Chapter 3. Reference

This chapter includes detailed reference information about Views and Wizards used to manage Guvnor Tools.

3.1. Guvnor Repository Exploring Perspective

The Guvnor Repository Exploring perspective contains two views supplied by EGT, described in Section 3.4, “Guvnor Repositories View” and Section 3.5, “Guvnor Resource History View”, that will be the center of most interactions with Guvnor. Eclipse standard views such as Properties and Resource Navigator are also useful.

While each of these views can be opened and positioned independently within an Eclipse workbench, the Guvnor perspective provides a convenient method for displaying a common layout. In the Eclipse workbench menu, select Window → Open Perspective → Other to view the perspective list:

Figure 3.1. Enabling the Guvnor Repository Perspective

Selecting the Guvnor Repository Exploring option will open the Guvnor perspective.

3.2. Guvnor Connection Wizard

The Guvnor Connection wizard appears in a number of places within the EGT (as detailed below), but in this section we will cover only the two most basic entry points.

The Guvnor Connection wizard can be started in the following ways:

Selecting File → New → Other → Guvnor → Guvnor repository location within Eclipse
Figure 3.2. New Guvnor Repository Location
In the Guvnor Repositories view using the drop-down menu
Figure 3.3. Adding New Guvnor Connection
using the menu button ( )

Choosing either of these will start the Guvnor Connection wizard.

Figure 3.4. Guvnor Connection Wizard

Default values appear in the Location, Port and Repository fields (See Chapter 3, Reference for details about on changing these default values). Of course, any of these fields can be edited by editing the corresponding text box. Drag-and-drop or paste into the Location field a typical Guvnor repository URL such as:

http://localhost:8080/drools-guvnor/org.drools.guvnor.Guvnor/webdav

This results in the URL being parsed into the respective fields as well. The authentication information (user name and password) can optionally be stored in the Eclipse workbench's key-ring file based on the selection of Save user name and password.

Note:

If the authentication information is not stored in the key-ring, then the EGT uses a session authentication, what means that the credentials supplied are only used during the lifetime of the Eclipse workbench instance.

If authentication information is not stored in the key-ring, or the authentication information (key-ring or session) is not valid, the EGT will prompt for the authentication information once it has to access the Guvnor repository.

If authentication fails, the EGT will retry once and then issue an authentication failure error.

Tip:

If an authentication failure error occurs, you can retry the same operation and supply different authentication information.

Note that the EGT calls the Guvnor repository at various times, such as when it is determining if any resource updates are available. Thus if you use session authentication, the authentication dialog will appear at different times during the Eclipse workbench session, depending on what actions you take. For ease of use, we recommend saving the authentication information in the Eclipse key-ring.

Note:

The Eclipse key-ring file is distinct from key-ring files found in some platforms such as Mac OS X and many forms of Linux. Thus, sometimes if you access a Guvnor repository outside the EGT, the key-ring files might become outdated, and you will be unexpectedly prompted for your credentials in Eclipse. This is nuisance, but in this case you can simply re-enter the appropriate username and password.

3.3. Resource from Guvnor Wizard

In addition to the single file drag-and-drop features provided within the Guvnor Repositories view, the EGT also includes a wizard for copying one or more files from a Guvnor repository to the local workspace (and setting the association with the Guvnor repository). This wizard is available by selecting File → Import → Guvnor → Resource from Guvnor or File → New → Other → Guvnor → Resource from Guvnor.

Note:

Note that the wizard is identical but appears in both locations to accommodate users who tend to view this functionality as being in either category.

The first page of the wizard asks for the selection of the source Guvnor repository and gives the option to create a new Guvnor repository connection (in which case the second page is the same as the Figure 3.4, “Guvnor Connection Wizard”).

Figure 3.5. Resource from Guvnor Wizard

Once the source Guvnor repository is chosen, the wizard prompts for the resources to be copied:

Figure 3.6. Resource Selection

Finally, the target location in the local workspace should be chosen:

Figure 3.7. Choosing the Target Location

On completion the wizard copies the selected files from the Guvnor repository to the local workspace. If a file with the same name already exists in the destination, the wizard uses the Eclipse standard prompt for rename dialog:

Figure 3.8. Prompt for Rename Dialog

3.4. Guvnor Repositories View

The Guvnor Repositories view contains tree structures representing the contents of Guvnor repositories.

Figure 3.9. Guvnor Repositories View

You can perform the following actions under the resources in the Guvnor Repositories view:

Create a new Guvnor repository connection. This process is described above in Section 3.2, “Guvnor Connection Wizard”.
Remove a Guvnor repository connection. Use the Delete button ( ) in the toolbar or the Delete option in the context menu to remove a repository connection.
Refresh Guvnor repository resources. Use the Refresh context menu item to reload the tree for the selected node.
Make use of "drill-into" functionality. It's represented by a number of toolbar and context menu items such as Go Home ( ), Go Back ( ) and Go Into ( ).

Drill-down is useful when working with deeply nested tree structures, and when you wish to concentrate on only a single branch of the tree. For example, drilling into the defaultPackage node changes the tree view to:

Figure 3.10. Going Into the defaultPackage

Clicking on the Go Home button ( ) or selecting Go Home in the context menu returns the tree to the top-level structure shown in the previous picture above.

There are a number of operations that can be performed on Guvnor repository files. Selecting a file in the Guvnor repository causes the Eclipse Properties view to display the details of that file:

Figure 3.11. Guvnor Repository Files Properties

3.5. Guvnor Resource History View

The Guvnor Resource History view displays details about the revision history for the selected files, both local and those in Guvnor repositories. The initial state of this view is shown on the figure below.

Figure 3.12. Initial State of the Guvnor Resource History View

The Guvnor Resource History view is populated by Show History actions in either the local Guvnor context menu or in the context menu for a Guvnor repository file in the Guvnor Repositories View (see Section 3.4, “Guvnor Repositories View”). Once this action is performed, the Guvnor Resource History view is refreshed to display the revision history:

Figure 3.13. Guvnor Resource History View

Here we see that the file test.txt has seven revisions. Double clicking on a revision row or selecting the Open (Read only) option from the context menu opens an Eclipse read-only editor with the revision contents.

Figure 3.14. Eclipse Read-only Editor with the Revision Contents

Note:

You can also use the Save As... option when a file is open in a read-only editor to save a local writable copy of the contents. Doing so, however, will not associate the file created with its Guvnor source.