SiteNav Maven Plugin

A Maven plugin that generates classes from a given XML sitenav. You can describe your site structure with an xml a this plugin will generate a package and a set of classes reflecting the structure. This should help you in your java/jsp/thymeleaf code (but basically in all your code) with autocompletion (if you're using an IDE) and automatic checking while compiling/running.

It saves you from typo errors and helps you when you need to refactor your site's navigation structure.

Installation

Add the plugin repository:

 <pluginRepositories>
    <pluginRepository>
        <id>sixdegreeshq</id>
        <url>https://sixdegreeshq.github.io</url>
        <releases>
            <enabled>true</enabled>
            <updatePolicy>interval:480</updatePolicy>
        </releases>
    </pluginRepository>
</pluginRepositories>

add an execution:

<plugin>
    <groupId>com.sixdegreeshq</groupId>
    <artifactId>sitenav-maven-plugin</artifactId>
    <version>0.2.0</version>
    <executions>
        <execution>
            <goals>
                <goal>generator</goal>
            </goals>
        </execution>
    </executions>
</plugin>

The plugin will look for a sitenav.xml file in your resources and generate classes under the R package.

XML structure

Here is a sample sitenav.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<root>
    <page path="index">
    </page>
    <page path="faq" />
    <page alias="about">
        <paths>
            <it>chi-siamo</it>
            <en>about-us</en>
        </paths>
    </page>
    <page alias="category" path="{category}">
        <paths>
            <it>it/{category}</it>
            <en>en/{category}</en>
        </paths>
        <page alias="product" path="{sku}">
            <page alias="detail">
                <paths>
                    <it>dettaglio</it>
                    <en>detail</en>
                </paths>
            </page>
        </page>
    </page>
</root>

it always stars with a root node and a set of nested page; a page node can have an alias attribute and a mandatory path attribute and you must provide an alias if the path is not a valid java class name (i.e. reserved words like new or spring mvc path variables like {sku}). The attribute path is not mandatory if you specify a set of nested paths and in this case you MUST provide an alias; paths children are tags that represent 2-letters country codes. Please take a look at test files

Configuration

Each plugin execution can be configured to fulfill your requirements:

<executions>
	<execution>
		<id>main</id>
		<goals>
			<goal>generator</goal>
		</goals>
		<!-- defaults value -->
		<!-- configuration>
			<inputResourceLocation>sitenav.xml</inputResourceLocation>
			<outputPackage>R</outputPackage>
			<outputFolder>target/generated-sources/java</outputFolder>
			<testing>false</testing>
		</configuration -->
	</execution>
	<execution>
		<id>secondary</id>
		<goals>
			<goal>generator</goal>
		</goals>
		<configuration><!-- some alternative values -->
			<inputResourceLocation>api.xml</inputResourceLocation><!-- different xml -->
			<outputPackage>API</outputPackage><!-- different output package -->
			<localeResolutionCode>org.springframework.context.i18n.LocaleContextHolder.getLocale()</localeResolutionCode><!-- use spring locale resolution -->
			<testing>true</testing><!-- look for resource in testing folders too -->
		</configuration>
	</execution>
</executions>

Please take a look at test files

Use in your code

Each generated class is an implementation of Page so you can use its methods in your code, here are some examples:

String build = R.category.product.detail.builder().param("test", "value").param("a", "b").param("tnull", null).expand("fruit", "banana").build();
System.out.println(build);

will print (if your default locale is en)

/en/fruit/banana/detail?test=value&a=b

while

String build = R.category.product.detail.builder(Locale.ITALIAN).param("test", "valore").param("tnull", null).expand("frutta", "banana").build();
System.out.println(build);

will print

/it/frutta/banana/detail?test=valore&a=b

• R.category.product.detail is one the classes created by the generator
• builder creates an uri builder (with an optional locale; if no argument is passed than localeResolutionCode is used); shortcut method is b
• param appends a parameter to the uri; shortcut method is p
• expand expands uri path variables (i.e. {variable}); shortcut method is e
• build builds the uri; shortcut method is b

With Spring MVC you use the generated classes constants to write error proof @RequestMapping's:

@RequestMapping(value = R.index.path)
...
@RequestMapping(value = {R.category.product.detail.path_it, R.category.product.detail.path_en})
...

or a shorter version:

@RequestMapping(value = R.index.p)
...
@RequestMapping(value = {R.category.product.detail.p_it, R.category.product.detail.p_en})
...

And you have the same commodity in Spring EL:

${T(R.index).builder().build()}
...
${T(R.category$product$detail).b().e("fruit", "banana").b()}
...

that in thymeleaf becomes:

<a th:href='@{${T(R.index).builder().build()}}'>index</a>
...
<a th:href='@{${T(R.category$product$detail).b().e("fruit", "banana").b()}}'>banana</a>
...

Do not forget to look at test files to read more examples! have fun!