The Gen2J Project

Gen2J is an open-source J2EE application generator which can create a complete working system from a simple UML model of the core business classes. It delivers a ready-to-deploy J2EE application with EJBs in the business-logic tier, and a web front-end.

Gen2J generates the code for all the standard functions of locating, displaying and updating the business objects in the application. The developer concentrates on the application-specific business logic, which is merged into the generated application. In a typical application, the developer will only need to write around 20% of the total system code.

The simple answer is: it will you save you a huge amount of time! If you are developing a J2EE application, it can automatically generate most of the code for you, saving you the weeks or months it would have taken to write and debug that code.

But as well as saving time, Gen2J will:

• Create a system with a solid architecture, using "best-practice" designs
• Use a simple and consistent style throughout, making future maintenance easier
• Allow you to concentrate on the important business functions of the application, while it takes care of the tedious "plumbing"

And it does all of this while still leaving you the freedom to tailor the application as you require. You can and override as much or as little of the generated code as you wish - all changes are merged in seamlessly.

• Generates an Entity EJB and a Value Object for each type of core business object
• Generates a Session EJB for each Actor in the UML model. This provides a Session Facade giving access only to the functions and data items which that Actor may use
• Generates a tier of Use Case Model classes which is reusable by different types of client application (web, GUI or others)
• Generates a web client application using JSPs and Struts. The HTML pages can be easily and extensively customised by the developer
• Generates a J2EE EAR file, complete with deployment descriptors, ready to install on a J2EE-compliant application server
• Merges in additional code written by the developer to implement application-specific business logic, or to override or add to the generated code. (Round-trip engineering to allow the developer to change the generated code directly is coming soon!)

A preview of the documentation for Version 1.0 is available on-line:

• User Guide
• Java API

Gen2J has been created by Paul Boocock of Ashridge Technologies.

Version 1.0 is undergoing final testing, and is expected to be released in January 2002. The preview documentation is available now. If you would like a preview version of the full product, please contact the author.

Gen2J is an open source product, available for any developer to use as they wish, under an Apache-style licence. Ashridge Technologies provide consultancy to help developers apply Gen2J effectively to J2EE projects, and to tailor it to clients' specific needs.

If you would like any more information, or if you would like to contribute to the future development of Gen2J (Java, J2EE and XSLT skills all useful), please contact Paul Boocock