Overview
In this chapter, we’ll see about the application & module structures.
Application
An application is nothing but a configuration of a set of modules. The modules are built-time packages handled with Gradle build system.
The axelor
shell utility included with the Axelor Open Platform provides commands for
scaffolding application project and it’s modules.
Application
The axelor --new <NAME>
command can be used to create the application project.
$ axelor --new axelor-demo
new application will be created in /path/to/workspace/axelor-demo
OK, application created.
Enjoy!
Here is a directory structure of a the demo application:
axelor-demo ├── build.gradle (1) ├── gradle │ └── wrapper │ ├── gradle-wrapper.jar │ └── gradle-wrapper.properties ├── gradlew (2) ├── gradlew.bat ├── settings.gradle (3) └── src ├── license │ └── header.txt (4) └── main └── resources ├── application.properties (5) ├── log4j.properties └── META-INF └── persistence.xml
1 | The gradle build script |
2 | The gradle wrapper script for Linux & Mac (.bat is for windows) |
3 | The gradle settings script |
4 | The license header for the source code |
5 | The application config file |
The modules
directory contains application specific feature modules. First,
let’s see about some important files here before checking module structure.
The build.gradle
file is a build script used by gradle to build
the application.
apply plugin: 'axelor-app' (1)
application { (2)
name "axelor-demo"
title "Axelor demo"
version "1.0.0"
// module dependencies
module "modules:axelor-contact" (3)
}
license { (4)
ext.product = "axelor-demo"
ext.owner = "My Company"
ext.website = "http://my-company.com"
}
tomcat { (5)
httpPort = project.properties.get("http.port", 8080) as Integer
stopPort = 9451
}
1 | The gradle plugin for the application project |
2 | The application project configuration |
3 | The feature modules this application depends on |
4 | The license header configuration, see the license/header.txt template. |
5 | The embedded tomcat server settings |
The apply plugin: 'axelor-app'
tells gradle to use the given
plugin for this build script. This plugin defines an extension point application
where we can define various properties.
-
name - name of the application
-
title - display title for the application
-
version - application version
The license
settings are used to configure the license header to be placed on
source files. The tomcat
settings are used to configure the embedded tomcat
server.
Another important build script is the settings.gradle
which aggregates all the
feature module projects to be used in current build process:
// Include modules
include "modules:axelor-contact"
The include "modules:axelor-contact"
line tells gradle to include the module
axelor-contact
in current build cycle. It is required to list all the modules
used by the application in settings.gradle
file.
Module
The application project generally doesn’t provide any implementation logic. The functionalities should be provided by creating modules.
The axelor new-module --name <NAME>
command can be used to generate a module
project.
$ axelor new-module --name axelor-contact
new module will be created in /path/to/workspace/axelor-demo/modules/axelor-contact
OK, module created.
Enojoy!
Now let’s see what a feature module directory structure looks like:
axelor-contact ├── build.gradle (1) └── src ├── main (2) │ ├── groovy │ ├── java │ └── resources │ ├── domains (3) │ ├── views (4) │ └── i18n (5) └── test (6) ├── java └── resources
1 | The gradle build script |
2 | The main sources |
3 | The XML resources for domain object definitions |
4 | The XML resources for object view definitions |
5 | The CSV files with translations |
6 | The unit test sources |
You can see the module structure follows standard maven/gradle directory structure.
Let’s see the build.gradle
script for the module.
apply plugin: 'axelor-module' (1)
module { (2)
name "axelor-contact"
title "Axelor contact"
// module dependencies
// module "modules:axelor-foo" (3)
// module "modules:axelor-bar"
}
1 | The gradle plugin for module project |
2 | The module project configuration |
3 | The modules this module depends on |
The apply plugin: 'axelor-module'
tells gradle to use a plugin
for axelor modules. This plugin defines an extension point module
where we can
define various properties.
-
name - name of the module
-
title - display title for the module
-
removable - whether the module is removable (optional, default is false)
A module
may have dependencies to another modules which can be specified by
the `module "modules:<module-name>" calls.