Generation Tools

This set of three tools supports generating a binding from a set of Java classes (BindingGen), generating a schema from a binding and the referenced classes (SchemaGen), and generating the full set of a binding definition, schema, and WSDL suitable for use with Axis2 from a set of Java classes (Jibx2Wsdl). The tools are packaged as three separate jars (jibx-bindgen.jar, jibx-schemagen.jar, and jibx2wsdl.jar), each with one of the tools as the default execution class for that jar.

BindingGen and Jibx2Wsdl both support extensive customizations, with the customization information normally supplied in the form of an XML document. SchemaGen also uses some of the same customizations to supplement the information . The customization format used by Jibx2Wsdl is an extension of that used by BindingGenerator. Both tools also allow basic customizations to be set directly on the command line.

BindingGen and SchemaGen are intended to replace the older Generator Tools. BindingGenerator, in particular, goes much further than the older Generator Tools equivalent, adding support for Java 5 generic collections and Enum types. However, the current implementation of SchemaGenerator is focused on handling the bindings generated by BindingGenerator, rather than on handling all possible JiBX bindings. It will be extended to handle more binding variations in the future.

Installation

The distribution zip file for the tools contains these documentation pages along with a pair of jars containing the actual executable code for the tools, jibx-genbinding.jar and jibx-genschema.jar. The easiest way to use these jars is to copy them into the lib directory of your JiBX installation. If you do this the tools will automatically find the required JiBX classes when they're run and you won't need to set up any special classpath information (except for your own classes). This is the approach that's assumed for this documentation. If you prefer to keep the tool jars separately from the JiBX installation you'll need to add the jar files from the JiBX lib directory (jibx-bind.jar, jibx-run.jar, bcel.jar, xpp3.jar, and possibly jibx-extras.jar) to the classpath when running the tools.

Status

The current 0.2 Beta version of these tools should be usable for many purposes directly, though the output is far from optional and often require manual corrections. The tools are now being updated as part of preparations for the JiBX 1.2 releases, in which they'll become integrated components of the core JiBX distribution.

An updated 0.3 standalone version of the tools for use with JiBX 1.1.X will be released before the end of December, 2006.

The source code for the tools is included in the main JiBX project CVS. The actual building of the jars is done using the jar-tools target in the JiBX Ant build.xml.