[news.eclipse.tools.emf] Re: [EMF] PropertyType of an EStructuralFeature

[Sebastian Höcht <info@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks for your answer,

I think at first I try to explain, what im doing here:
I'm developing an automated document export, where each ModelElement of 
our Application can be rendered to a document (i.e. PDF). Therefore, I 
created template, which defines how each Model is rendered. Now there is 
a DefaultModelElementRenderer, which automatically renders each 
property of the Model. There shall be options for each property of each 
Model type, which can be edited in the Template Manager.
Thats why i need a function, which creates the default document renderer 
with the default model renderers without having access to real existing 
Model instances.
There are some properties, i never want to be rendered to my document. 
The Property descriptors do exactly what i want to do:

Vector<IItemPropertyDescriptor> ret = new Vector<IItemPropertyDescriptor>();
		
AdapterFactoryItemDelegator adapterFactoryItemDelegator = new 
AdapterFactoryItemDelegator(new 
ComposedAdapterFactory(ComposedAdapterFactory.Descriptor.Registry.INSTANCE));

List<IItemPropertyDescriptor> propertyDescriptors = 
adapterFactoryItemDelegator.getPropertyDescriptors(modelElement);

for (IItemPropertyDescriptor propertyDescriptor : propertyDescriptors) {
	EStructuralFeature feature = 
(EStructuralFeature)propertyDescriptor.getFeature(modelElement);
}


This is how im doing it right now. The Problem is: When i create a 
Default document template, i dont have access to real existing Instances 
of each Model type. Currently, im doing a funny workaround: There is a 
Project Generator for test purposes in our application. I create a new 
very big project, to ensure, that every model type is in this project, 
and then i create the defult document renderer by getting a full list of 
all model types in this project and their descriptors.

If there isn't a possibility to read the PropertyType of the GenModel at 
runtime, then i should try to generate an instance of each Model typ, 
and use the PropertyDescriptor, but I yet dont know how to create an 
instance of each model type automatically.
I think i have to figure this out, when it's impossible to read the 
GenModel.



Ed Merks schrieb:
> Sebastian,
>
> Comments below.
>
> Sebastian Höcht wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > this is my first newsgroup entry, and im very new to EMF, so maybe my
> > question is inaccurate.
> We'll let it go this time and then hold you to a higher standard. :-P
> > I'm trying to get a full list of all models types of our application 
> > with all their properties.
> Like doing EPackage.getEClassifiers and for each EClass, calling 
> getEAllStructurals or getEStructuralFeatures depending on whether you 
> want inherited ones or not.
> > But there are different kind of properties. Some can be edited in an
> > Editor, and some are just invisible. 
> Generally we try to ensure that by default all changeable features are 
> editable either directly in the tree view (containment references) or 
> via the properties view (all other references and all attributes).
> > I've heard of a property called
> > "PropertyType" which defines if a property of a model can be edited in
> > an Editor or not.
> This information is available on the GenFeature that decorates each 
> EStructuralFeature.  The information is not generally available at 
> runtime...
> > But i neither know where i can find this, nor how i
> > can get the value of the PropertyType. Maybe there is something in the 
> > EClassifier?
> No, it's only available in the GenModel (the *.genmodel) not in the 
> Ecore model (the *.ecore).
> > I already figured out, how to get a full list of all model types 
> > (EClass). Then i use myEClass.getEAllStructuralFeatures(); But i only 
> > want to get all features, that are editable in an editor.
> Perhaps you should be doing this using the item providers.  E.g., 
> adapterFactoryContentProvider.getPropertySource(someInstance) and from 
> that you can get all the property descriptors.
>
> I wonder what problem you're trying to solve.  I might have a better 
> answer based on knowing the purpose...
> > I appreciate any suggestions.