Make Agents Yourself

h1. SpeADL Minus Tutorial

This is a tutorial for [[SpeADL Minus Reference|SpeADL⁻]]: creating a project, defining simple and composite components, implementing components.

h2. Objectives

The objective of this tutorial is to understand the basic workflow to follow when developing component-oriented applications with SpeADL in Eclipse/MAY.

We will create a simple composition of two components connected together following a typical client-server configuration.

The server will provide a service that will be used by the client.

They will be composed together in a big component.

A Java *main()* will be created to show how to execute the composition once.

A very simple GUI will be used to illustrate a self-contained component acting as an application.

h2. Installing Eclipse and MAY

This procedure is described on [[SpeADL MAY Project SetUp|this page]].

h2. Creating a New Project

First, we must create a project to work.

In Eclipse, go to the menus : *File / New / Java Project*.

Enter _Tutorial 1_ as the project name, verify that the *execution environment JRE* is 1.5 or above.

As a start, create a package in the *src* folder called _tutorial1_.

h2. The Server Component

Create the following hierarchy of packages (See [[SpeADL Best Practices#Project Organisation|this best practice]] for details on the matter):

* _tutorial1.server_

** _impl_

** _interfaces_

** _datatypes_

Create a SpeADL file:

* Right-click on tutorial1.server and select *New / File*.

* Enter _server.speadl_ as the file name.

Define the namespace we are going to work in as well as the _Server_ component:

<pre>

namespace tutorial1.server {

	component ServerComponentType {

	}

}

</pre>