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Eclipse-based Custom Content Assistance? (Java)

Is it possible to edit the content assistance of Eclipse? Sort of add rules or functions for it? I'm aware that Eclipse is open-sourced, but I was there an "easier way" or an interface?
For example, I'm working in Java 1.4.2, so I don't believe I have the magical "autoboxing"(am I correct in thinking that autoboxing would solve this issue?) . So when I'm working with getting parameters from a request, they all return strings when I may need a Long or an Int. I'm always interested in making things more automated (as any computer scientist usually would), so I was wondering if it was possible to have content assist suggest to use the common java parse functions (Integer.parseInt, Long.parseLong, etc) for the passed in parameters.

If you want to actually augment Content Assist in a highly detailed, customized way, you'd have to write a plugin. Eclipse is very well architected such that there are endless extension points via which plugins can extend base functionality, including Content Assist. But, writing one is not a trivial matter (though a skill that could serve you well, if you have the time to learn it).
Another option is to write your own Java editor template, which can emit any pre-defined snippet of code you want (including inserting parameter values), and will be included in Content Assist. Open Eclipse's Preferences and navigate to Java > Editor > Templates. You can use the ? help button on that Preferences page to learn more about them.

Java Code Cleaner

Anyone recommend a good code cleaner for Java. If it had a Netbeans plugin, that would be awesome. Just looking for something simple.
Put variables and functions in order based off scope.
Format the code (Hungarian style)
A really awesome feature would be if it could group together functions that implement a interface for a class.

If you use Alt+Shift+F in Netbeans, it should clean it up for you automatically. You can set preferences within Netbeans as well.

Is there any program like LINQPad for Java?

I've found LINQPad to be extremely useful when answering StackOverflow questions for C# or VB.NET. It allows me to write up some quick code, run it, and (if I want) see a nicely-formatted dump of the results. That way I can be sure that the code I post actually runs. Thus far I haven't seen anything that I can use to achieve the same result with Java. Is there anything like that out there?
I am not looking for something to query data sources; I just want a light-weight IDE. These are the features I'm particularly interested in:
The ability to write and run short snippets of code without establishing a whole project or file structure.
Reporting of compiler and runtime errors in the code when it is run.
The ability to add references to a particular editor instance.
Syntax highlighting and Autocomplete/Intellisense would be a plus.

JPad - A java scratchpad for running snippets
Since I also couldn't find one I've decided to write one. Currently it can:
Run java snippets (no class / imports / public blah... needed).
Contains drivers for MS/MySQL/Postgres.
Output results as HTML tables
It's very rough but I will add to it over time. Feedback is definitely welcome.

This may help : http://www.browxy.com:9000/codeRunner
EDIT: Url seems to have changed to http://www.browxy.com

You can use the Groovy web console ; it's possible to speak java in groovy land.

Java Snippet Runner:
Does something similar to Linqpad (jar file, not just for macs)
http://mac.softpedia.com/get/Development/Java/Java-Snippet-Runner.shtml
Code Runner (Commercial):
for Mac's only, it'll run code snippets in Java, and lots of other languages too (e.g. Objective C)
http://krillapps.com/coderunner/

http://ideone.com is an online service that has the features you want.

I've been using JEdit for a long time, which is a very powerful cross-platform editor, NOT an IDE. It does have plugins to execute Java code right in the editor, and even uses BSH for macros.

I was looking for a "Java LinqPad" also, and i came across :
this

I've been using IntelliJ IDEA and it works really well as a Groovy scratchpad. The Community Edition is free too.
You need to create a new project, but then can add Groovy scripts to it and run them on the fly. Not had any luck with the actual Scratch File functionality though.
Being a Jetbrains editor it's pretty slick too. (Unlike some of the other options)
Nothing beats LinqPad though.

A solution to highlight some parts of a text file in java ? How to implement a simple DSL editor?

