Enable annotation processing

[mcgaw]

Hi, I'm trying to use https://github.com/immutables/immutables which is an annotation based source code generator.

In the docs (https://immutables.github.io/apt.html), it's mentioned that the m2e-apt Eclipse plugin needs to be configured when building in Eclipse, so presumably this is why in vscode it doesn't work?

I was previously having problems with Rocker templates, and with hindsight this might have been related.

Environment

• Operating System: xubuntu yakkety
• JDK version: 1.8.0_131-b11
• Visual Studio Code version: 1.17.1
• Java extension version: 0.12.0
• Maven 3.5
• Maven compiler plugin 3.6

Steps To Reproduce

https://immutables.github.io/getstarted.html

1. Set up a Maven project that includes the org.immutables dependency
2. Add a test class that uses the @Value.Immutable annotation
3. vs-code-java fails to generate the source code, but a mvn compile will

Current Result

No generated source code for @Value.Immutable annotated class

Expected Result

Corresponding Immutable... class source code generated

Additional Informations

I tried adding org.jboss.tools.maven.apt.core_1.3.0.201610261805 to the extension's server/plugins folder to see if that allowed the annotation processor to be picked up, but it wasn't effective. I also tried putting the Immutables jar in the annotationProcessorPaths element in the maven compile plugin configuration, but it still wasn't picked up.

[fbricon]

I've done some tests for eclipse-jdtls/eclipse.jdt.ls#128, but while file generation seems to work, there's an issue with the client detecting changes in the generated files and sending those changes to apply back to the server, so we end up with garbage content. We need to figure out a proper way to cope with generated content, i.e we need to determine whether or not changes from the generated classes folder are caused by something on the server side or by a maven build on the client side.

Adding the jar to the server/plugins is not sufficient to load it, one solution would be to embed the m2e-apt jar into a vscode-java extension, but you'll end up with the same issue that I mentioned above.

[mcgaw]

Thanks for the feedback. It's a bit hard for me to comment, since I don't know enough about the vscode-java/jdt.ls architecture, but is there any reason the Java language server must be responsible for building your project? Presumably that's not part of the language server protocol? It surprised me initially when I realised that the vscode-java plugin was building my project.

I've managed to work around the issue by using the apt-maven-plugin, which afaik uses the jdk 6 annotation processing stuff. This plugin hooks into the 'process' goal, and is picked up by m2e out-of-the-box. Now I can run the Jooby development server while in VSCode and it picks up changes to generated classes no problem now. Great!

       <plugin>
          <groupId>com.mysema.maven</groupId>
          <artifactId>apt-maven-plugin</artifactId>
          <version>${apt-maven-plugin.version}</version>
          <executions>
            <execution>
              <goals>
                <goal>process</goal>
              </goals>
              <configuration>
               <outputDirectory>target/generated-sources</outputDirectory>
              	<processors>
                  <processor>org.immutables.processor.ProxyProcessor</processor>
              	</processors>
              </configuration>
            </execution>
          </executions>
          <dependencies>
            <dependency>
              <groupId>org.immutables</groupId>
              <artifactId>value</artifactId>
              <version>2.5.6</version>
            </dependency>
            </dependencies>
        </plugin>

[fbricon]

The server builds the project so that it can detect workspace-wide compilation errors for instance.

If you open a generated class in vscode in one pane, while modifying a source triggering modifications to that 1st file in a second pane, you should see some interesting stuff :-)

[kdvolder]

We've also got some common scenarios in spring-boot projects that depend on annotation processors to work. I.e. the handling of this kind of stuff:

https://docs.spring.io/spring-boot/docs/current/reference/html/configuration-metadata.html#configuration-metadata-annotation-processor.

It would be nice if the language server made annotation processors 'just work' out of the box (i.e. not like it is in Eclipse/m2e where you typically have to jump through a bunch of hoops just to enable it, even if the maven build, when run from the CLI 'just works'). I realize this is probably not easy... but we live on hope :-)

[fbricon]

@kdvolder see eclipse-jdtls/eclipse.jdt.ls#616

Screencast: https://www.screencast.com/t/hbrnw9nrG

[fbricon]

Done. See screencast of annotation processing in action:

[luiz290788]

Should this work with Immutables as well?
I'm trying to use it but it seems that it is not working.

[luiz290788]

Nevermind, I was able to make it work in a fresh project. But I wasn't able to have it working in a big project that I have. Is there any limitation?

[simon04]

Is Gradle supported as well? Having the following in build.gradle, I keep getting "[Java] AutoValue_Remark cannot be resolved to a type" errors in my project.

dependencies {
    compile 'com.google.auto.value:auto-value-annotations:1.6.2'
    annotationProcessor 'com.google.auto.value:auto-value:1.6.2'
}

(Version 0.28.0)

[maelvls]

@simon04 I found a simple workaround for using Gradle with the annotationProcessor features (Immutables, AutoValue, Metamodels).

The idea is to add manually the location of the generated sources. In my case, I just had to add build/generated/source/apt/main to srcDirs:

sourceSets {
    main {
        java {
            srcDirs = ['src/main/java', 'build/generated/source/apt/main']
        }
    }
}

I don't know if it is a good idea or whatever, but it works and helps me get the job done 😁

[didibus]

Can someone explain under the hood what vscode-java is doing, so we can reproduce it in other lsp clients? Is this changing the javaagent or bootclasspath args to the jvm like for Lombok? Or is this modifying the .classpath or .settings JDT project ?

[snjeza]

You just need to configure your project properly. Java LS, not vscode-java, will do what is necessary.
See eclipse-jdtls/eclipse.jdt.ls#128 and https://github.com/redhat-developer/vscode-java/wiki/Annotation-Processing-support-for-Maven-projects

[didibus]

What if I don't use Gradle and don't use Maven?

[snjeza]

@didibus See eclipse-jdtls/eclipse.jdt.ls#128 (comment) and eclipse-buildship/buildship#329

[didibus]

I see, so it seems all the Eclipse JDT server needs is a .factoryPath to be configured? Any documentation on that file config?

[snjeza]

I see, so it seems all the Eclipse JDT server needs is a .factoryPath to be configured? Any documentation on that file config?

https://help.eclipse.org/2019-12/index.jsp?topic=%2Forg.eclipse.jdt.doc.isv%2Fguide%2Fjdt_apt_getting_started.htm

[cbiale]

I want to use the annotation processor without build tools.

I have tried to add references to the processor in the project launch.json file but it doesn't work.

In which file should I modify to add the processor to javac?

Thanks!

[deepfriedbrain]

@snjeza I'm also not using any build tools. I'm not able to figure out the exact steps to get the Annotation processing to work in VSC. Could you please elaborate a bit more? Thanks.

[snjeza]

@deepfriedbrain could you attach a project example?

[deepfriedbrain]

@snjeza It's an enterprise project with proprietary code. It is a Java project and not using any build tools such as Maven or Gradle.

[xverges]

According to https://github.com/redhat-developer/vscode-java/wiki/Annotation-Processing-support-for-Maven-projects,
apt-maven-plugin is the recommended approach for projects using maven. https://github.com/querydsl/apt-maven-plugin is archieved. Is it still the recommended way to go?