This is the second part (part 1) of a multi-part video series where Lincoln Baxter (@lincolnthree) and I are interactively building a Forge addon to adding Java EE 7 Batch functionality.

Part 1 showed how to get started with creating an addon, add relevant POM dependencies, build and install the addon using Forge shell, and add parameters to the addon. This part shows how to add some meaningful semantics to those parameters.

Java EE 7 Batch define item-oriented processing where an item is read, optionally processed, and then written. Items could be read from an input source, CSV file, JMS destination, REST endpoint, database, or any other source. Similarly items can be written to an output stream, database, or some where else. This logic of reading, processing, and writing is captured in beans that are packaged in your WAR file. These beans need to either extend from a specific interface or extend an abstract class. For example item reader needs to either implement ItemReader interface or extends AbstractItemReader abstract class. Similarly item writer needs to either implement ItemWriter interface or extend <code<AbstractItemWriter abstract class. Item processor need to implement ItemProcessor interface.

Part 1 showed how to add --reader, --processor, --writer parameters to the newly added batch-new-jobxml command. This part will show how to identify classes for each CLI parameter that already honor the contract required by the Batch specification.

Enjoy!

As earlier, the evolving source code is available at github.com/javaee-samples/forge-addons.

The timing for the next recording is unknown at this time because of my travel schedule, but sometime next week.

JBoss Forge is the fastest way to build your Java EE applications, and not even tied to a particular IDE or an Application Server. Tech Tip #17 explained how to build a simple Java EE application rapidly, and deploy it on WildFly. JBoss Developer Studio provide a very neat integration with Forge as well. The instructions from the video are also explained in a text-based script here.

Forge is built with an extensible architecture where third-party addons can be easily installed to enable new functionality that does not exist in the Forge itself. A large variety of addons (nee plugins) are already available such as Arquillian, RichFaces, JRebel, OpenShift, Spring, TomEE, AngularJS, Netty, and a lot more.

Now, you’ve used Forge, found some functionality missing, fortunately somebody already created a addon and so could use that. But now you need some functionality and there is no addon available for that. So you’ll need to create an addon. How do you start ?

Lincoln Baxter (@lincolnthree) and I are starting a multi-part video series where we are going to interactively build a addon for adding Java EE 7 Batch functionality to Forge. The first video is available and shows:

• Get started with creating a plugin basic structure
• Add relevant dependencies
• Build and install the addon
• Add parameters to the addon

We plan to record the next session next Friday-ish. Let us know if you’d like to join us on G+ hangout and will share the coordinates.

The evolving source code is available at github.com/javaee-samples/forge-addons.

Enjoy!