With this post I'll demo the creation of a new Xtext project in Eclipse. I'll show you how to compile and start editors tailored to your languages for testing. Xtext offers the creation of such language-specific editors for the Eclipse platform, the IntelliJ IDEA platform, as well as for web browsers.
Before we get started, make sure you have Eclipse Xtext properly installed. You may install Xtext via one of our sites or the Eclipse Market Place into your existing Eclipse IDE, and continue here. If you’re interested in Xtext’s IntelliJ IDEA or web support you need to install Buildship, too, which is available via the Eclipse Marketplace, as well.
After launching the Eclipse IDE you will be asked for a workspace directory, into which all the files and settings will be stored. You can start with the default proposal.
Once you confirmed your workspace the IDE will start with a welcome page.
Close the welcome page via the cross handle in the Welcome tab in the top left corner of the window, and there you go: This is your IDE.
Creating a new Xtext project
Now create a new Xtext project by choosing File → New → Project… from the main menu. The dialog offers a couple of different project types. Select New Xtext Project from the category Xtext.
Keep the project and language names as proposed for the moment and continue via Next.
Feel free to select all of the offered Facets, choose the Gradle build system, and finish the wizard. You will find 9 new projects in your workspace which are mostly empty. The Xtext grammar editor will be opened and show the definition of a very simple Hello World language.
The only thing this language allows is to write down a list of greetings. The following would be proper input: Hello Xtext! Hello World!
Generating the language infrastructure
In order to test drive this language, you will have to generate the respective language infrastructure. Therefore, open the grammar editor’s context menu and hit Run As → Generate Xtext Artifacts. A new Java process will be spawned, the Console view will appear, and afterwards you will find a couple of new files in the projects that were created by the project wizard.
Launch your Eclipse-based editor
Let’s give the editor a try. If you select Run As → Eclipse Application from the project’s context menu. A new Eclipse IDE instance will be launched and allows to test drive the editor.
Checkout the IntelliJ IDEA-based editor
The IDEA IDE can be launched by means of the Gradle build system. If you’re using the prepared Full Eclipse IDE, Gradle integration is already available. Otherwise, make sure to have Buildship installed, which is available via the Eclipse Marketplace, for example.
Open the Gradle Tasks view via Window → Show view → Other… → Gradle → Gradle Tasks.
Expand the project org.xtext.example.mydsl.parent and double click on the task named runIdea. A bunch of required components is downloaded first, and after successful compilation an IDEA IDE is launched.
Create a new project, e.g., a Java project. You may skip the determination of the SDK to be used and proceed to the prompt of the project name.
Let’s call the project Sample.
Once your project is set up create a plain file named Sample.mydsl in the src folder, and your DSL editor is opened. Enter the example text below, check out the content assist (CTRL/CMD + Space) as well as the live validation offered by the editor. Hello Xtext! Hello World!
Give the Web editor a try
For testing the web editor a local web server needs to be started. That can be launched by means of the Gradle build system. If you’re using the prepared Full Eclipse IDE, Gradle integration is already available. Otherwise, make sure to have Buildship installed, which is available via the Eclipse Marketplace, for example.
Open the Gradle Tasks view via Window → Show view → Other… → Gradle → Gradle Tasks.
Expand the project org.xtext.example.mydsl.parent and double click on the task named jettyRun. A bunch of required components is downloaded first, and after successful compilation a Jetty web server is launched. It is accessible via the URL printed in the Console view.
Open that URL in your favorite browsers, click into the text field, and enter sample text Hello Xtext!
Hello World!
Check out the content assist by hitting Ctrl/Cmd + Space.
To stop the web server click into the Console view of your development IDE and hitenter/return.
Conclusion
In your first five minutes with Xtext, you have learned how to create a valid set of projects for building editors for your DSLs. You have run Xtext’s code generation in order to get a fully working language infrastructure, and finally learned how to test the generated editors.
Next up you should go through the more comprehensive Domain Model Example. It explains the different concepts of the Xtext grammar language and illustrates how to customize various aspects of the language.
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