plant.md

CRUD Generator PLANT & Columns Configuration

Start the CRUD generator with the script plant.sh / plant.bat and follow the steps!

The generator reads the entities in the database configured in cfg/beetroot.cfg, from which you can select one or all! If you require a different configuration file (e.g. with a different another database connection), you can specify this configuration file as an argument in the above shell/batch scripts. PLANT supports the databases MySQL, MariaDB, H2, Oracle and PostgreSQL Databases.

NOTE: Entities for beetRoot MUST be named in plural form in the database, e.g.: tasks, users, cities, properties, cars, etc.

The following standard transformation of the entity names takes place in the generated HTML files:

• tasks -> task (singular)
• properties -> property (singular)

We therefore recommend that you use English names for your database entities, even if you can of course adapt the names in the generated HTMLs and this is even necessary if you copy the copy the templates for other languages.

It generates the following sources:

HTML templates & model configuration (columns.cfg):

• web/html/{entity-plural-name}/add.html
• web/html/{entity-plural-name}/edit.html
• web/html/{entity-plural-name}/view.html
• web/html/{entity-plural-name}/index.html
• web/html/{entity-plural-name}/columns.cfg

Java sources (handlers):

• src/planted/beetroot/handler/{entity-plural-name}/{Entity-plural-name}AddHandler.java
• src/planted/beetroot/handler/{entity-plural-name}/{Entity-plural-name}EditHandler.java
• src/planted/beetroot/handler/{entity-plural-name}/{Entity-plural-name}ViewHandler.java
• src/planted/beetroot/handler/{entity-plural-name}/{Entity-plural-name}IndexHandler.java
• src/planted/beetroot/handler/{entity-plural-name}/{Entity-plural-name}DeleteHandler.java

Customize them to your needs (examples can be found in the existing handlers) and more IMPORTANT: Move the Java sources to another package! All generated files will be overwritten the next time if you regenerate the sources for the same entity!

The HTML templates and the model configuration are usually moved/copied to a subdirectory for languages:

• web/html/{entity-plural-name}/en/*.html and columns.cfg
• web/html/{entity-plural-name}/de/*.html and columns.cfg
• web/html/{entity-plural-name}/fr/*.html and columns.cfg
• etc.

We recommend that you create a backup copy of the originally generated HTML templates and the model configuration. They serve as a fallback scenario if the user requests a language that is not available!

The model configuration columns.cfg lists the columns/fields and executes the following for each entity:

• It determines which columns are visible in which order in each view (Add, Edit, View/Single record, Index/List) and defines a value for the field name. See existing files for example entities Task and/or User, e.g.:

  index.html: list.aDbfield=GUI Name for that Field

  view.html: view.aDbfield=GUI Name for that Field

  edit.html: edit.aDbfield=GUI Name for that Field

  add.html: add.aDbfield=GUI Name for that Field

• It also defines which columns in the database are UNIQUE by defining them with the unique key, e.g.:

  unique=name, path

• If you want to load a value from a database field into the entity bean in order to use it in a handler, but do not want it to be displayed in the GUI, define the constant 'NO_SHOW' as the GUI field name, for example:

  index.html: list.secretDbField=NO_SHOW

  view.html: view.secretDbField=NO_SHOW

  edit.html: edit.secretDbField=NO_SHOW

  add.html: add.secretDbField=NO_SHOW

• In addition, you can manually define transient values that are not read from the database or stored in the database, nor are they loaded within a bean, they are only delivered within the handler methods so that a different value can be used for these transient columns/fields, e.g.:

  transient=status

• Finally, you can use the init prefix to manually specify default values to be displayed in the add.html template when a new record is created, e.g:

  init.threshold=3
init.counter=0

Your TODOs are the following after you have created the artifacts:

• Add mandatory (DB: non-deletable) fields to the add handler: only the mandatory fields need a default value in the add handler, which are not available in the GUI! See all Properties handler for more information.

• Remove unwanted GUI fields from columns.cfg for the views index, view, add and edit.

• Also Remove unwanted <col span..> tags in the index.html; for example, if you have removed the standard fields id, created and modified from the columns.cfg file.

• Add links to entities in the menu or admin menu and override the hasAccess method for each handler if necessary.

• Add your routes to cfg/routing.xml, e.g.:

   <!-- Products -->
   <Package name="planted.beetroot.handler.products">
       <Route path="/:lang/products" handler="ProductsIndexHandler" name="products" />
       <Route path="/:lang/products/index" handler="ProductsIndexHandler" name="products" />
       <Route path="/:lang/products/view" handler="ProductsViewHandler" name="products" />
       <Route path="/:lang/products/edit" handler="ProductsEditHandler" name="products" />
       <Route path="/:lang/products/add" handler="ProductsAddHandler" name="products" />
       <Route path="/:lang/products/delete" handler="ProductsDeleteHandler" name="products" />
   </Package>

Make sure to adjust the package name correctly if you move your classes!

NOTE: PLANT uses its own templates, which are stored in the gen/ directory. Of course, you can also customize these templates in addition to the block templates so that they have the structure you want for your own web application.

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