Re: WOComponent .api files

Hi, William (and Mike),

Actually, Mike is incorrect. There is a tool that can generate  
your .api files automatically. It's called WOBuilder.  :-)

To confirm this, simply open your project in Xcode, double click on  
the WOComponent to open WOBuilder and associate it with your project,  
and save the component again from within WOBuilder. You may have to  
make a change for WOBuilder to generate the .api file, but I think it  
will do so by simply re-saving. On the other hand, if you're using  
Xcode/WOBuilder, the fact that WOBuilder regenerated the .api file  
doesn't clue Xcode into this fact, so to see the new .api file in  
Xcode's Groups & Files listing, you will have to explicitly re-add it.

It isn't often I get to correct Mike, and I relish the opportunities.  
However, overall, Mike is correct (as usual):

   * the .api file is not used (to my knowledge) during execution

   * it is impossible for WOBuilder to know what your API for any  
component really is, so it only autogenerates a minimal .api file as  
it does when you first create a WOComponent

On the other hand, the API for most WOComponents is trivial if you're  
only using them for complete pages. It's when you start using  
subcomponents that they become very useful in helping WOBuilder (or  
any IDE that hopes to replace it) determine that a subcomponent is  
being used correctly (i.e. all of its required bindings are bound,  
its mutually exclusive bindings are not all bound, bindings with  
common domains have values selected from their domains, optional  
bindings are represented in the GetInfo panel, etc.).

Having said all that, it seems that the real problem lies in your  
copying the components over. The .api files should still exist in  
your old project, they're just not normally contained within the  
WOComponent's directory. Like the .java class file for the component,  
they are external to it. So just copy the old .api files over from  
your old project and your WOComponents should retain all of their  
(development environment) advantages.

Regards,
Jerry

On Feb 3, 2007, at 9:53 AM, Mike Schrag wrote:

> .api files are used only by development environments to provide  
> things like code completion, etc.  They are not used at all in  
> deployment, so that's not your problem.  It's also not really  
> possible to autogenerate .api files because the point of them is to  
> define things that an IDE is not able to figure out on its own.   
> For instance, if you have a dynamic element, it's impossible for an  
> IDE to know what the bindings are for it.
>
> ms
>
> On Feb 3, 2007, at 9:18 AM, WILLIAM GARNETT wrote:
>
>>  Hello everyone;
>>
>>
>>
>> A recent disaster required me to re-generate my project.
>>
>> I started a new project and added in all the WOCompents - but this  
>> process
>> did not generate the corresponding .api files.
>>
>> It all seems to work fine, but sporadically I have some mysterious  
>> crashes
>> in deployment mode.
>>
>>
>>
>> My question is: Could these crashes be due to the fact that  
>> the .api files
>> are not there? Are they essential?
>>
>>
>>
>> If so, do I have to generate the .api's manually? Or is there a  
>> tool that
>> will build them automatically?
>>
>>
>>
>> Thanking you in advance for your replies,
>>
>>
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Bill.
>>
>>
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>
>
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--
__ Jerry W. Walker,
    WebObjects Developer/Instructor for High Performance Industrial  
Strength Internet Enabled Systems

     [email protected]
     203 278-4085        office