Creating an Extension Project with an ITPilot Custom Function¶

We will create a Denodo Extension project containing a new ITPilot Custom Function using the wizard included with Denodo4E.

Follow these steps:

1. Click the menu File > New > Project. Look for the category Denodo4E, select Denodo Extension Project and click Next.

2. In this wizard, provide this:

   • Project name: my-itp-custom-function

   • JRE: select a JRE version 8. This is the version used by the Wrapper Generation Tool.

New Denodo Extension Project Wizard¶

3. Click Next to proceed to the wizard’s second page. Configure the second page with the following values:

   • Denodo Platform Home Directory: directory of the local installation of Denodo Platform (e.g. C:\Denodo\DenodoPlatform8.0).

   • Denodo application: select Denodo Wrapper Generation Tool.

   • Extension configuration:

     • Extension: select Denodo ITPilot Custom Functions.

     • Package: enter com.acme.extension.

     • Name: enter CustomItpFunction.

New Denodo extension project wizard¶

4. Click Finish. You now have a new project called my-stored-procedure.

The new project contains the class CustomItpFunction in the package com.acme.extension (as it was configured). The classpath of the project includes the libraries necessary to develop an ITPilot custom function.

A project can contain several Denodo extensions. To add more, you can use the Denodo Extension wizard.

Creating a Debug Configuration for the Wrapper Generation Tool¶

The first time you debug an extension for ITPilot, you have to set up a “Denodo4E configuration” for this. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Click the menu Run > Denodo4E Debug Configurations > Denodo4E Debug Configurations.

2. Click the button New launch configuration and fill in the dialog as in the screenshot below.

Denodo4E configuration to debug ITPilot custom functions¶

Starting the Wrapper Generation Tool¶

Click Debug to launch the Wrapper Generation Tool in debug mode, linked to the my-itp-custom-function project (this project can depend on other Eclipse projects or external jar files; see Support for Dependencies for more details).

If you open the Debug perspective (menu Window > Open Perspective > Debug) you will see something like this:

Debug perspective¶

Click Terminate () to close the debug session and stop the Wrapper Generation Tool.

Click Disconnect () to close the debug session but leave the Wrapper Generation Tool running.

Debugging the Custom Function¶

Now create a new process in the Wrapper Generation Tool. Create an Expression component, open its editor and write any expression involving the ITPilot Custom function included in my-itp-custom-function. You can see an example in the following screenshot:

Expression editor¶

Now go back to Eclipse, open the source file of the CustomItpFunction class and set a breakpoint in the execute method. Go to the expression editor in the Wrapper Generation Tool and click Test. The execution will be interrupted and Eclipse will display the debug information:

Debug perspective¶

You can use now any features available in the Eclipse debugger, including Hot code replacement, to debug the custom function. For example, replace the execute method code with the following and then save the changes:

Now resume the execution. In the Wrapper Generation Tool you will see something like this:

Expression editor¶

Deploying the Custom Function¶

Now that we have a working ITPilot Custom Function we are going to deploy it into the Wrapper Generation Tool.

First you will need to stop the Wrapper Generation Tool (new extensions will not be detected until the tool is restarted, if it was running before deploying the JAR containing them).

Back in Eclipse, right-click the project my-itp-custom-function project > Deploy Extensions… to open the Deploy wizard. Configure the wizard as in the screenshot below and click Finish.

Deploy Denodo extension¶

Open the Denodo Platform Control Center and launch the Wrapper Generation Tool. Go to Tools > Extensions… and you will see the new JAR containing our Custom Function.

Installed extensions¶