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A TreeMapper widget in Nebula

TLWR (Too Long Wont Read):

 

Very often, one has to define links or mapping between objects. Here is the way I learnt to represent the concept of matching items when I was 4.

A matching game

Now I’m 26 and I use the concept of mapping everyday at work. It can represent reference, transformation, association… But that’s now more complicated, because I now use structured data!

With the BPEL “Assign” element in mind, I wanted to find a widget that allowed me to map structured data, represented as trees, using the simple “Draw a line” method that I have been using for years. Except that “Draw a line” would be represented by “Drag’n’drop” on a computer. After some research, I could not find an open-source widget for that. Then I started to develop a new one. And here is what it looks like:

The TreeMapper in action

Although it is primarly intended to be used in Eclipse BPEL Designer, I made it part of Nebula because I hope it is helpful for lots of other projects in the Eclipse community. I can remember some projects I work(ed) on that have nice use-cases for this widget in the past (for Eclipse JWT and Scarbo, Bonita Studio, Petals Studio…); and I now think about how to simplify the GMFMap editor with it.

If you are interested in it and if you plan to attend EclipseCon 2012, then vote for this submission to learn more: http://www.eclipsecon.org/2012/sessions/%C2%A1new-nebula-treemapper-widget

PS: If you like it, then thank the French National Research Agency for funding it

This entry was posted on November 30, 2011, 6:22 pm and is filed under Eclipse. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

  1. #1 by codingkriggs on November 30, 2011 - 10:04 pm

    Wow, we could have used this 2 months ago. We basically created a widget just like this, but way less nice looking. Great job.

    Reply

  2. #2 by aalvamat on December 13, 2011 - 12:17 pm

    Hi Mickael,

    About your comment “I now think about how to simplify the GMFMap editor with it.”
    I think you may find useful this post: http://modelingsideoflife.wordpress.com/2011/12/13/simple-gmf-model-editor/

    We are currently working on a GMF simple Editor in order to simplify the creation of our GMF Models. Please let me know if you have any comments.

    Regards.

    Andres.

    Reply

  3. #3 by Denis on March 14, 2012 - 12:28 pm

    Hi Mickael,

    We’re working on a project related to modeling an e-Document structures, and we’d like to use this widget in that project. Unfortunately, there is no snippets, nor examples swowing even the basic usage of that widged. If it’s not too much trouble for you, can you provide us a little example of using this widget? In ‘exchage’ we’d like to contribute to development of this widget, if it’s functions is not sufficient yet.

    Best regards.

    Reply

  4. #5 by camokatu (@camokatu) on April 26, 2013 - 5:12 pm

    This is exactly what I need! Thanks you.

    On Nebula page for mapper it says that it’s in Alpha stage, is it still is? Are there working snippets for mapper, and is it possible to continue connection past TreeViewer’s bound to the node?

    Reply
  1. Mickael Istria: A TreeMapper widget in Nebula

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