ASN.1 / XML Software Tools from Objective Systems

Prerequisites

The ASN1C Compiler Wizard is a graphical application that acts as a front end to Objective Systems' ASN1C command-line compiler.

Please note that the ASN1C Compiler is not included and it has to be obtained separately.

Only editing and navigation actions are available without the ASN1C Compiler. Validation and Code Generation are disabled. The ASN.1 Compiler can be obtained from the Objective Systems Inc. site http://www.obj-sys.com/. Please check the section Initial Configuration and Preferences for details.

Overview

The ASN1C Compiler Wizard is delivered as an Eclipse Plugin together with the ASN.1 Editor, Outline, BER Dump View, Console, Problems View and Preferences. The image below present an overview of the main visual parts: the workspace view showing a ASN1C Project together with it's generated Java classes was placed on the top left, followed on the top right by the editor window and on the bottom left side by the outline. The ASN1C Compiler Output Console shares the same space with the Problems View on the bottom right part of the Eclipse workbench.

Please note the ASN1C Project Toolbar Actions are also available, depending on the context, inside the Project menu and as Context menu for ASN.1 files and ASN1C projects.

From left to right we have ASN1C Project Configuration, Code Generation and Validation. The last action called "New ASN1C Compiler Project" can be accessed also from the File -> New -> Project... menu.

ASN1C Compiler Wizard
adds the possibility to customize the validation and code generation using the ASN1C Compiler. Currently C, C++, C# and Java are supported. The preferences allow the modification of settings used by default for the creation of each new ASN.1 project.
ASN.1 Editor
project provides an Eclipse platform editor plugin for the ASN.1 (Abstract Syntax Notation One) formal language. It presents an outline page, syntax highlighting, compare view, content assist, goto declaration under cursor, bracket matching, problem markers. The BER Dump View was added in order to simplify the analysis of ASN.1 encoded messages.
Console
presents the plain output of the ASN1C Compiler created during the validation and code generation process.
Problems View
show the list of warnings, errors and info messages together with the location information
Runtime Libraries
Java built-in libraries for the ASN.1 runtime are added automatically to each new ASN1C Java Project.

There is always a possibility to show the Help Contents using the actions from the help menu.

The Help contains informations about the ASN1C Compiler Wizard and also detailed information about the other Eclipse components. The latest version of the ASN1C Compiler documentation is available from the Objective Systems Inc. site http://www.obj-sys.com/.

Workspace

Eclipse uses it's own file system called workspace. The workspace is structured into projects. Please note that limited behavior occurs when using external files (e.g. open a file from outside the workspace). That's why the input files should be copied into a project inside the workspace. The ASN1C Compiler Wizard provides such an import action, but works also with Drag-n-Drop from the file system.

Eclipse provides the possibility to exchange projects via archives. Projects may be imported from archives (the data is copied inside the workspace) or from a file system location into the workspace (two options are here available: reference and copy).

Copyright Notice

Copyright ©1997-2008 Objective Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved This document may be distributed in any form, electronic or otherwise, provided that it is distributed in its entirety and that the copyright and this notice are included.