Groovy Monkey

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Groovy Monkey

• http//groovy.codehaus.org/GroovyMonkey

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About Me

• Java Developer since 1999
• Eclipse Plugin Developer since 2002
• Groovy Eclipse committer since 2005
• Author of Groovy Monkey

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About Me

• I am not just the author of Groovy Monkey,
• I'm a user... -- paraphrased from the founder
  of Hair Club for Men
• -- James E. Ervin

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Agenda

• Why Groovy Monkey?
• What is Groovy Monkey?
• I'm from Missouri, Show Me....
• Anatomy of a script
• Script Examples
• ...Batteries Included
• Future plans
• Monkey Resources
• QA

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Why Groovy Monkey?

• To be more productive with Eclipse, thats why.

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Why Groovy Monkey?

• Wanted a tool to facilitate the following
• Eclipse API Exploration
• Self hosting is too slow and cumbersome
• Plugin creation is too much overhead for
  exploration
• The Eclipse API is complex
• Task Automation
• To add functionality too small to be a plugin
• Rapid prototyping with path to a plugin
• In case the small grows big

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Why Groovy Monkey?

• Found Eclipse Monkey but it was too limiting
• Could only write scripts in ECMAScript
  (JavaScript)?
• There is a nice library called Bean Scripting
  Framework, so why not let everyone play?
• Everything runs in the UI Thread
• Why not use the Eclipse Jobs API?
• Could only invoke code exposed through a DOM
• What about installed bundles?
• How about adding library jars?

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Why Groovy Monkey?

• I am a power Eclipse User and Plugin developer
  and I want my life to be easier
• I want to be able to quickly try parts of the
  Eclipse API without the overhead of a plugin
• I want to be able to write quick/reusable
  functionality (i.e. task automation) to make my
  life with Eclipse easier
• I want to be able to translate the quick and
  dirty work eventually into a proper plugin

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What is Groovy Monkey?

• Groovy Monkey is a branch/port of the Eclipse
  Monkey tool based on
• Apache Bean Scripting Framework
• The Eclipse Jobs API
• OSGi framework

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What is Groovy Monkey?

• Bean Scripting framework
• http//jakarta.apache.org/bsf/
• Monkey predates javax.script in Java 6.0
• I don't hate Macintosh people
• Provides scripting engines for the most used
  scripting languages
• Allows Groovy Monkey scripts to be written in
  Groovy, Beanshell and Ruby (soon hopefully Python
  as well)?

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What is Groovy Monkey?

• The Eclipse Jobs API is the native Eclipse
  platform support for threading. Allows for three
  types
• Job Ordinary job thread, provides a progress
  monitor and status in the progress view
• WorkspaceJob Batches updates to resource
  listeners until after the job is complete
• UIJob Runs in the SWT UI Thread

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What is Groovy Monkey?

• The OSGi framework packages components in
  bundles, which are uniquely identified. Groovy
  Monkey leverages the OSGi container by
• Groovy Monkey can add the classloader of any
  bundle on the workbench to a script's classloader
• Allows Groovy Monkey to do white box
  introspection of running bundles/plugins

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Show me How to install

• If not included in your Eclipse distribution,
  goto the update site
• http//groovy-monkey.sourceforge.net/update

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Show Me A Script

• A script has two parts, the metadata and then the
  script body.
• /
• Menu Open Dialog Groovy
• Script-Path /EclipseMonkeyScripts/monkey/O
  penDialog_Groovy.gm
• Kudos ervinja
• License EPL 1.0
• Job UIJob
• /
• org.eclipse.jface.dialogs.MessageDialog.openIn
  formation( window.getShell(),
• 'Monkey Dialog',
• 'Hello World from
  Groovy' )?
• Right click to run the script from within Eclipse

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Show Me A Script Results

• The amazing results of this script is
• Drum Roll please......
• Note Wait for enthusiastic applause from audience

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Anatomy of a Script

• Script is composed of two parts
• Script Metadata Header
• This is the portion that is specific to monkey
• Tags serve to setup classloader and configure
  script
• Script Body
• Vital obviously, but Monkey delegates this to the
  BSFEngine for the given language.

