Getting Started

This document describes how the typical development lifecycle looks like for EvoAl core development. Please have an additional look at the topics on release planning and the issue workflows.

Prerequisites

For development, we are using Eclipse and IntelliJ. Eclipse is used for creating and developing the models and languages. Using Eclipse is necessary since we are using the Eclipse Modeling Framework and Xtext. Please make sure that you install all necessary dependencies for the development. IntelliJ is used to develop the EvoAl execution environment. We are using IntelliJ here since it offers good support for Maven-based projects, and they offer their full version (IntelliJ Ultimate) for university members for free.

Furthermore, you have to check out EvoAl to your computer.

Modifying Models and Languages

You can find the models and languages in the src/languages folder in the repository.

Required Eclipse Plugins

You have to install the following Eclipse plugins (WARNING: This is not yet validated. Please contact us if you have problems which plugins to choose):

• m2e Maven support for Eclipse (this will install Tycho and additional plugins)
• EMF Eclipse Modelling Framework plugins
• Xtext The Xtext DSL support

Setting Up Eclipse

First, you have to import the existing Maven project. To this end, select the pom.xml that exists in the src/languages folder. After successfully importing all projects you have to activate the Target Platform of EvoAl. Therefore, you have to go to the Eclipse settings, search for the Target Platform Settings and select the target platform that is present in the de.evoal.languages.releng.target project.

Changing Code

Simply do your changes and test them by starting an Eclipse that include the changes (Run As > Eclipse).

Installing Changed Languages for the Execution Environment

For using the changes in the EvoAl execution environment, you have to install your changes to your local maven repository by executing mvn flatten:flatten install in the src/languages folder. The flatten:flatten parameter is necessary to replace some variables used in the pom.xml files by their concrete values to allow the downstream maven projects (those from the EvoAl execution environment) to use them without problems.

Changing EvoAl Execution Environment

You can find the source code of the EvoAl execution runtime in the $EVOAL_REPO/src/evoal folder in the repository. There you will do all your local changes. When testing your changes, you have to create a local release, which you can create automatically and can be found in $EVOAL_REPO/evoal.

Setting up IntelliJ

Simply import the parent project from $EVOAL_REPO/src/evoal.

Changing the Code

Simply use IntelliJ to change the code.

Creating a Local Execution Environment

To create an execution environment that include your changes you first have to execute mvn package in the $EVOAL_REPO/src/evoal folder. This step will create a plugin folder in the target folder of every Maven plugin. Then, you execute the script $EVOAL_REPO/ci/create-release.sh in the root folder of your repository. This script will create a local release in the folder $EVOAL_REPO/evoal.

Note: If you don't want to create a release every time you are doing a change, you can simply add a symbolic link from $EVOAL_REPO/src/evoal/plugins/.../target/<plugin-name> to $EVOAL_REPO/evoal/plugins/<plugin-name>. Then it is only necessary to execute mvn package to update your plugin.

Logging and Debugging of EvoAl Exution Environment

You can set the environment variable EVOAL_LOGGING in your execution shell to a logging level (error, warn, info, debug) to turn on logging in EvoAl. If you want to debug your plugin, you can set the environment variable to EVOAL_DEBUG to true to start the execution environment in the debug mode. Using any EvoAl script will result in starting the execution environment and make it wait for a debugger. You can attach your IntelliJ by selecting "Attach to ...". Then you can simply debug the application.