Before starting

Introduction

Before you create and develop a new Java MDA component, the following operations must be carried out:

· Creation of a new working project

· Deployment of the MDA Modeler, Java Developer and RAMC MDA components

· Setting of two important MDAC parameters (one Java Developer parameter and one UML Modeler parameter)

Creating a new working project

To create a new project, simply click on "File/New" and fill in the fields in the project creation dialog box.

For more information on how to create a working project, please see "Creating or opening a project".

Deploying MDA components

The MDA Modeler, Java Developer and RAMC MDA components are all necessary when creating Java MDA components, and must therefore be deployed in your project. To do this, simply click on "Tools/Deploy an MDAC…" and then select and deploy these three MDA components one by one.

For more information on how to deploy MDA components in your project, please see "Working with MDA components".

Setting two important MDAC parameters

In the context of Java MDA component development, one Java Developer MDAC parameter and one UML Modeler MDAC parameter can be configured before starting:

· The path to where your JDK is located (Java Developer MDAC parameter)

· The path of the "GENROOT" directory where Java code will later be generated (UML Modeler MDAC parameter)

To configure these parameters, carry out the steps in Figure 171 below.

Figure 171. Configuring MDAC parameters

Steps:

1. Click on the icon to open the "Modifying configuration" window.

2. In the "General" parameter set of the Java Developer MDAC, enter the path where your JDK is located (in our example, "C:\Program Files\Java\JDK1.5.0_08").

3. In the "Directories" parameter set of the UML Modeler MDAC, enter the root directory for generation (for example, "C:\Projects").

It is recommended that the JDK path and GENROOT path be properly configured at this stage. However, if you choose not to set these parameters at this point, a window will appear when you create your first Java MDA component, in which you will be able to configure the two parameters (Figure 171-bis).

Figure 171-bis. The window used to set the parameters needed for Java MDA component development

Deploying model components

Java MDA component development also requires access to external Java code and classes, such as JDK classes, Objecteering Java API classes and so on. These classes are made available through the automatic deployment of the corresponding model components (also sometimes referred to as RAMCs).

The three model components necessary to Java MDA component development are:

· JDK

· joni-model

· mda

These model components are deployed automatically by MDA Modeler the first time a Java MDA component is created in your project.

Note: The deployment of these three model components can take some time!

Figure 172 shows what these model components look like in the model after their deployment.

Figure 172. The model after deployment of the three model components (JDK, joni-model and mda)