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Script Anatomy Tags

• Menu
• Determines where in the Monkey Menu the script
  can be invoked/edited

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Script Anatomy Tags

• 'Lang'
• The first tag I added to Monkey
• By default is set to 'Groovy'
• Valid entries are
• Groovy (default)?
• Beanshell
• Ruby
• Python

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Script Anatomy Tags

• Lang cont'd
• Maps to a BSFEngine implementation that is
  wrapped in an extension point
• net.sf.groovyMonkey.lang
• List of supported languages is not hardcoded
• Additional language support can be easily plugged
  in if the BSFEngine implementation can be found.

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Script Anatomy Tags

• Job
• The most important part of Groovy Monkey over
  Eclipse Monkey, running scripts in separate
  threads.
• By default a script is run inside an Eclipse
  'Job'
• Valid Entries
• Job (default) org.eclipse.core.runtime.Job
• WorkspaceJob org.eclipse.core.resources.Workspac
  eJob
• UIJob - org.eclipse.ui.progress.UIJob

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Script Anatomy Tags

• Job cont'd
• Allows us to bind (more on this under DOMs) a
  progress monitor to the script
• Script writer can provide progress and allow
  cancellation
• Scripts become Eclipse Jobs, which means that
  they can be monitored in the progress view.
• One gotcha, UIJob is provided as a convenience,
  it is best to use it sparingly

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Script Anatomy Tags

• Exec-Mode tag
• Complementary to the Job tag
• Allows jobs to be run the the foreground or in
  the background
• Valid values
• background (default)
• foreground Eclipse pops up a modal dialog box
  to show the progress of the script.

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Script Anatomy Tags

• Include
• Allows you to include elements in the workspace
  in the classloader of the script.
• Allows you to try new third party jars
  immediately and makes Groovy Monkey a more
  general scripting tool
• Can add a jar in the workspace or a class folder
• Syntax
• Include /MonkeyScripts/commons-http-client.jar

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Script Anatomy Tags

• Include-Bundle
• This is what makes Eclipse API exploration and
  plugin rapid prototyping possible.
• You specify the bundle identifier for a bundle
  loaded in the workbench and its classloader is
  added to the classloader of the script.
• There are a number of bundles included by
  default
• Syntax
• Include-Bundle org.eclipse.ui.ide

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Script Anatomy Tags

• DOM
• net.sf.groovyMonkey.dom
• An extension provided by a bundle, that provides
  an API for script writers
• They get bound to variable names in the script at
  runtime.
• First step from script to full blown bundle.
• There are a set of DOM(s) included by default
• Syntax
• DOM net.sf.groovyMonkey.dom.console

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Batteries Included

• Groovy Monkey includes several things to
  hopefully simplify script writing
• Default DOM(s)?
• Default Bundles
• Editor
• Outline View
• Sharing

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Batteries Included

• Default DOM(s)

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Batteries Included

• DOM(s) included by default
• bsf maps to org.apache.bsf.util.BSFFunctions
• bundleDOM Access to the bundle and bundles
  installed in the workbench
• bundlerDOM Utility DOM to allow you to
  build/package plugins from your workspace
• jface Access to the SWTBuilder in groovy for UI
  work
• metadata Access to the ScriptMetadata instance
  that contains the information defined in the
  metadata header of the script

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Batteries Included

• DOM(s) included by default cont'd
• monitor Access to the IProgressMonitor the
  Script's Job is using.
• project Legacy DOM
• resources Legacy DOM
• runnerDOM Cool DOM that allows you to invoke
  other scripts in the workspace.
• window Access to the IWorkspaceWindow in the
  current Eclipse workbench.
• workspace Access to the IWorkspace instance
  representing the current Eclipse workspace.

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Batteries Included

• Default Include-Bundles

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Batteries Included

• Groovy Monkey Editor Code Completion

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Batteries Included

• Groovy Monkey Editor Popup commands

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Batteries Included

• Groovy Monkey Outline View

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Batteries Included

• Sharing
• A script that is kept to yourself is only useful
  to you. -- James E. Ervin from this presentation

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Future Plans

• Add Jython engine with support for Include and
  Include-Bundle keywords
• Add Glimmer library for GUI work in Ruby
• Integrate with Plugin Spy
• Allow scripts to be packaged in bundles

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Monkey Resources

• http//iacobus.blogspot.com/
• http//groovy.codehaus.org/GroovyMonkey
• http//sourceforge.net/projects/groovy-monkey
• http//eclipse.dzone.com/news/introduction-scripti
  ng-eclipse
• http//jakarta.apache.org/bsf/

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Questions?