Limitations in customized Wizard based templates?

Question

Is there a way on a project-by-project basis to point the wizards to a specific set of customized templates?
Since the wizards use %ORACLE_HOME%\jdev\system\templates\blafjspwebapp\* for jsp generations it seems that a developer who does multi-project developemnet and wants to "customize" these templates (i.e. use their own log, titles, links etc.) is forced to keep a library of "customized" templates and constantly overlay these templates with the needs for the specific project being worked on. This seems cumbersome.
Any help is appreciated.
Ed.

Answer 1

Ed,
Better design time support for providing custom templates for BC4J JSPs is planned for in a future release. In the mean time
you can do the following to keep you going.
The BC4J UIX web app wizard uses the templates in the 'blafjspwebapp' directory as you noted. This info., namely the
directory location to use itself is captured in a wizard definition file which you can find in jdev\system\TemplateWizard\def
folder.
Of interest to you is the file CaboTagsWebApp.xml. When the wizard runs, it consults this file to figure out where
the template files are. So the key to solve your problem is to change the definition file, so that the templates may be
picked from a different directory. But since you want the existing wizard template as well as your own, you may
create a new wizard definition file.
1. Shut down JDeveloper.
2. make a backup of %ORACLE_HOME%\ jdev\system\.... folder., to restore if something goes wrong.
3. copy %JDEV_HOME%\jdev\system\TemplateWizard\def\CaboTagsWebApp.xml to
%JDEV_HOME%\ jdev\system\TemplateWizard\def\MyOwnWizard.xml
4. Edit MyOwnWizard.xml.
Search for the following in the xml
<WizardTask class="oracle.jbo.dt.ui.wizards.wiztemplate.codegen.FileCodeGenerator">
<config/>
<wizdata>
<selection id="Common">
<file in="blafjspwebapp/uix_errorpage.jsp" action="substitute"
out="{%HTML_SRC_DIR%}/errorpage.jsp" />
<file in="blafjspwebapp/main.jsp" action="substitute"
out="{%HTML_SRC_DIR%}/main.jsp" runnableTarget="true" openInEditor="true"/>
Modify each "in " attribute to point to template location of your choice. Assuming your new templates are located in
%JDEV_HOME%\jdev\system\templates\myowntemplates directory, following will be the change.
<file in="myowntemplates/uix_errorpage.jsp" action="substitute"
out="{%HTML_SRC_DIR%}/errorpage.jsp" />
After you have done this you have effectively created a new wizard which will use your templates.
5. The next thing to do is to tell JDeveloper to use your own wizard definition.
a) make a backup of %JDEV_HOME%\ jdev\lib\gallery.xml
b) edit gallery.xml and look for the following
<Item class="oracle.ide.gallery.GalleryElement">
<name>Business Components JSP Application</name>
<wizardClass>oracle.jbo.dt.ui.wizards.tagswebapp.WebAppWizardAddin</wizardClass>
<wizardParameters>
<Item>AppType:cabo</Item>
<Item>DefFileName:def/CaboTagsWebApp.xml</Item>
<Item>UIResFileName:def/webapp.rts</Item>
</wizardParameters>
</Item>
c) Copy the above snippet and append it after this item. Change the name and wizard parameter called deffile as follows
<Item class="oracle.ide.gallery.GalleryElement">
<name>My Own Application</name>
<wizardClass>oracle.jbo.dt.ui.wizards.tagswebapp.WebAppWizardAddin</wizardClass>
<wizardParameters>
<Item>AppType:cabo</Item>
<Item>DefFileName:def/MyOwnWizard.xml</Item>
<Item>UIResFileName:def/webapp.rts</Item>
</wizardParameters>
</Item>
d) Note that the original definition should also remain if you wish the access the old wizard as well.
Exit and restart jdeveloper. You will find the new wizard accessible from the Object gallery, just like the
JDeveloper wizard.
Note that the above **might change** in a future release of JDeveloper.
Your inputs on the type of customization features you would like in BC4J wizards are welcome. We will
incorporate your feedback in a future release.
Hope this helps,
Sathish