface.
One more thing is that the XDoclet tags need to be defined, so another layer of indirection -> learning curve.
Eclipse is doing a terrific job in Java tracing and refactoring. I wish it had a feature to enable/disable viewing XDoclet code, or mark them as blocks that can be expanded(VisualStudio style). It can also be improved as to add tracebility bu linking XDoclet tags just as it does search classes. Or add "Find references..." type search capability...
These are just couple of ideas that need to be collaborated...
One of the example projects written with XDoclet is
XPetstore I'd like to hear what you think of the idea of mixing DDs with Java code, and if you know of any good plugins for Eclipse(I tried
JBoss IDE, but seems it's not supporting Eclipse 3.0 M1)
Levent Gurses
Consultant