IBM WebSphere Studio Tools Speed Delivery of Web Applications

Aug. 14, 2003 02:17 PM

(August 14, 2003) - Newly released software development tools from IBM automate many time-consuming tasks that can bog down the development process. The new development tools, available with WebSphere Studio V5.1, make creating applications and Web sites faster and easier. Whether for individual developers working in medium-sized businesses or teams creating advanced enterprise applications, IBM's new tools streamline the process of building, deploying and testing transactional applications and Web sites in a Web services-based J2EE environment.

Today, Web developers spend countless hours mired in tasks such as updating individual pages, changing links within Web sites, or debugging errors in code. The problem can be compounded when a company makes an acquisition and needs to quickly assimilate Web site content from its new business into the parent company's site. The process of moving data, replacing company banners, or stripping out logos can delay the launch of a revamped Web site for weeks.

IBM has developed the industry's first tools that automate much of the process, so developers can automatically update cross-site information, shift entire groups of links to another part of the site, and debug Web applications end-to-end, including VisualBasic and JavaScript code running in the browser. In addition, they are the first tools from a major vendor to support the latest WS-I standards, WS-I Basic Profile 1.0, which set implementation guidelines on how core Web services specifications should be used together to develop interoperable Web services. WebSphere Studio automatically generates messages when a Web service is not consistent with the profile, and developers can use wizards to generate interoperable Web services code and easily verify whether Web services are consistent with the profile. New automated features in WebSphere Studio V5.1 include:

A new Web site designer with easy-to-use templates that enable developers to update multiple pages on a Web site at one time, without having to apply changes individually.

The ability to automatically predict problems that create bottlenecks for applications once the application is deployed in the network.

The ability to run WebSphere Application Server applications in debug mode without hurting performance.

Drag-and-drop development of Web application user interfaces (UIs) with WebSphere Studio's updated page designer. This update delivers the foundation for support of JavaServer Faces (JSF) in a future update to WebSphere Studio, expected later this year. JavaServer Faces is an emerging standard that simplifies the complexity of developing, testing and managing the user interface. WebSphere Studio's support of JSF will automate many of the tasks for developing user interfaces for J2EE-based Web applications, saving hours of hand-coding. For example, it will automatically generating the code to connect to data and validate user input based on definitions already in the database.

WebSphere Studio V5.1 builds on WebSphere Studio's momentum as the industry's most open development environment, giving developers the ability to create applications built on standards, including the latest Web services specifications and the open-source tool integration platform, Eclipse.

WebSphere Studio also includes implementations of JSR 101 and JSR 109, bringing WebSphere Studio closer to creating Web services for the pending J2EE 1.4 specification. The JSR101 standard focuses on changed formats for Web Services messages to enhance interoperability. JSR 109 focuses on standardizing deployment of Web services in a J2EE container to enable deployment across multiple vendors.

Other features include:

UML visual editor for EJB and Java, enabling developers to visualize and edit J2EE applications using UML notation within a single, tightly integrated development environment. These diagrams help developers identify and highlight relationships between code views that are not easily gleaned using the other editors.

The ability to visually create pages for popular wireless standards. WebSphere Studio provides a visual map for creating applications for cell phones, hand-helds and other pervasive devices built on popular wireless standards such as WML (Wireless Markup Language) and CHTML (Compact HyperText Markup Language).

The ability to create, test and deploy J2EE applications to BEA WebLogic V6.1 and V7.0.

Faster performance with updated support for Eclispe V2.1, which reduces startup time and requires 15-20% less memory for builds, test applications, UI-intensive development, and EJB deployment.

WebSphere Studio supports development on Linux and Windows, and is ready to use with all configurations of WebSphere, including WebSphere Application Server - Express.

WebSphere Studio Site Developer, available on August 29, starts at $1,000 per developer. WebSphere Studio Application Developer, available on August 29, starts at $3,5000 per developer. WebSphere Studio Application Monitor for zOS and distributed systems will be available in October.

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WebSphere Journal News Desk trawls the world of e-commerce technologies for news and innovations and presents IT professionals with updates on technology trends, products, and services in the WebSphere family.