1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to a system and method for automatically generating source code. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system and method for generating Java beans that interface with a presentation layer.
2. Description of the Related Art
Software programming languages have evolved from a machine language intensive basis to a user-friendly object oriented basis. The Java programming language is one of the user-friendly programming languages. Java is an object-oriented language that is simplified to minimize language features that cause common programming errors. Java source code files (files with a .java extension) are compiled into a format called bytecode (files with a .class extension), which can then be executed by a Java interpreter. Compiled Java code may run on most computers because Java interpreters and runtime environments, known as Java Virtual Machines (VMs), exist for most operating systems, including UNIX, the Macintosh OS, and Windows. Bytecode may also be converted directly into machine language instructions by a just-in-time compiler (JIT).
A key element of the Java language which makes it user-friendly is Java beans. Java beans are reusable software components that allow a program developer to manipulate and customize the Java beans without having to recompile and change the software. A java bean includes methods which are accessible to other java beans, such as a get method and a set method. The get method is used to retrieve information from other objects and the set method is used to send information to other objects.
Web-based software projects typically have two development efforts, which are a presentation layer effort and a business logic layer effort. A web page designer typically develops the presentation layer (i.e. the web page screen). A computer programmer typically develops the business logic (i.e. the program and database). A challenge found with existing art is that the computer programmer spends time writing Java beans to interface with the presentation layer.
It is more cost effective for the software project if the computer programmer spends his time on developing the business logic instead of writing interfaces to the presentation layer. What is needed, therefore, is a way to automatically generate Java beans to interface with the presentation layer.