Javadoc for JBoss AS API?

[Mark E Hansen]

I'm using JBoss 5.1.0.GA and have been hunting around for the Javadoc for the API.
Specifically, I'm looking for the Javadoc for org.jboss.security.auth.spi.DatabaseServerLoginModule.

I found one answer which said that the Javadoc can be generated from the sources. Is it already available online somewhere, or do I need to download the JBoss AS sources and generate it myself?

Thank you for any help.

[Mark E Hansen]

By the way, I extracted the sources on my Linux system and looked at the main/build.sh and main/build.xml and don't see any javadoc, doc or api targets. I can't see anyway to generate the javadoc. I ran main/buid.sh, which finished very quickly, but still no javadoc that I can see.

Did I download the incorrect sources? The file is named: jboss-5.1.0.GA-src.tar.gz

Thanks for any help.

[Peter Johnson]

1) AFAIK, none of the builds generate javadocs; you will have to create the javadoc by hand.

2) Before you generate javadoc, you should first look at the source code to see if it even contains any javadoc comments - much of the source code is either not commented or is undercommented. Looking at DatabaseServerLoginModule.java, it seems to be fairly well commented. (I just glanced at it, didn't read the actual comments so I cannot vouch for how useful they are.)

3) The source code for DatabaseServerLoginModule is in the file thirdparty/jboss/jbosssx/lib/jbosssx-sources.jar, you will have to unpack that JAR file first.

[Mark E Hansen]

I'm more than a little surprised by this. Does JBoss not provide documentation for their API? How are we supposed to know how to use it? What methods are available, what parameters they take, what exceptions they throw, etc.?

For example, in working with EJB3, I can reference the Java EE 6 API Javadoc, which provides information about, among other things, the EntityManager interface, which shows all the methods, etc.. Is there nothing like this for JBoss AS?

Thanks,

[Francesco Marchioni]

Hello,
I agree it could help to have JavaDocs available also for the 5.X release (AFAIK they're available only for the 4.0.5 release), anyway, just break a lance in favor of JBoss AS you should consider that all popular IDEs (Eclipse, NetBeans) allow you to have an insight of the Classes structure, revealing what methods/parameters/exceptions available. If you link the AS sources to your Project you can have the JavaDocs too from your Project view....
hope it helps
Francesco Marchioni
MyJBossSite

[Peter Johnson]

Mark E Hansen wrote:How are we supposed to know how to use it?

Actually, typical Java EE programs should be using the Java EE API only, and not using any JBoss AS-specific APIs - doing so makes the app non-portable.

Though I guess if you want to extend the JBoss AS APIs. which is common for something like the database login module, then having the javadocs would come in handy. But like Francesco said, feeding the API source files to an IDE should result in the IDE providing the javadoc-style comments to you as part of command completion.

[Mark E Hansen]

Peter Johnson wrote:

Mark E Hansen wrote:How are we supposed to know how to use it?

Actually, typical Java EE programs should be using the Java EE API only, and not using any JBoss AS-specific APIs - doing so makes the app non-portable.

Though I guess if you want to extend the JBoss AS APIs. which is common for something like the database login module, then having the javadocs would come in handy. But like Francesco said, feeding the API source files to an IDE should result in the IDE providing the javadoc-style comments to you as part of command completion.

I don't want to write any JBoss-specific code, but I think I need to. For example, I think I need to implement the LoginModule to get security to work for my application when it is deployed on JBoss AS. I'm not sure about this, however, and am still reading (including waiting for the delivery of your book) to determine just what is required.

My application will not need to run in a non-JBoss AS environment, but I would rather not lock it in to JBoss AS if I don't have to - just as a matter of good practice.

I guess if the only thing I need to know about the JBoss API is how to implement a LoginModule, I can use guides/tutorials specifically written to aid in this (assuming I can find any).

Thanks for your help.