TransformixTools Axelor Demo Project

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1 TransformixTools Axelor Demo Project Introduction... 2 ADK for Rapid Application Development... 3 Developer High Productivity... 3 Web and Mobile User Interfaces... 3 ADK and Reverse Engineering of Existing Databases... 4 About The Demo... 5 Steps... 7 Phase 1: Prerequisites... 7 Install Axelor Business Suite... 7 Configure the Prerequisites Phase 2: Command Line Demo Install Axelor Development Kit Install the starter demo files Axelor Module Generation with TransformixTools Execution Phase 3: Setup for Eclipse Development Eclipse server configuration Defining a new server Starting the server... 23

2 Introduction The Axelor platform is a rapid development framework for building business applications based on Java technology. It is easy to learn, customizable and saves critical time for complex applications. The application code is object-oriented, allowing you to use the standard Java APIs. The Axelor platform uses a model-driven development approach, wherein the core of your application specified in xml metafiles that model your business code. Axelor resolves these artifacts for you and implements the runtime in a combination of JAVA classes, Ajax and groovy scripts. This means that you can stay productive while maintaining a high level of encapsulation. The foundation of all Axelor applications is the Axelor Development Kit (ADK). The ADK an open source framework based on JPA entities + framework specific annotation to dynamical generate web based application. Figure 1 provides an overview of the overall architecture of the ADK. In short the ADK provides a framework in which the information sources on the far right side of the diagram are made available to the web and mobile clients on the far left as HTTP(S) and RESTful API web services. Internally, the web services are accessible /ws/ endpoints. Every web service returns JSON data to the client. There are several benefits to this architecture. Among those are; industry standard tools used in web and mobile clients can consume these services, the services can be combined and presented to the user as though they came from a single data source (mashups) and the ADK can be used as a toolset to integrate data from disparate and diverse sources. Figure 1 Axelor Development Kit Runtime Architecture Axelor applications fit together in a hierarchy as shown in Figure 2. An application consists of 1 or more modules and modules are defined in terms of domains, views and actions and some code where needed and if needed. The domains, views and actions are specified in XML files. Appendix A provides an example of a minimal Axelor application all specified without any code.

3 From the company Axelor s point of view, the primary function of the ADK is to facilitate the development of the Axelor Business Suite In this role, the design of the data, user interface modules and how the connect together is specified in XML and the actual implementation of the database is generated for you. That is, when building an Axelor application from scratch it is required that the database needed for the application does not already exists. Once the domains, views and actions are specified, the ADK generates a SCRUD application from these artifacts. As a result, with minimal specifications, application designers end up with a cloud ready web and mobile application within minutes of creating the specification. Of course, these applications are not yet production ready but they speed up development considerably. Axelor Business Suite The Axelor Business Suite is a business applications suite fully modular, user-friendly and scalable. Axelor distributes under its AGPL license its ERP Axelor Business Suite, written in JAVA. Applications include customer relationship management, sales, purchasing, stock, production, accounting, HR, document management, project management. It also includes a graphical process design tool (BPM). ADK for Rapid Application Development The Axelor Development Kit is an AJAX Java Framework for Rapid Application Development (RAD) of business web applications. In ADK developers write a combination of specifications in XML, plain Java with annotations and sometimes scripting in Groovy or JavaScript to build production applications in a surprisingly short amount of time. Developer High Productivity It is possible to build an application with the ADK by only specifying a description of the data (domain) and the views. ADK generates the needed HTML, JavaScript, CSS, SQL, etc needed for a SCRUD application. This means that the database logic and user interface are created with those few specifications. Moreover, developers can start building applications with ADK in a short amount of time. Web and Mobile User Interfaces The ADK produces applications with adaptive user interfaces. This means that mobile applications are automatically produced at the same time browser based applications are produced. Technologies Used in the ADK

4 Figure 2 - ADK Technologies ADK and Reverse Engineering of Existing Databases Transformix has adapted the ADK to work with existing databases. More specifically, TransformixTools are used to reverse engineer existing databases into Axelor Applications. TransformixTools4ADK is the tool that is used to generate an Axelor compatible data model (domains) and

5 corresponding views and actions needed to perform SCRUD operations on all of the tables and views that exists in the database. Moreover, the ADK contains the ability to generate eclipse based development structure that helps you build new ADK projects. This document describes a demo on how to create an Axelor Development Kit project based on an existing database and generate the Axelor artifacts based on an existing database using TransformixTools. About The Demo Figure 3 - ncar_users Database This demo takes the database shown in Figure 2 and generates a fully functional application shown in Figure 3 in less than 5 minutes clock time with about 30 seconds of developer effort. Once the environment has been setup, the developer simply enters cd c:\java_apps\axelor-projects\ncar_demo_proj\ncar-demo\scripts.\scripts>build_db postgres Waits a few seconds until the demo database is built..\scripts>re_dbtoaxelor.bat Waits a few seconds until the Axelor module (domains, and views) are generated. cd C:\java_apps\axelor-projects\axelor-ncar.\axelor-ncar>axelor run :generatecode UP-TO-DATE :modules:ncar:generatecode UP-TO-DAT :modules:ncar:compilejava UP-TO-DATE :modules:ncar:processresources UP-TO :modules:ncar:classes UP-TO-DATE :modules:ncar:jar UP-TO-DATE :compilejava UP-TO-DATE :compilegroovy UP-TO-DATE :processresources UP-TO-DATE :classes UP-TO-DATE :copywebapp UP-TO-DATE

