1. Introducing a Software
Generator Framework
Stephan Hochdörfer
bitExpert AG

2. ABOUT ME
> Stephan Hochdörfer, bitExpert AG
> Department Manager Research Labs
> S.Hochdoerfer@bitExpert.de
> @shochdoerfer
2

3. GENERATING SOFTWARE
3

4. GENERATING SOFTWARE
WTF?!?
4

5. One customer, one optimized application
5

6. Developer vs. Businessman
6

7. New customer with different requirements
7
7

8. Different requirements: intensive workload
8

9. Different requirements: Focus on performance
9

10. Where will this lead to?
10

11. Maintanance nightmare!
11

12. Standardize you should!
12

13. Application framework?
13

14. Manually wiring everything up?
14

15. No automation? No Tooling support?
15

16. Generalize you should!
16

17. GENERATIVE PROGRAMMING
Dealing with software system families,
reusable implementation components
and configuration knowledge.
17

18. GENERATIVE PROGRAMMING: WORKFLOW
Generator
Generator
18

19. GENERATIVE PROGRAMMING: WORKFLOW
Configuration
Configuration
(DSL)
(DSL)
Generator
Generator
19

20. GENERATIVE PROGRAMMING: WORKFLOW
Configuration
Configuration
(DSL)
(DSL)
Implementation-
Implementation-
components
Generator
Generator
components
20

21. GENERATIVE PROGRAMMING: WORKFLOW
Configuration
Configuration
(DSL)
(DSL)
1..n
Implementation-
Implementation-
components
Generator
Generator Product
Product
components
21

22. GENERATIVE PROGRAMMING: WORKFLOW
Configuration
Configuration
(DSL)
(DSL)
Implementation-
Implementation-
components
Generator
Generator Customer 11
Customer
components
22

23. GENERATIVE PROGRAMMING: WORKFLOW
Configuration
Configuration
(DSL)
(DSL)
Customer 22
Customer
Implementation-
Implementation-
components
Generator
Generator Customer 11
Customer
components
23

24. Focus on the (software system) family!
24
24

25. SOFTWARE SYSTEM FAMILY
Set of applications with similar
properties as well as special properties
for each individual member.
25

26. Phase 1: Domain analysis
26

27. Listen to the customers
27

28. Talk to the domain experts
28

29. Do the requirements make sense?
29

30. Does it belong to the family?
30

31. Does it belong to the family?
31

32. Does it belong to the family?
32

33. Does it belong to the family? Maybe...
33

34. Does it belong to the family? No!
34

35. Does it belong to the family? No!
35

36. Phase 2: Domain design
36

37. Feature Modelling
37

38. Phase 3: Domain implementation
38

39. Implementation components
39

40. Configuration Knowledge
40

41. GENERATIVE PROGRAMMING
Generator
Domain Engineering
Domain-
analysis
Domain-
design
Domain-
implementation
41

42. GENERATIVE PROGRAMMING
Generator Product
Domain Engineering App. Engineering
New
requirements
Domain- Requirements
analysis analysis
Domain- Product
design configuration
Components,
Domain- DSL, Testing and
implementation Generators,
Infrastructure
integration
42

43. Technology projection
43

44. GENERATIVE PROGRAMMING: FRAMEWORK
http://replicatorframework.org
44

45. GENERATIVE PROGRAMMING: FRAMEWORK
Java + Maven + Spring + Eclipse
45

46. GENERATIVE PROGRAMMING: FRAMEWORK
mvn archetype:create
-DarchetypeGroupId=org.replicatorframework
-DarchetypeArtifactId=replicator-maven-archetype
-DarchetypeVersion=0.8.0-SNAPSHOT
-DgroupId=org.replicatorframework
-DartifactId=samplegenerator
46

47. GENERATIVE PROGRAMMING: FRAMEWORK
./samplegenerator
|-config
|---generator.properties
|---gpl.xml
|-src
|---main
|-----java
|-----resources
|-------frames
|-------generator
|---------contentProvider.xml
|---------features.xml
|---------frames.xml
|---------generatorContext.xml
|---test
|-----java
|-----resources
|-target
47

48. GENERATIVE PROGRAMMING: ADD FEATURE
./src/main/resources/generator/features.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
xmlns:gp="http://www.replicatorframework.org/schema/gp"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/...">
<gp:feature name="ContactForm" />
<gp:feature name="HintLayer" />
</beans>
48

