Features and facets of EGL projects

EGL projects can have additional abilities, added through features and facets.

Features

EGL project features add support for a particular behavior or type of project. After you add a feature to a project, you cannot remove it, although there is rarely any reason to remove a feature. The features that a project can have depend on the type of project; if you do not see a particular feature as an option for your project, make sure you are using the correct type of EGL project.

You can specify features at project creation or add features to a project later. To add features at project creation, see Creating an EGL project. To add a feature to an existing project, follow these steps:
  1. In the Project Explorer view, right-click the project and then click Properties. The Properties window opens.
  2. Click EGL Project Features. The check boxes under EGL Project Features Choices are the features that you can apply to your project:
    Create an EGL deployment descriptor
    Select this feature if the project contains programs that are available as services.
    EGL with BIRT report support
    Select this feature if you want to create BIRT reports based on data in the project.
    EGL with Jasper report support
    Select this feature if you want to create Jasper reports based on data in the project. This feature is not available in web projects.
    EGL with low-level WebSphere® MQ API support
    Select this feature if you want to access message cues using API calls rather than EGL statements like get and add.
    EGL with LDAP support
    Select this feature if you want to add files to your project that let you retrieve security information from an LDAP compliant server.
    EGL with IBM® i objects support
    Select this feature if you want to be able to access data queues or other objects in the iSeries® environment. If you select this feature, and if you generate for Java™ and not for COBOL, you need classes from the IBM Toolbox for Java. For information on obtaining this library, see Required IBM Toolbox for Java.

    If you selected a feature as a default, it will be grayed out on the individual project Properties window. You will find information about default features later in this section.

  3. Select the check boxes next to the features that you want to add to your project. If a check box is already selected, that feature has already been added to the project and you cannot remove it.
  4. Click OK.
You can also choose the features that are applied to your new EGL projects by default:
  1. Click Window > Preferences. The Preferences window opens.
  2. Click EGL.
  3. Under Default EGL Project Features Choices, select the features to you add to each new project by default.
EGL projects support the following features:
Table 1. Features and projects
Feature EGL project EGL web project EGL plug-in project EGL portlet project
Jasper report support Yes No Yes No
BIRT report support Yes Yes Yes No
EGL with LDAP support Yes Yes Yes ?

For more information, see the individual topic that explains how to add the feature to your project.

For more information about what the features do, see the related links at the end of this topic.

Facets

Facets define characteristics and requirements for projects in the J2EE framework. Unlike EGL project features, which in this context are exclusive to EGL projects, project facets can be applied to any project that behaves as a J2EE module, with certain restrictions. Therefore, within EGL, you can add features only to EGL web projects and EGL web projects that have been converted to EGL plug-in projects.

Like project features, you can add facets at project creation or add them to an existing project. Follow these steps to add a facet to an existing project:
  1. In the Project Explorer view, right-click the EGL web project and then click Properties. The Properties window opens.
  2. Click Project Facets. The list shows the facets currently in the project.
  3. ClickAdd/Remove Project Facets. The Project Facets window opens.
  4. In the Project Facets window, select the check boxes next to the facets tat you want this project to have.
    Only the facets that are valid for the project are listed:
    • The list of runtimes selected for the project limits the facets shown in the list. Only the facets that are compatible with all selected target runtimes are shown.
    • The currently selected facets and their version numbers limit the other facets shown in the list. For example, if the project contains the Dynamic Web Module facet, the EJB Module facet is not listed because these two facets cannot be in the same project.
    You can find out more about the requirements and limitations for each facet by right-clicking the facet name and then clicking Show Constraints. You can also choose a preset combination of facets from the Configurations list.
  5. Choose a version number for the facet by clicking the current version number and selecting the version number from the drop-down list.
  6. To remove a facet, clear its check box. Not all facets can be removed.
  7. If you want to limit the project so that it will be compatible with one or more runtimes, click the Show Runtimes button and select the runtimes that you want the project to be compatible with.
  8. Click Finish.
  9. Click OK.
You can also choose the facets that are applied to your new EGL web projects by default:
  1. Click Window > Preferences. The Preferences window opens.
  2. Click EGL.
  3. Under Default EGL Web Project Facet Choices, select the facets that you want to be added to each new EGL web project by default.

Unlike project features, some facets can be removed from a project. Also unlike project features, facets have version numbers, and facets can depend on the presence or absence of other facets and specific version numbers of those facets. Project features do not have version numbers.

Like project features, facets can depend on certain project types. For more information on the EGL-specific facets, see the individual topic that explains how to add the facet to your project. For more information on facets in general, see Project Facets.


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