[Acceleo] PDE and EMTL

Question

Hi,
Using Eclipse Indigo (3.7.0) with Acceleo 3.1.0, I got a problem while trying to export my Acceleo plugins. The produced plugins do not contain the expected EMTL files, which generates errors at runtime.The behavior is the same using either the "export deployable plugins" Eclipse command or the headless build.
Just note that the behavior in 3.6.0 was not the same (not sure for 3.6.1 and 3.6.2). I also succeeded in reproducing the same behavior by using a fresh install of the Eclipse product with a fresh new acceleo project using a public available URI (Ecore).
Looking at what is generated through PDE build ant task, it seems that an EMTL file is actually generated just besides the build directory (@dot) as a "@dot.emtl" file, which may explain why it is not finally present in the generated plugin.
By having a quick look at the AcceleoCompiler Task code (computeFileInfos method in AcceleoCompilerHelper), it seems that the previous (normal?) behavior can be obtained by setting an output folder equals to the source folder (outputFolder="${target.folder}") in the task defined in the "build.acceleo" file. However, I am not sure this is one of the best practices.
So, my question(s): what is the "normal" behavior expected with Acceleo 3.1.0 regarding the plugin export? did I do something wrong?

Answer 1

Hi Brice,
It seems that a regression has appeared in the generation of the build.properties file.
Quote:it seems that the previous (normal?) behavior can be obtained by setting an output folder equals to the source folder (outputFolder="${target.folder}") in the task defined in the "build.acceleo" file. However, I am not sure this is one of the best practices.
Even without the "outputFolder="${target.folder}" it should work but I've looked at the code and a regression has appear. You can indeed restore the previous behavior by adding "outputFolder="${target.folder}". Thanks for reporting this issue, I've fixed it. The fix will be available when Acceleo 3.1.1 will be released.
Regards,
Stephane Begaudeau, Obeo
Twitter: @sbegaudeau
Blog: http://stephanebegaudeau.tumblr.com
Acceleo Documentation: http://docs.obeonetwork.com/acceleo