aXSL Development

Contents

Introduction

Most developers can use aXSL in their projects without needing the information on this page. However, if you wish to modify or propose modifications to aXSL, and wish to set up a development environment to do so, the information on this page should be useful.

Sandbox

Before you can work on the source code, you will need to get a copy of it from the aXSL Subversion Repository. As suggested in the repository documentation, be sure to append "/trunk" to the URL documented there. We also strongly recommend keeping your Subversion sandbox separate from your Integrated Development Environment (IDE). For example, the default Eclipse behavior is to download the code directory into the Eclipse workspace. You will generally get better results if you keep your sandbox in a separate location, and just point projects in your IDE to that sandbox.

Eclipse Users

After downloading your sandbox, open Eclipse in the workspace of your choice. Make sure you have a J2SE-1.5 Execution Environment installed. Open the "Window / Preferences menu item, then select "Java / Installed JREs / Execution Environments". Click on the "J2SE-1.5" environment, and make sure it points to a valid Java 1.5 JRE.

The easiest thing to do is to let maven import the aXSL projects into your workspace. Make sure you have m2eclipse installed as a plugin to Eclipse (it is a plugin to Eclipse, not to Maven).

  1. Run the "File / Import" menu item.
  2. Select "Maven / Existing Maven Projects".
  3. Point "Root directory" to the root of your sandbox.
  4. A list of the aXSL projects will be created. Select all of the projects listed.
  5. Note the control allowing you to add the projects to an Eclipse working set. Select according to your preferences.
  6. Under the "Advanced" section, enable "Resolve Workspace projects". This will allow m2eclipse to treat aXSL projects as workspace dependencies instead of needing to build them and use them from your maven repository.
  7. Press "Finish". This will import and configure all of the aXSL projects into your workspace. You should now be able to build and develop from within Eclipse.