Quick Tutorial

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Follow these steps to try two basic samples in less than 5 minutes.

Sample 1. Hello world

  1. Open the project: HelloWord
  2. Open the file: Meta
    Meta.meta contains a basic metamodel defining MailMessage and Person types with basic properties.
    Try adding a new property like int? Age to the Person type. Note that you can use code completion pressing Control-Space.
    When finished, press Control-S to save.
  3. Open the file: Model
    Model.ess contains a sample model with a MailMessage and some Persons.
    Try to add and Age property to any person.
    Note: You can use code completion again (Control-Space) to check for missing properties.
  4. Open the file: Template
    Take a look on the templates defined.
    This templates will dump the model to a text form and to an HTML form.
  5. Open the file: Transf
    This file controls the transformation, selecting the model, applying templates and resolving output files.
  6. Validate the project
    To check that everything is correct in the model, click on the Validate All button.
    If any error is pressent a double-click on an error will jump to the issue.
  7. Finally: Generate some code!

  8. Model to Text transformations (M2T) are implemented in Essential applying StringTemplate templates.
  9. Review the output

Sample 2. Persistence

  1. Open the project: Persistence
  2. Review the project
    The organization is quite similar to the previous sample but more models and metamodels are present.
  3. Review the file: Main.ctl
    Review the order of transformations applied.
  4. Open the file: DeriveDBSchem.mtrx
    This file describes a basic Model to Model (M2M) declarative transformation to translate classes to tables.

There are more samples to explore. Go on yout own and enjoy!

More info at: http://pjmolina.com/essential