This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Java Buzz by Norman Richards. Original Post: Panther, Xcode, JBoss and XDoclet Feed Title: Orb [norman richards] Feed URL: http://members.capmac.org/~orb/blog.cgi/tech/java?flav=rss Feed Description: Monkey number 312,978,199 Latest Java Buzz Posts Latest Java Buzz Posts by Norman Richards Latest Posts From Orb [norman richards]

I had heard that the new OS X release shipped JBoss as a developer tool. In my hunt for JBoss, I ran across Ant and XDoclet libraries. I thought that was neat, but I didn't realize until this weekend (at the local Mac programmers get together) what it was for.

In playing with Xcode, I realized that installing the app server developer package lets Xcode know how to develop J2EE application. There are three J2EE project prototypes: EJB Module, Web Module and Enterprise Application. The J2EE projects use ant to build and deploy and deploy to the JBoss server that comes with the system.

There's nothing terribly earth shattering in this, but I did appreciate that all of the J2EE applications rely on XDoclet to do the generation. The projects come with a very nicely put together build file and a full set merge files to guide you to where you might want to customize. Anyone who has struggled to get their first XDoclet project up and running should be able to appreciate the idea of being able to get an XDoclet based project running with just a few clicks.

Although Xcode isn't quite serious competitor to Eclipse or IDEA (or my favorite, JDEE for emacs)for hardcore J2EE development, it would be the perfect tool for an XDoclet beginner to use to get started learning XDoclet. I wish Xcode had been out when we were writing the IDE chapter of XDoclet in Action. We would have certainly added coverage of it.