Changing mwe2 src directory for Xtext 2.3.1

Problem

The Xtext project I’m working with had, what I assume is, the default project structure where all the java source code lives in a src directory and the generated code goes into src-gen. I wanted to change the structure to a more maven-like structure and have the java code living under src/main/java. I wasn’t too fussed about the src-gen directory, that can stay where it is. I Googled for a while but I couldn’t find anyone asking the same question as me so hopefully this will help any others (and my future self).

Solution

In the .mwe2 file, I have a section like:

Workflow {
  ...snip...
  component = Generator {
    pathRtProject = runtimeProject
    pathUiProject = "${runtimeProject}.ui"
    projectNameRt = projectName
    projectNameUi = "${projectName}.ui"
    language = {
      uri = grammarURI
      fileExtensions = file.extensions
      ...snip....

Note: the Generator is an org.eclipse.xtext.generator.Generator.

This fix was to add:

srcPath = "/src/main/java"

…to the Generator. The leading slash is important otherwise you’ll end up with a directory called something like ExampleProjectsrc/main/java, assuming your project is called ExampleProject.

So you’ll end up with the following:

Workflow {
  ...snip...
  component = Generator {
    pathRtProject = runtimeProject
    pathUiProject = "${runtimeProject}.ui"
    projectNameRt = projectName
    projectNameUi = "${projectName}.ui"
    srcPath = "/src/main/java" // added line
    language = {
      uri = grammarURI
      fileExtensions = file.extensions
      ...snip....

Then re-run your .mwe2 workflow to make sure everything gets generated to the expected spot. If you have other code living in the old src, you’ll want to move that to src/main/java too.