Lyo Designer - Visual OSLC Modeling Tool¶
Lyo Designer is an Eclipse plugin that allows you to graphically model:
- Overall system architecture
- Information model of RDF resources being shared
- Individual services and operations of each server in the system
Video Demo
Watch a video demonstration of Lyo Designer to see it in action.
Visual Modeling Interface¶
The figure below shows the information modeling interface:
Code Generation¶
Lyo Designer includes an integrated code generator that synthesizes your model into almost-complete OSLC-compliant JAX-RS web applications that are ready to run in modern containers (Jetty, Tomcat, TomEE, WildFly, Payara).
Generated Code Includes¶
Java Classes with Lyo Annotations¶
- Automatically reflects the modeled RDF resource shapes
- Automates marshaling/unmarshaling of Java instances as Linked Data RDF resources
JAX-RS Service Operations¶
- CRUD Operations: Accessing, updating, creating and deleting RDF resources
- Multi-format Support: Handles turtle, RDF/XML, JSON-LD, and other formats
- HTML Debug Views: JSP pages for HTML representations of all RDF resources
Delegated UI Support¶
- Complete Delegated UI implementation
- Creation Dialogs: For creating new resources
- Selection Dialogs: For selecting existing resources
- Auto-generated JSP pages for dialog HTML representations
Resource Preview¶
- Full Resource Preview support
- Auto-generated JSP pages for resource preview representations
Incremental Development¶
Preserves Manual Changes
Lyo Designer supports incremental development where manual changes to the generated code are preserved upon model changes and subsequent code regeneration.
Getting Started¶
Prerequisites¶
- Eclipse IDE with modeling support
- Java 17+ development environment
- Maven or Gradle build system
Installation and Tutorials¶
| Guide | Description |
|---|---|
| Install Lyo Designer | Step-by-step installation instructions |
| Toolchain Modeling Workshop | Model a complete toolchain and generate code |
| Domain Specification Workshop | Model domain specifications and generate Lyo-annotated Java classes |
| Modeling How-to Guide | Advanced modeling techniques and best practices |
Development and Contribution¶
Interested in contributing to Lyo Designer? You can work from its source code on GitHub.
Alternative: Manual Development¶
Designer vs Manual Development
While Lyo Designer provides excellent scaffolding and code generation, you can also develop OSLC applications manually using the Lyo SDK setup guide and reference implementation examples.
Next Steps¶
- Install Lyo Designer in your Eclipse IDE
- Follow a workshop to learn the modeling approach
- Generate your first OSLC application from a model
- Customize the generated code for your specific needs