/FSDevTools

Project to support developer experience (DX) with FirstSpirit template development by offering a connection between a VCS like Git and FirstSpirit.

Primary LanguageJavaApache License 2.0Apache-2.0

FSDevTools - User Guide

Welcome to the FSDevTools User Documentation, a project dedicated to enhancing the developer experience (DX) with FirstSpirit.

Minimal FirstSpirit version & Prerequisites

Since version 4.5.0, FSDevTools requires at least the FirstSpirit version 2023-11-05.

Before using FSDevTools, several prerequisites must be met. Detailed instructions can be found in the zip or tar.gz file of the binary distribution. Below is a summary of the key requirements.

Additionally, ensure that the JAVA_HOME environment variable is correctly set to a Java 17+ installation.

Upon initialization, the following configurations are sourced from your system environment using specific keys:

  • fshost: FirstSpirit host address.
  • fsport: FirstSpirit port number.
  • fsmode: FirstSpirit connection mode (HTTP, HTTPS, or SOCKET).
  • fsuser: FirstSpirit user account for authentication.
  • fspwd: Password for the FirstSpirit user.
  • fsservletzone: FirstSpirit servlet zone.
  • fsproject: Name of the FirstSpirit project.

Among these properties, only the project property lacks a default value. It must be configured to avoid exceptions in project-specific operations. Default values are utilized for other properties when neither an environment variable nor an option is provided.

All default values can be overridden by supplying command line options during execution.

Versioning Scheme

Starting from version 3.0.0, the FSDevTools follows the semantic versioning 2.0.0 (MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH) format for version numbering. This enables users to quickly determine whether there are any breaking changes compared to the previous release, simply by examining the version number.

Here's what each part of the version number signifies:

  • MAJOR: Includes incompatible changes. This version also indicates if the minimum required FirstSpirit version has been modified. Please exercise caution while updating and refer to the RELEASE NOTES for details.
  • MINOR: Adds new features in a backward-compatible manner.
  • PATCH: Contains backward-compatible bug fixes.

For a comprehensive list of changes within each version, please consult the RELEASE NOTES.

Additional Documentation

For information on using FSDevTools in conjunction with Git, refer to the FirstSpirit online documentation.

Usage

Most of the information required to utilize the command line tool can be accessed through the integrated fs-cli help command.

For detailed insights and examples, visit the command line interface usage page.

Logging

By default, no log files are generated. Instead, each command displays varying levels of detail in the command line output. To configure finer logging levels and enable log file creation, refer to the Log4J logging properties file located at /conf/log4j2.xml.

For more comprehensive error logging, the global option -e can be used. This provides additional exception stack traces in specific cases.

For detailed guidance on Log4J configuration, consult the Log4J manual.

External script engines

FSDevTools, by default, supports executing beanshell scripts in "script" commands. You can extend support for other script engines by copying external script engine JAR files into the "plugins" directory.

For now, the FSDevTools bundle comes with additional support for Groovy and Javascript scripts. Simply download the jar files and copy them into the "plugins" directory.

To use the script commands, use the following syntax.

  • fs-cli [-project ...] script parse [--scriptEngine|-se <NAME>] --scriptFile|-sf <PATH>
  • fs-cli [-project ...] script run [--scriptEngine|-se <NAME>] --scriptFile|-sf <PATH>

The currently supported script engines are:

Developing your own script engines

You can build your own script engine in just a few steps:

  • create a clean and new project
  • add the fs-cli.jar as a compile only dependency
  • add the dependencies as implementation dependencies that are needed for your script engine
  • implement the following interfaces:
  • create a fat jar that contains your implementations and the dependencies that are needed at runtime
    • you can use the ShadowJAR plugin for gradle to do this easily
  • copy the created fat jar to the $fs-cli$/plugins directory

Take a closer look at our external script engines, they were implemented in the described way.

Classloading for external script engines

The CLI uses a parent-first classloader to load each external script engine jar from the plugins directory. This means that each jar has its own classpath but all classes that are bundled with the CLI will be loaded from the classpath of the CLI - not the jar file itself. This allows developers to bundle external jars with their own libraries without polluting the classpath of the CLI. However, one big disadvantage is that you cannot override any classes that come with the CLI or the fs-isolated-runtime.jar.

This is especially the case for the following classes/libraries:

Legal Notices

FSDevTools is a product of Crownpeak Technology GmbH, based in Dortmund, Germany.

Usage of FSDevTools requires a valid license agreement with Crownpeak Technology GmbH.

Disclaimer

This document serves informational purposes only. Crownpeak reserves the right to modify its contents without prior notice. This document is not guaranteed to be free from errors and is not subject to any other warranties or conditions, whether implied in law or expressed orally. Crownpeak disclaims any liability associated with this document, and no contractual obligations are established by it, either directly or indirectly. The technologies, functionality, services, and processes described here are subject to change without notice.