Thanks Werner for the detailed explanation. I will look in to the points you
gave and will get back to you.
I was just joking when I said I will have some tough time ahead :) But
thanks for your willingness to support.
Thanks,
SD
On 5/16/07, Werner Guttmann <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Sachith,
JAM definitely looks like worth looking at, especially as it allows to
backbridge between Java 1.4 and Java 5.0 (and above). Though it should be
quite clear that JAXB 2.0 by definition is Java 5.0 compliant.
The XMLInstance2Schema tool does not really help you, as you are right
that it starts from an XML document instance, whereas your starting point is
a set of (potentially annotated) Java classes plus as et of rules as defined
in the JAXB 2.0 specification.
But this input source difference aside, both 'tools' build an internal
Schema object hierarchy, based upon the schema.* classes already available
in Castor XML. And both have the requirement to serialize this assembled
object hierarchy to e.g. a file, and that's where Castor already has
existing infrastructure code (e.g. SchemaWriter, ...). In other words,
reviewing what XMLInstance2Schema does internally might give a good
understanding as to how to go about two thirds of your assigned task. And it
will be very useful to get a full appreciation of the existing classes in
the schema package, whether they are complete in terms of what you will
need, etc.
The exact scope of your project is to implement the schema generator, a
component that takes (potentially annotated) Java classes and generate an
XML schema from it. For this, you will have to be able to process JAXB
specific annotations, and customize your internal schema model before
serializing it. In other words, your statement
"What I meant by implement is to read and understand all the java
files thru reflection together with the annotations (perhaps using
JAM)
and derive the schema by looking at it?"
is quite an accurate description of the task. Personally, you will have to
cover JAXB annotation as well, but there's a lot of default rules that apply
without looking in to annotations.
A few lines above, I pointed out to you that Castor already has a
component that is capable of producing an XML schema instance., though it
starts from a different input source (XML document instance). But as a
result of this, there's already some infrastructure in place (whether
feature-complete or not) that you will be re-using.
And finally, I don't think you'll be having a tough time. There's plenty
of people you can turn to, incl. myself, and fortunately, you don't have to
reinvent the wheel completely.
Let me know whether this clears things up a bit for you.
Regards
Werner
_______________________________________
Von: Sachith Dhanushka [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Gesendet: Mittwoch, 16. Mai 2007 06:05
An: dev@castor.codehaus.org
Betreff: Re: [castor-dev] Clarification on JAXB2 -> Schema conversion
Hi,
Please bear in mind that we are going to need a little 'infrastructure'
to be able to read those annotations as well. I am not 100% whether this
is part of your assignment or not, as there's some overlap with another
GSoC student. In other words, that's to be defined.
IwasinitiallythinkingofusingJAM(http://annogen.codehaus.org/)forthis.Youwere
talking about another SoC project on this. Is it completed or going
with me in parallel. If it is going with me in parallel, then I don't think
it is a good idea to depend on it, from my project point-of-view.
Just for your information, Cstor already now has a component that we
name externally 'xml schema instance 2 schema' convertor. It is a little
tool that you can use to derive an XML schema from an XML instance
document. Not exactly what you are looking for, but at least it makes
use of the very same infrastructure (schema.* classes, SchemaWriter,
etc.).
Iamstillconfusedhowthiscanhelpme.IIUC,
thiswillgenerateaschemalookingataXMLfile.Wereyoutryingtosaythis
,XML->schemaconversionisalmostsameasJava->Schemaconversion?
Anyway,Ilookedabitmoreintotheproject.In a nutshell do you think my project
is to implement JAXB2 annotations? What I meant by implement is
toreadandunderstand all the java files thru reflection together with the
annotations (perhaps using JAM) and derive the schema by looking at it?
(BTW, the idea of hacking existing code of JAXB2 might not be a good idea
as I think it involves some licensing issues which I am not that familiar to
deal with.)
Please let me know whether the path that I am taking is correct and also
please provide me with alternatives and suggestions if any. I already
started reading JAXB 2.0 spec. Seems I have some tough time ahead :)
Thanks,
SD
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