We are in the process of making our components
Bean-compliant and would like to put this
information into the javadoc specs.  Currently
javadoc does not do this, but we hope that
subsequent versions would provide this capability.

After reading the javadoc template spec, it
doesn't look like it would support this. If we
are to push JavaBeans, we need a provide this
information to clients; hopefully, by generating
this via javadoc.  It would be preferrable that
Javasoft do this, instead of us writing another
program to do this.

======================================================================


Subject: JavaBean attribute info support


> Doug wrote:
> Thank you for submitting feature request 4086778 back in October.  
> Would you please elaborate on how this might look, what 
> information javadoc would be picking up and what the preferred
> output would look like?  Would this work only when you run 
> javadoc on a JavaBean?  I'm not that familiar with JavaBeans
> and need some context here.  We have switched from templates
> to doclets, so that might also change what you have to say.

Allen replied:
When I think about this, I believe what we want is a tool that generates 
BeanInfo [class] files, as javadoc is a tool that generates documentation, 
so this really isn't a javadoc issue per-se. 
  
Developers will annotate the source to indicate Bean-specific information, 
using javadoc-like '@-tags'.  Bean customizers and property editors would be 
a separate issue.   
  
I don't know if Javasoft has a certain tool in mind, but it would be nice if 
you can forward this to the right people. 
  
Thanks, 
  
Allen Choy 
 xxxxx  Corporation 

We are considering using a shell script to pull
bean info as a temporary measure. We
are hoping that the new javadoc template would
support this.
======================================================================


This is not ideal, but as a workaround you could create annotations 
(see JSR 175) like @Synchronized and @Native.  Make these source-only
attributes (so they don't wind up in the class files.)  Mark them
as @Documented (so they wind up in the javadoc output), but change this
before generating the final docs (so no trace of them appears).

  xxxxx@xxxxx   2003-09-24

NOTE: This is not a request to change the standard doclet, but to write
a doclet that can generate BeanInfo classes.

Doug: Graham, what kind of special support, if any, should javadoc have for JavaBeans?  Is supporting JavaBean Attribute info a good idea?

Graham: I'm not in favour of adding javadoc support for beans.
I'm not wildly oposed either, I just think its a distraction.  (Feb 5, 1998)

Doug: Rich Schiavi and the Swing team uses @beaninfo for the comment
that is required to generate BeanInfo classes.  This person is asking
for the tool that Rich wrote.  We don't want to support this tool for
the public.  Perhaps we could offer it on the web for others to improve.
  xxxxx@xxxxx   1998-04-03

Changed synopsis line from:
  JavaBean Attribute info support in javadoc

  Want new doclet to generate BeanInfo files (using @beaninfo)
  xxxxx@xxxxx   1998-09-17