The Gargoyle Code Generator was developed at the Research Group Software construction to assist the implementation of Java Enterprise Applications. It was first developed in the Diploma Thesis of Tobias Löwenthal and then heaviliy enhanced in the Diploma Thesis of Steffan Conrad, the Bachelor Thesis of Tristan Langer, the Bachelor Thesis of Michael Krein, and the Bachelor Thesis of Claude Mangen. We strongly advice you to read through the theses to get the intentions, and workflows behind the Gargoyle Code Generator and its components.

Adding Gargoyle to an existing Eclipse

You can add Gargoyle to any Eclipse > 3.8 by simply downloading the plugin-jars and placing them in the plugins folder of your eclipse installation.

The current Gargoyle version: GargoylePlugins.zip

Workflow and central artifacts of the Gargoyle Code Generator

The first artifact that you need to create to use the Gargoyle Code Generator is called a Generator Model. This model allows to describe the domain of your enterprise application. It is heavily based on a UML class model. Hence you can model classes with attributes and associations. The classes can form generalization and composition hierarchies.

The Generator Model is transformed to an Enity Model which represents an abstraction of JPA entities of your application. These JPA entities can be generated using the "Generate Domain Classes" context menu on the Entity Model.

The Entity model can the be transformed into an EJB Generator Model which guides the generation of the EJB-based CRUD core of your application. The assoziated EJB Model is generated from the EJB Generator Model. Again you can generate your EJBs using the context menu on the EJB model and select "Generate EJBs".