fluent-builders-generator-eclipse-plugin

Fluent builders generator for Eclipse

Project started at
Sabre Polska's HackDay

A plugin that is going to change your way of creating Java objects, by leveraging the idea of fluent interfaces. By using it, You get: * ease of creating objects in one clean and readable method-chain * clever collections support * creation of complex object trees empowered by IDE's code completion

What is the idea of Fluent builders ?

Fluent Builder is a variant of the Builder pattern that uses Fluent interface.

Fluent builders are especially handy when instantiating data objects within unit tests. To see the benefit, compare following two examples:

This code sample is a JUnit test method that uses fluent builder:

``` @Test public void shouldFindByActorWithFluentBuilder() { // given List movies = Arrays.asList( MovieBuilder.movie().withTitle("Blade Runner") // <- here's the builder used .withAddedActor("Harrison Ford") .withAddedActor("Rutger Hauer") .build(), MovieBuilder.movie().withTitle("Star Wars") // <- ... and also here .withAddedActor("Carrie Fisher") .withAddedActor("Harrison Ford") .build());

// when
List<Movie> found = movieFinder.findByActor(movies, "Carrie Fisher");

// then
assertEquals(1, found.size());
assertEquals("Star Wars", found.get(0).getTitle());

} ```

The same test using plain setters would be longer and much less readable:

``` @Test public void shouldFindByActorWithSetterObjectConstruction() { // given Movie movieBladeRunner = new Movie();

movieBladeRunner.setTitle("Blade Runner");
movieBladeRunner.setActors(Arrays.asList("Harrison Ford", "Rutger Hauer"));

Movie movieStarWars = new Movie();

movieStarWars.setTitle("Star Wars");
movieStarWars.setActors(Arrays.asList("Carrie Fisher", "Harrison Ford"));

List<Movie> movies = Arrays.asList(movieBladeRunner, movieStarWars);

// when
List<Movie> found = movieFinder.findByActor(movies, "Carrie Fisher");

// then
assertEquals(1, found.size());
assertEquals("Star Wars", found.get(0).getTitle());

} ```

To see more advanced examples go to Examples page.