49. GENERATIVE PROGRAMMING: ADD FRAME
./src/main/resources/generator/frames.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
xmlns:gp="http://www.replicatorframework.org/schema/gp"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/...">
<gp:fileframe id="App.ContactForm"
sourcePath="frames/webroot/form.frm"
exportPath="webroot/form.html">
</gp:fileframe>
<gp:frame id="App.ContactForm.HintLayer"
sourcePath="frames/webroot/hintlayer.frm">
</gp:frame>
<gp:bundle id="App.Resources.Images"
sourcePath="frames/webroot/resources/img"
exportPath="webroot/resources/img" /> 49
</beans>

50. GENERATIVE PROGRAMMING: ADD FRAME
./src/main/resources/generator/features.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
xmlns:gp="http://www.replicatorframework.org/schema/gp"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/...">
<gp:feature name="ContactForm">
<!-- refers to the defined FileFrame -->
<gp:resource ref="App.ContactForm"/>
<!-- refers to the defined ResourceBundle -->
<gp:resource ref="App.Resources.Images"/>
</gp:feature>
<gp:feature name="HintLayer" />
</beans>
50

51. GENERATIVE PROGRAMMING
What about custom logic?
51

52. GENERATIVE PROGRAMMING: CONTENT
PROVIDER
./src/main/resources/frames/webroot/form.frm
<html>
<head>
<title>Sample form</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1><!{hello}!></h1>
<form action="index.do" method="post">
<textarea name="msg"></textarea>
</form>
<!{hint}!>
</body>
</html>
52

53. GENERATIVE PROGRAMMING: CONTENT
PROVIDER
./src/main/resources/generator/contentProvider.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
xmlns:gp="http://www.replicatorframework.org/schema/gp"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/...">
<gp:contentProvider id="GenericContentProvider"
type="generic">
<gp:rule>
<gp:condition>
<gp:group type="AND">
<gp:hasFeature name="ContactForm"/>
</gp:group>
</gp:condition>
<gp:bind slot="hello" value="Hello World!"></gp:bind>
</gp:rule>
</gp:contentProvider>
</beans> 53

54. GENERATIVE PROGRAMMING: CONTENT
PROVIDER
./src/main/resources/generator/contentProvider.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
xmlns:gp="http://www.replicatorframework.org/schema/gp"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/...">
<gp:contentProvider id="GenericContentProvider"
type="generic">
<gp:rule>
<gp:condition>
<gp:hasFeature name="HintLayer"/>
</gp:condition>
<gp:bind slot="hint"
ref="App.ContactForm.HintLayer" />
</gp:rule>
</gp:contentProvider>
</beans>
54

55. GENERATIVE PROGRAMMING
Code anyone?
55

56. GENERATIVE PROGRAMMING: CONTENT
PROVIDER
./src/java/org/replicatorframework/samplegenerator/MyContentProvider.java
package org.replicatorframework.samplegenerator;
import
org.replicatorframework.generator.frame.contentprovid...
import org.replicatorframework.gpl.FeatureConfiguration;
public class MyContentProvider extends AbstractContentProvider
{
public SlotConfiguration computeSlots(FeatureConfiguration
configuration)
{
SlotConfiguration slots = new SlotConfiguration();
slots.put("hello", "Hello World!");
slots.put("hint",
this.getFrameDefinition("App.ContactForm.HintLayer")
);
return slots;
} 56
}

57. GENERATIVE PROGRAMMING: CONFIGURATION
./config/gpl.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<features xmlns="http://www.replicatorframework.org/schema/gpl"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.replicatorframework.org/...
http://www.replicatorframework.org/schema/gpl/gpl-
0.0.6.xsd">
<feature name="hintLayer">
<param name="color" type="String" value="#000" />
<param name="autoClose" type="Boolean" value="true" />
</feature>
</features>
57

58. GENERATIVE PROGRAMMING
How to run the generator?
58

59. GENERATIVE PROGRAMMING
mvn replicator:run
59

60. GENERATIVE PROGRAMMING: THE GOAL
Increasing the productivity,
quality, and time-to-market
60

61. GENERATIVE PROGRAMMING: THE GOAL
Creating an optimized
application on demand!
61

62. GENERATIVE PROGRAMMING: BONUS POINTS
62

63. GENERATIVE PROGRAMMING: BONUS POINTS
Less error-prone, due to
automation
63

64. GENERATIVE PROGRAMMING: BONUS POINTS
Reduce the complexity of the
application
64

65. GENERATIVE PROGRAMMING: BONUS POINTS
Just one code repository:
The software generator
65

66. GENERATIVE PROGRAMMING: BONUS POINTS
Reduce maintenance efforts
66

67. GENERATIVE PROGRAMMING: THE BOOK
67

68. Stephan Hochdörfer http://www.bitExpert.de
bitExpert AG S.Hochdoerfer@bitExpert.de