Step 4: Create a Template using Xpand

Step 4: Create a Template using Xpand

Create an ordinary Xpand Template file: Being in the Xpand/Xtend perspective, go to "File", "New", "xPand template" . The Xpand language itself is explained by several other Xpand documents. Having XSD meta model support activated like described in the section called “Step 1: Create a Project” , Xpand scans and watches all it's projects for suitable meta models. Based on what is found, the Xpand editor provides meta model aware code completion.

This example imports "metamodel" at the beginning, which refers to a file called metamodel.xsd that you have created within the project's classpath in the section called “Step 2: Define a Meta Model using XML Schema” . The define-block can be understood as a function named "Root" which takes one object of type metamodel::Wizard as a parameter. This is the meta model's type for the XML's root object. The file-block creates a file named wizard.txt and writes the text that is surrounded by the file-block into the file. name , welcometext and choicepage.title are elements or attributes defined in the XSD meta model. Their values are stored within the XML file and this templates inserts them into the generated ( wizard.txt ) file.

«IMPORT metamodel»

«DEFINE Root FOR metamodel::Wizard»
«FILE "wizard.txt"»
Name: «name»
Welcometext: «welcometext»
First Page Title: «choicepage.title»
«ENDFILE»
«ENDDEFINE»