6 :tomcatrun The Server is running at Waits a roughly 2-3 minutes until the application is generated Once this is done a login screen appears: Figure 4 - Axelor ncar login This is followed by a working application. Figure 5 - Ncar Demo Application Data Entry

7 There are several objectives in this demo: 1. It shows the power of Axelor Development Kit in that by only specifying the domains and views it can generate a web and mobile capable web and mobile application. 2. It shows how to build a fully functional SCRUD application from an existing database in 5 minutes or less. 3. It shows the steps required to set up an Axelor development environment. 4. It provide a preview of the Axelor Business Suite. 5. It shows Axelor integration with the Eclipse IDE. Steps In this demo we will describe a four step process that will result the creation of a SCRUD application from an existing PostgreSQL database. 1. Prerequisites 2. Command Line Build and Demo 3. IDE Development Environment In Phase 1, configure the workstation, install the database management system, PostgreSQL. Phase 2 installs the ADK and creates the demo database and generates the Axelor domains, views and actions and builds and launches the demo application using command line tools. Phase 3 shows how to integrate the generated application into the Eclipse IDE. There are two different paths that one can follow to perform the demo. They are: Option 1 Using the Axelor Business Suite (ABS) auto install installer. The ABS auto installer installs JAVA, PostgreSQL and Apache Tomcat in one simple install. This reduces the time and complexity of installing the prerequisites needed for running Axelor applications and has the added benefit of providing a set of Axelor Business Applications that can be used for additional future evaluation of Axelor capability. That is the option used in this document. Option 2 Installing prerequisites individually. Using this approach, JAVA, PostgreSQL must be installed and configured individually. These topics are covered extensively elsewhere and are therefore, not discussed in this document. Phase 1: Prerequisites In this phase we will install Axelor Business Suite using the Axelor auto installer and perform some minor configuration functions. Install Axelor Business Suite For those of you who would like to do a local install of Axelor, the easiest way to do it is with the auto install version of the application. There is one for Windows, Linux and OS/X. The main reason using this a

8 Figure 6 - Overview of steps for the demo

9 quick and easy way to install a local copy of Axelor is that the installer installs the Axelor dependencies along with Axelor Business Suite. For example, I installed ABS in c:\java_apps. C:\java_apps\Axelor Business Suite\opt. Note that the sub directories under opt are the Jdk JAVA development kit pgsql PostgreSQL tomcat Apache Tomcat application server The application simply installs and runs. You can find it here: Unfortunately, as of this writing only the French version of the auto installer is available. Still, English language users can make it work with a simple configuration change after install. After installation, you must logon and as the administrator, include the English language modules then restart ABS. Here are the steps: 1) Download and double click the axelor-business-suite-4.x.x-fr-windows-x64.exe file. 2) Choose English as the setup language 3) Select the ports to use. I like to use something other than the default 8080,8443,8009 and 8005 in order to avoid conflicts with other software that might already be installed on the computer. 4) Specify the database port to use. I use 5440 and Choose Import demo data

10 5) If the server does not start automatically, start it from the start menu. Look for Axelor Business Suite and pick Start Axelor Business Suite. The first time startup takes maybe minutes as it loads the database. 6) Log on to the server using: Login: admin Password: axadmin Note that the password will change when we configure the English language modules into ABS. Now the application will start but it is in French. Navigage to Administration/Gestion des modules/les Modules

11 7) In the list of modules to the right of the menu you will see that the English languages module has not been selected. Go on and select it. 8) Once you see the screen below you can log off, stop and then restart Axelor Business Suite.

12 9) Once you see the screen below you can log off, stop and then restart Axelor Business Suite. 10) The application will start and load the new modules with associated data. Load of database and new modules takes another 20 minutes. Note the password was changed by the installer. Login: admin Password: admin Configure the Prerequisites If you followed the instructions above you now have the following at c:\java_apps\axelorbusinesssuite\ opt ³ jdk -JAVA_HOME ³ ³ bin ³ ³ db ³ ³ ³ bin ³ ³ ³ lib ³ pgsql - PGHOME ³ ³ bin ³ ³ lib ³ ³ share ³ ³ contrib ³ ³ extension ³ ³ locale var lib ³ postgresql

13 ³ ³ data Configure the environment variables JAVA_HOME= c:\java_apps\axelorbusinesssuite\opt\jdk PGHOME= c:\java_apps\axelorbusinesssuite\opt\pgsql PATH=%JAVA_HOME%\bin;%PGHOME%\bin;%PATH% 11) Try the Axelor Business Suite Demo Phase 2: Command Line Demo In this phase we will install the Axelor Development Kit and the demo files and generate the demo application. The files you will need are at Unzip the axelor-projects.zip and you will see the following files: axelor-projects -- axelor-ncar `-- ncar_demo_proj -- adk `-- axelor-development-kit tgz -- demo-starter

