What WOLips does that Parsley does not
Parsley is a template editor, not a full IDE suite. WOLips is a collection of ~18 Eclipse plugins covering the entire WebObjects development lifecycle — from data modeling to deployment. Parsley focuses on the component editing experience and drops everything else. This page documents what Parsley intentionally leaves out.
WOLips includes a full graphical editor for Enterprise Objects models (.eomodeld). Entity diagrams, attribute and relationship management, fetch specification editing, stored procedure definitions, database configuration — all through a dedicated multi-tab editor with property panels.
A dedicated Eclipse perspective for data modeling, with its own layout and toolbars.
Reverse-engineering database schemas into EOModels, SQL generation with vendor-specific support, and migration generation for schema changes.
An integrated .eogen file editor for generating Java classes from EOModels. Managed EOModelGroups for multi-model projects and automatic class file generation as part of the build process.
A visual editor for Direct to Web rule models (.d2wmodel files). D2W is a WebObjects framework that generates web UIs from EOModels using configurable rules.
Wizards for creating new Direct to Web applications, including both standard WebObjects D2W and Project Wonder D2W projects, with look-and-feel selection (Basic, Neutral, WebObjects, Classic, Wonder).
A custom Eclipse launch type for running and debugging WebObjects applications. Includes classpath resolution for WOFrameworks, environment variable setup, and the Wonder ERXMainRunner launch shortcut.
A custom Eclipse builder for WOApplications and WOFrameworks, with Ant-based build integration and framework target management.
Custom classpath variables (NEXT_LOCAL_ROOT, NEXT_SYSTEM_ROOT, NEXT_ROOT, EXTERNAL_BUILD_ROOT) and a WOFramework classpath container with a GUI for selecting frameworks from the local WebObjects installation.
Tools to include/exclude resources as WebServerResources, WOResources, or Classes — managing the build.properties pattern sets that control what gets packaged into the application or framework bundle.
Logical structure providers for WebObjects classes in the debugger, plus custom exception handlers for NSKeyValueCoding exceptions and WODeclarationFormat errors. Console line trackers for navigating build failures and runtime exceptions.
WOLips supports creating WebObjects Applications, Frameworks, and Subprojects using the Ant-based build system. Parsley only creates Maven projects.
Dedicated wizards for ERRest applications, Direct to Java Client projects, Direct to WebService applications, Jar projects, and importing PB (Project Builder) projects from the pre-Xcode era.
A wizard for importing existing EOModel files into a project during project creation.
A view showing files related to the current selection — the other files that make up a component, associated EOModels, etc.
A visual component builder tab in the component editor, inherited from the original Apple WebObjects Builder tool. Allows drag-and-drop layout of components.
A preview tab in the component editor for viewing a rendered approximation of the template.
Visual markers distinguishing WOApplication projects from WOFramework projects, with decorators for build folders, subproject folders, woproject folders, and Xcode project files.
Decorators in the Java editor identifying action methods (methods returning WOActionResults).
Dedicated preference pages for WOLips build configuration, launch settings, and debugging options. Parsley has no build or launch integration.
Preference page for configuring EOGenerator code generation settings (templates, output paths, naming conventions).
Property pages for configuring development and deployment settings on individual projects (servlet adaptor, JNDI support, WebServices, etc.).
A project-wide analysis tool for finding unreferenced WebObjects code.
Wizards and configuration for Direct to WebServices applications, with client and server WebServices support options.
Context menu contributions for WOLips-specific Ant tasks and Maven operations.