I'm trying to find a solution to highlight part of a text file in Java.
Basically, what I'm doing is lexing and parsing a text file respecting a certain grammar, storing some information related to the various elements of this file and then logging the information to a database.
I would like to have something more visual like a representation of the text file with some parts highlighted (and an index of the various colors used) - or even better with some context-sensitive information attached to a particular token.
Is there an easy way to do so? Basically what I would like to have, in terms of features, is a really primitive Eclipse plugin for a particular language and stand-alone. Maybe there's a framework to build DSL editors, something like that.
Hope it is clear...
Thanks

I think Xtext is just what you are looking for, it generates an Eclipse editor and more from a grammar.

Although not for Eclipse, there's MPS by JetBrains (the makers of the now open source IntelliJ IDEA) which may be worth taking a look at:
http://www.jetbrains.com/mps/

Code / template generator for Java

For C#, I have often used CodeSmith and lately the T4 generator which is part of Visual Studio.
I'm looking for something similar for Java, in particular an Eclipse add-in since I do all my Java development using the Eclipse IDE.

I've found that freemarker does a pretty good job for generating any type of code. From the website:
FreeMarker is a "template engine"; a generic tool to generate text output (anything from HTML to autogenerated source code) based on templates. It's a Java package, a class library for Java programmers. It's not an application for end-users in itself, but something that programmers can embed into their products.
It is used by struts2 a lot. The website has a long list of other products that use freemarker.

I have worked with both Velocity and StringTemplate. Velocity is a bit more conventional (think JSP/ASP concepts), while StringTemplate seems a bit cleaner. in a sense described in this Artima interview. Both are pure templating engines, and will require you to write some code around them, if you want to do full-blown code generation from a model.
StringTemplate is used internally by ANTLR, which may be useful to your effort.
As an alternative approach, you could go with Eclipse, using EMF and JET.

You should try Telosys Tools, an Eclipse plugin for code generation working from an existing database with customizable Velocity templates
See: http://www.telosys.org/
Eclipse Marketplace : http://marketplace.eclipse.org/content/telosys-tools
The tutorials are here : https://sites.google.com/site/telosystutorial/
See this other question about CodeSmith : Is there any freeware tool available which is like Codesmith?

I use JavaForger to generate code from templates. It parses existing classes so that you can use that class-data inside your templates. It can both create new classes or insert code into existing classes. You can determine where generated code will be inserted based on a string conversion rule (e.g. myProject/dao/ProductDao.java => myProject/service/ProductService.java).
JavaForger is open source and uses FreeMarker as template engine and JavaParser as parser.

This is an old question but the only thing that comes close (for Java) to do what CodeSmith Generator does is Spring Roo.
The reason is that Java does not have Partial Classes like C# does. Spring Roo gets around this by using AspectJ ITDs.

My answer is to use StringTemplate, but there is a bit more to it than just what tool to use.
Is it the issue to generate java code? Or is it to use java tools? Programmers would be normally very comfortable writing code. Therefore, it would not be a leap to write some java classes and write a walk that would generate code using StringTemplate. I personally think it is a good exercise to create example models, generate your java code from the models. And depending on your use case you could end up writing JSON models by hand and never having to write any java code to produce the java code. Or you could end up writing Java classes that produce equivalent models.
You could use the StringTemplate based STST, which reads JSON. STST is command line based, and I am sure you could hook it to both eclipse and/or Visual Studio.
I personally think about portability, JSON is an extremely simple language. And almost every language has libraries that support it.

I'm not a C# man so I don't know what the equivalents would be, however I've found xdoclet to be very good in the past. I don't think it integrates with eclipse as such but you can run it from an ant script. Does things like generating Hibernate mapping files from annotated Java classes. Useful if that's what you're looking for :)

eclipse has a built-in template system.
look in window -> preferences -> java -> code style -> code templates

You might look at my plugin : http://fast-code.sourceforge.net/. It allows one to select multiple fields and generate code using user specified velocity templates.

Take a look at my project https://github.com/karajdaar/templator and see if that helps.

I wrote a simple web based application for my use.
its available at https://github.com/harish2704/templates
and a demo is available at http://templates-harish2704.rhcloud.com/
Its language independent tool. GUI supports several languages ( highlighting, snippet completion ect )