Generating model, edit and editor code

Since Ecore-based models such as the ESDL model contain semantics, source code can be generated from this model. EMF allows you to create three different types of source code:

• ESDL Model code - creates Java-classes out of the model, including the ECore semantics (they inherit from theEObject-class)

• ESDL Edit code - creates editor-independent code to manipulate and edit the ESDL model instances.

• ESDL Editor code - creates the Tree-based editor described here to edit ESDL model instances.

Using the .genmodel

Code generation is specified in the esdl.genmodel file. In Eclipse you can open this file in its own editor. In the properties there are a lot of options you can configure to change the code generation behaviour.

When right-clicking on the esdl-package you can select Generate... to generate one or more of the above mentioned artefacts, or press Ctrl+Shift+G to pop-up the Generator dialog.

The current esdl.genmodel is configured to produce an XML Schema too, that can be used by other non-Java-based software. The next chapters shows how to integrate with e.g. Python.