27 About Developer Tools
Oracle Developer Tools lets you integrate WebCenter Sites with the Eclipse IDE so you can create a personal and flexible development environment.
Topics:
27.1 Introduction to Developer Tools Architecture
You and other developers like you would like to work in personal and flexible environments. Integrate WebCenter Sites with the Eclipse IDE to create an environment that improves your productivity. You interact with Developer Tools (and therefore WebCenter Sites), primarily through Eclipse. And, you get a rich set of functions for managing WebCenter Sites resources.
Developer Tools may be running on any computer (local or remote). Whether managed through Eclipse or in WebCenter Sites, the resources can be either automatically or manually synchronized by the Developer Tools kit.
For example, Eclipse-managed resources are stored as files in a file system, giving developers the option to integrate with a version control system of their choice. If the resources are modified and WebCenter Sites is running, then the resources are automatically synchronized, that is, imported into WebCenter Sites, in its native database representation. Manual synchronization can be performed in both directions.
This figure shows a summary of Developer Tools:
27.2 IDE Integration
With Eclipse, you can create and manage templates and elements, export and import assets, preview pages, and so on.
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Create, edit, and delete CSElement, Template, Controller, SiteEntry assets, and SiteCatalog and ElementCatalog entries.
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Develop JSP elements with standard Eclipse features such as tag completion, syntax highlighting, and debugging.
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Export and import assets, asset types, flex families, sites, roles, tree tabs, and start menu items.
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Preview WebCenter Sites pages within the Eclipse IDE using an embedded preview browser.
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View the WebCenter Sites log file in a dynamically refreshing panel.
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Integrate with version control systems.
Note:
Integrating Developer Tools with Eclipse embeds the Admin and Oracle WebCenter Sites: Contributor interfaces in Eclipse to make them easily accessible to developers. The Admin interface is used in many parts of this guide (for example, to create flex families). See What Can You Do in the Contributor Interface? inOracle Fusion Middleware Using Oracle WebCenter Sites.
27.3 The Developer Tools Workspace
WebCenter Sites resources that you manage in Eclipse are stored as files in a file system structure called the main Developer Tools workspace.
This structure enables resources to be easily managed and exchanged with WebCenter Sites instances. The main Developer Tools workspace is the only workspace accessible from Eclipse.
Note:
Creating a custom workspace is optional. In most distributed environments the only necessary workspace is the main Developer Tools workspace. Custom workspaces are not accessible from Eclipse. Creating a custom workspace is described in Using Workspaces in Developer Tools. All other Developer Tools topics in this guide discuss the main Developer Tools workspace.
27.4 Connecting to WebCenter Sites Instances
Developer Tools enables you to connect to any local or remote WebCenter Sites instance. Each WebCenter Sites instance that you integrate with Eclipse is assigned an Eclipse project and each project is displayed in the main Developer Tools workspace. The Eclipse project tracks the WebCenter Sites resources stored in Eclipse for that WebCenter Sites instance.
You can connect to as many WebCenter Sites instances (locally and remotely) as you want; an Eclipse project folder is created for each instance you connect to. See Understanding Projects and Workspaces in Eclipse.
27.5 Synchronization
With the Developer Tools kit, you synchronize resources in Eclipse with those in WebCenter Sites. This way you ensure that the Developer Tools workspace and WebCenter Sites database contain the same content.
Manual synchronization is bi-directional; that is, you can import resources into the WebCenter Sites database and export resources to the Developer Tools workspace.
Exporting resources to Eclipse converts the resources into files. Importing a resource into WebCenter Sites converts the resource to native WebCenter Sites format (database representation).
Note:
Automatic synchronization occurs when WebCenter Sites resources are edited, created, or deleted in Eclipse, but only if the WebCenter Sites instance is running. This synchronization includes transparent flushing of page and resultset caches in WebCenter Sites.
27.6 JSP Management
The Developer Tools kit exposes WebCenter Sites JSPs as individual files in the Developer Tools workspace for you to manage the JSPs as any other JSP file.
That is, you can create, edit, and debug your JSPs as any other JSP file.
27.7 Command Line Interface (CLI)
With the Developer Tools kit’s command line interface you can automate import and export tasks and large-scale resource movement. You can also create custom workspaces, and synchronize resources with any workspace.
The Eclipse integration lets you work only with resources stored in the main Developer Tools workspace.
27.8 About Using a Version Control System
A version control system lets you check out resources to any target system, including testing servers, Management WebCenter Sites systems, or another developer's WebCenter Sites instance, to make use of their functions (such as publishing). Your Developer Tools kit supports version control system. So, you can implement one to be able to exchange resources between WebCenter Sites instances and your colleagues. You also can update your workspace with the resources checked in by other developers.
The figure shows an example of using Developer Tools with a version control system. This example uses a dedicated WebCenter Sites instance to publish resources to a Management WebCenter Sites instance. Therefore, the Approval/Publishing feature provided by WebCenter Sites can be used to publish resources that were checked out from the version control system. This example is the recommended way to use a version control system with Developer Tools, but it is not required.
Figure 27-2 Using Developer Tools with a Version Control System
Description of "Figure 27-2 Using Developer Tools with a Version Control System"