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Calling ETL + EGL from Eclipse builder: which approach? [message #1366415]

Mon, 19 May 2014 09:52

Scott Finnie

Messages: 94
Registered: October 2011

Member

Hello,

I have an ETL + EGL I want to call from an eclipse builder. The builder is part of a plugin that will be packaged as a p2 repo that users can install in the normal way (Window->install New Software...).

I'm aware of 3 possible ways to implement this, so my question is: what's the recommended way to do it?

Approaches I'm aware of:

1. "Hard code" running the ETL & EGL jobs directly in java. This appears to be how the pongo example is built.
2. Sequence the calls using a .egx file & call it from the builder.
3. Sequence the calls using an ant build & package as an (external) builder.

(2) & (3) are attractive in that a user could potentially change the build (e.g. incorporate their own transformations). However I'd want to avoid any complexity on using the plugin: following installation it should 'just work' without any further effort from the user.

One factor that may impact things: the transformations will need to be parameterised based on project. In particular, the name of the input model file & output directory will need to be passed in to the transformations from the calling builder code.

Many thanks for any advice.

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Re: Calling ETL + EGL from Eclipse builder: which approach? [message #1366746 is a reply to message #1366415]

Mon, 19 May 2014 13:03

Scott Finnie

Messages: 94
Registered: October 2011

Member

Just looked at the pongo example again - and it does use a .egx file. However it's just controlling EGL template execution, not ETL M2M trafo as well. So not sure if it's the right option..? (BTW, can't see any documentation for EGX: can anyone provide any pointers?).

Thanks.

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Re: Calling ETL + EGL from Eclipse builder: which approach? [message #1367186 is a reply to message #1366746]

Mon, 19 May 2014 17:20

Dimitris Kolovos

Messages: 2163
Registered: July 2009
Location: York, UK

Senior Member

Hi Scott,

I'd probably go for the first approach. EGX (documentation to appear shortly) is nor really cut out for invoking other model management programs (e.g. ETL transformations), although this is possible by falling back to Java [1]. ANT is very useful for orchestrating different programs at development time but invoking it through Java in Eclipse looks a bit hack-ish [2].

In terms of extensibility, what we've done in Eugenia [3] is to provide support for user-defined transformations with pre-defined file-names (e.g. Ecore2GMF.eol etc) which, if present next to the user's model, the tool will pick up and run after its built-in transformations.

I hope this helps.

Cheers,
Dimitris

[1] http://eclipse.org/epsilon/doc/articles/call-java-from-epsilon/
[2] https://dev.eclipse.org/svnroot/modeling/org.eclipse.epsilon/trunk/examples/org.eclipse.epsilon.examples.runant/src/org/eclipse/epsilon/examples/runant/RunAntAction.java
[3] http://eclipse.org/epsilon/doc/articles/eugenia-polishing/

[Updated on: Mon, 19 May 2014 17:21]

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Re: Calling ETL + EGL from Eclipse builder: which approach? [message #1369102 is a reply to message #1367186]

Tue, 20 May 2014 12:21

Scott Finnie

Messages: 94
Registered: October 2011

Member

Thanks Dimitris, I'll stick with option (1) on that basis.

Quote:

In terms of extensibility, what we've done in Eugenia [3] is to provide support for user-defined transformations with pre-defined file-names (e.g. Ecore2GMF.eol etc) which, if present next to the user's model, the tool will pick up and run after its built-in transformations.

That's a good idea - thanks. (I've used this on a separate Eugenia project btw - works really well. Good job Smile