Generate Series 60 Java apps with SoProMach

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Generate Series 60 Java apps with SoProMach

1	The sample ShoppingList application

2	A grocery shopping list application

3	Generating and building the applications

4	A plumbing shopping list application

5	Machine-made Java source code

5.1	Grocery Shopping List

5.2	Plumbing Shopping List

6	Importing the machine-made code into JBuilder X

A previous article introduced a generator of C++ form editing applications for the Series 60 Platform, built on the Symbian OS, which is currently the leading smartphone platform in the world. This article describes a similar generator, producing Java shopping list applications for the same platform.

Both Series 60 generators produce fully functioning applications that run on the Series 60 emulator, starting from the same type of input model.

1 - The sample ShoppingList application

The reference development environment for this article is the Series 60 2nd Edition SDK for Symbian OS Supporting Feature Pack 2 for MIDP. Within the J2ME (Java 2 Mobile Edition) context, MIDP stands for Mobile Information Device Profile: see java.sun.com/products/midp for more information.

The Series 60 MIDP SDK is available after registration on www.forum.nokia.com. It contains several example applications, one of which is the ShoppingList Example used for the custom-made generator described in this article.

The ShoppingList example application handles a shopping list, containing an unsorted list of items, and the quantity required. As things are purchased the user can remove them from the list. The pictures below show the editing functions of the application.

Figure 1 - Adding items

Figure 2 - The shopping list

The example makes use of the standard MIDP application framework and LCDUI API, and demonstrates how to open and save an RMS (Record Management System) database, using the java.io package to store a class as a byte array.

The class diagram of this application is shown in the figure below, taken from the SDK documentation.

Figure 3 - ShoppingList: Class diagram

In a way, the above class diagram defines a class, or macroclass, of form applications. The custom-made generator here described produces complete applications belonging to this macroclass. This generator is hereinafter referred to as SoProMach/S60JslGen, which stands for Java Shopping List Generator.

2 - A grocery shopping list application

The original ShoppingList contains all basic functions necessary to build different types of shopping lists. Additional functions on top of those functions provide a more user-friendly interface, allowing for instance to quickly create pre-prepared lists of shopping items, as shown below.

Figure 4 - Pre-prepared lists

Figure 5 - Adding beverages

Once the selected groups have been added to the shopping list, it is possible to edit the quantities of individual shopping items by clicking on the "Ok" button, as the following pictures show.

Figure 6 - The editable
shopping list

Figure 6 - The editable shopping list

Figure 7 - Editing
one shopping item

Figure 7 - Editing one shopping item

After choosing the quantities for each desired shopping item, the "Compact list" function allows to delete all items with a zero quantity, thus producing the desired shopping list, as shown below.

Figure 8 - List
with excess items

Figure 8 - List with excess items

Figure 9 - Compacting
the list

Figure 9 - Compacting the list

Figure 10 - Desired
shopping list

Figure 10 - Desired shopping list

It is of course possible to add specific items by typing in the item name and the related quantity, as the next picture shows.

Figure 11 - Hand-added item

3 - Generating and building the applications

How can a developer produce the application above with SoProMach/S60JslGen? How can the application's pre-prepared lists be designed and described?

SoProMach is a purely textual software production machine, and so are the custom generators built on top of it. Therefore to "configure" the generation job, the developer writes one or more textual files. Several formats are accepted by SoProMach: Somusar/EF (see below), XML, CSV, or ad-hoc domain-specific languages (DSL).

For this specific SoProMach/S60JslGen generator, the only input required is an EF (entity file) description as the one shown below.

Figure 12 - Input to the generator: "grocery.ef"

Note that this is the same input format used for the Series 60 C++ form application generator: this format is independent of the target language and platform. In fact, readers unfamiliar with EF files may view different examples in different contexts, such as the entity files of the Eclipse-driven Java/JSP/DAO Struts generator.

The Grocery Shopping List application described in the previous paragraph is generated and built in a completely automatic fashion starting from "grocery.ef": no hand-edits whatsoever are required to build it. In fact, SoProMach/S60JslGen itself runs the commands of the build environment (compile, preverify), as shown in the next picture.

Figure 13 - Generating and building

Each EF input file drives the generation of three Java classes, conforming to the class diagram of the original ShoppingList example application.

4 - A plumbing shopping list application

Now that the software production mechanism is in place, it is easy to create new applications by simply creating new EF files, as the one shown below.

Figure 14 - Input to the generator: "plumbing.ef"

When the EF file is ready, re-running SoProMach/S60JslGen results in a new application. The Plumbing Shopping List application is shown in the screenshots below.

Figure 15 - Pre-prepared lists
of plumbing items

Figure 15 - Pre-prepared lists of plumbing items

Figure 16 - Draft list
with excess items

Figure 16 - Draft list with excess items

Figure 17 - Final
shopping list

Figure 17 - Final shopping list

5 - Machine-made Java source code

The links to the code files generated by SoProMach/S60JslGen for the two applications are listed below. The code looks very similar to the code of the original Shopping List example application.

5.1 - Grocery Shopping List

GroceryEditItemScreen.java
GroceryShoppingItem.java
GroceryShoppingListMIDlet.java

5.2 - Plumbing Shopping List

PlumbingEditItemScreen.java
PlumbingShoppingItem.java
PlumbingShoppingListMIDlet.java

6 - Importing the machine-made code into JBuilder X

The generated Java code can be easily imported into IDEs such as Borland JBuilder X. SoProMach-based generators can be integrated with any IDE providing support for external tool invocation: see examples of integration with Eclipse and with Visual Basic Express 2005 Beta.

While creating with JBuilder X the new project that will host the machine-made code, the J2ME libraries from the Series 60 MIDP SDK need to be added as shown in the picture below.

Figure 18 - Adding the J2ME library

Afterwards, a new package is created, and the generated Java classes are added to the project as the following pictures show.

Figure 19 - Creating a new package

Figure 20 - Adding the machine-made Java code

Figure 21 - Source code in place

Building the project results in the "Build succedeed" status message shown at the bottom of the JBuilder X screenshot below.

Figure 22 - Building the application

Among other advantages resulting from using JBuilder X, it is also possible to browse through the package documentation generated by JBuilder X, as shown below.

Figure 23 - Viewing the package documentation

Written on 30 March 2005
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