14 `-- demo-starter.zip -- ncar-demo -- scripts `-- sql -- postgres_config -- pg_hba.conf `-- postgresql.conf `-- profile_info -- axelordev.sh `-- java.sh Place this entire structure at C:\java_apps\ forming c:\java_apps\axelor-projects. Install Axelor Development Kit At the time of this writing, this demo requires the use of a customized version of the Axelor Development Kit. The standard Axelor Development Kit does not allow the use of existing databases. The TransformixTools version does allow existing databases. Cd to c:\java_apps\axelor-projects\ncar_demo_proj\adk. Unzip axelor-development-kit tgz and produce axelor-development-kit Place this directory at C:\java_apps\axelor-development-kit-4.1.0opt/axelor-development-kit Set up system variable AXELOR_HOME that points to axelor-development-kit home. This is mandatory AXELOR_HOME=C:\java_apps\axelor-development-kit-4.1.0opt/axelor-development-kit PATH=%AXELOR_HOME%\bin:%PATH% Install the starter demo files Unzip demo-starter.zip and overlay the directory axelor-ncar. This contains the common files needed to support an Axelor module. It does not contain the module. We will generate that from the database. Axelor Module Generation with TransformixTools cd to c:\java_apps\axelor-projects\ncar_demo_proj\ncar_demo\scripts 1. Create the ncar_users database Build the demo database by running build_db.bat 1. Reverse Engineer the Database Generate the module for the demo application by running RE_DbToAxelor.bat. This step adds files to C:\java_apps\axelor-projects\ and overlays the axelor-ncar folder with modules that will define the application we need. This step also merges the starter project with the generated artifacts. Execution 2. Building and running the Application

15 cd c:\java_apps\axelor-projects\axelor-ncar$ axelor run Started Tomcat Server The Server is running at

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17 Note: Place the file pgsql.cmd at c:\java_apps\axelorbusinesssuite\. Phase 3: Setup for Eclipse Development The application project can be imported in eclipse ide. In order to import the project, you first have to generate eclipse project files like this: $ cd /path/to/axelor-demo $./gradlew cleaneclipse eclipse This will generate eclipse project files for the application project and all it s submodules. It also generates an external tool launcher configuration to invoke code generation from Run External Tools. From the eclipse, import the projects using File Import General Existing Projects into Workspace menu. In the import project wizard check the Search for nested projects so that all the submodules are also imported. Whenever you made any changes like adding dependencies to some third-party library or adding new module you have to repeat these steps and refresh/reimport projects in eclipse. The application project is configured to be eclipse WTP compatible. Create a tomcat7 server, add the axelordemo module and run the server. You can use axelor shell utility or the included gradlew script to generate code or build the project from external terminal. In this case, always refresh eclipse workspace to see the updated source in eclipse.

18 Eclipse server configuration This is a guide to configure WTP to run and debug ApplicationA in Eclipse. Eclipse WebTools ( WTP ) provides support for a multitide of Java application servers, allowing among others deploy an application on the server directly from Eclipse. In the case of the platform, you can use WTP to start Tomcat (or your favorite server application) from Eclipse and thus observe the effects of changes without redeploying the application and debug the code. Defining a new server In the view Servers bottom of the screen, click the right mouse button, select New, and then clickserver. To see the view Servers : 1. In the Eclipse menu bar, click Window (Window), choose Show View (View view), then click Other... (Other...). 2. In the panel Show View (View view), expand Server, select Servers, then click OK. In the panel New server (New Server), ensure that Server's host name (Host Name Server) is set tolocalhost. Select Apache/Tomcat v7.0 Server as the server type. Make sure Server runtime environment is set to Apache Tomcat v7.0. Click Next (Next).

19 In the next window, specify the installation directory of the JRE and the application server. Select the installation folder Tomcat (eg tomcat /home/axelor/applications/apache). Click Next (Next).

20 In the next window, select the web project to add to the server. Click Finish (Finish).

21 The server that you specified should now appear in the view Servers Open the server with a double-click on Tomcat v7.0 Server at localhost. 1. Under Timeout, increase Start and Stop at 250s. 2. Under Server Options, uncheck auto reload module by default. 3. In the tab Modules in the table, open and uncheck enable Auto reloading.

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23 The server is ready to be launched from the view Servers at the bottom of the screen. It may have to increase the memory allocated to the server: 1. Open the server with a double-click from the view Servers at the bottom of the screen. 2. Under General Information, clicuez under Open Lauch Configuration 3. In the tab Arguments, add in VM arguments, -Xms2048m -Xmx2048M - XX:PermSize=1024m -XX:MaxPermSize=1024m Starting the server In the tab Servers 1. Right click on Tomcat v7.0 Server at localhost and select Start (or Debug ) 2. Wait until Tomcat is started. 3. Launch the Internet browser:

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