=============================================== SEARCH400.COM WEBSPHERE STRATEGIES TIP May 3, 2001 More WebSphere Strategies tips at http://search400.techtarget.com/tipsIndex/0,289482,sid3_tax2fa,00.html =============================================== SPONSORED BY: Postmaster Direct =============================================== GET THE INFO YOU WANT TODAY What do YOU want in your e-mailbox? How about FREE info and offers about computers, networking, wireless devices, finance and lots more? Visit http://search400.techtarget.com/postmasterDirect/1,289639,sid3,00.html , choose the topics that interest you, and you'll get the e-mail you want. ----------------------------------------- TIP OF THE MONTH WINNERS ----------------------------------------- Congratulations to Larry Pepin, winner of April's tip prize, a Garmin eMap! Larry will be inducted into our Hall of Fame for his winning tip: A new and improved find command, http://www.search400.com/tip/1,289483,sid3_gci543134,00.html Kudos to our runner-up winners: Sudhakar Kunji, Mary Milliron and JR Friedman. NEW May PRIZE! Submit a tip and let the votes determine the winner of this month's prize, a Toshiba DVD player! http://search400.techtarget.com/tipsSubmit/1,289485,sid3,00.html ===================================================== New to Java development? Focus on IBM's visual development tools first By Jim Mason and Dave Slater If you are new to Java development, you should recognize several things about learning Java and building Java applications. There is a Java Skills Pyramid with three primary skill levels for Java development: 1. Visual programming At this level, developers design and develop Java applications using visual tools that generate Java code. 2. Java application scripting At this level, developers write application logic using the Java language. In many cases the application framework may have been generated by tools, but the business logic is added by writing Java code much the same as RPG developers code logic in subroutines or procedures. 3. Java component development At this level, developers design and build reusable Java beans as components that dramatically cut the cost of development. This is very different than traditional RPG application development that doesn't support a component model. The skill sets and time to master each of these levels varies dramatically. With good training and effort, RPG developers can very quickly master visual programming in Java. Level 2, application scripting business logic in Java, takes longer (three weeks to three months). Level 3, component development, usually takes significantly longer and requires the development of object-oriented design skills. So why is Java a great second language for RPG developers to learn? It can extend existing RPG code as Java components to new environments easily. Your RPG business logic can easily become the heart of WebSphere, voice, mobile and other advanced e-business applications quickly. Java beans, enterprise Java beans (EJBs), JDBC stored procedures, Java Native Interface, the AS/400 Java toolbox and, soon, IBM's Web Facing tool all provide ways to bring RPG business logic to Java e-business runtime environments such as WebSphere easily. Java visual programming tools from IBM (VisualAge for Java and WebSphere Studio) allow you to learn and develop Java applications for AS/400 faster than most developers can learn languages such as Visual Basic. With one good course, self-study tutorials and mentoring, the average RPG developer can become a visual developer in Java very quickly (days or weeks). What's the payback for visual development in Java? With IBM's tools, visual developers can rapidly do the following: * Create user interfaces for Java client/server applications, applets and Java servlets for the web. * 'Wire' business logic as a series of events to action or code connections using Java beans. * Visually access AS/400 data and RPG applications by generating JDBC SQL queries and stored procedures. * Build typical AS/400 data access Search, Select and Edit applications typical of RPG subfiles. * Even create reusable components visually in some cases. Why bother learning Java if you can do it all visually with IBM's tools? Real, large business applications (such as complex order processing) DO require other skills. Those applications include * application design * architecture and engineering * object-oriented component strategies for reuse * defining requirements and mapping them to solution patterns * performance engineering What does this mean for an average project? An experienced architect can take new developers with visual programming skills and engineer the application to maximize the percentage of development done visually. That means new developers can begin delivering payback on their training within weeks, not months. This IS a big breakthrough compared with other environments. Here are some key strategies for learning visual development in VisualAge for Java and WebSphere Studio: * Load and run the application samples provided with the products. * Follow the online tutorials to try building the samples on your own. * Look at the generated Java code. You can see the connection between the visual programming constructs (such as event to action or property to property connections) and the Java coding to implement the logic efficiently. Run the applications in the VisualAge debug environment to understand what happens. (VisualAge's debugger goes beyond RPG's.) You can see your application objects, their messages and data. In addition, you can change the data, even the code, and continue executing in the debug environment. Good luck on your journey to visual development in VisualAge for Java and WebSphere Studio. Note: The newly announced WebSphere Development Studio for iSeries (5722-WDS) for V5R1 replaces the WebSphere Development Tools for AS/400 (5733-CL3), which runs on V4R5. It includes the products from the prior tool set updated (such as VisualAge for Java, WebSphere Studio, CODE/400 etc) and adds new products such as IBM's WebFacing tool as well as all the iSeries host compilers (ILE RPG, COBOL and C++). -------------------------------------------- About the authors: Jim Mason is president of Cape Cod Bay Systems, and he writes, consults, teaches, designs and develops AS/400 Web applications using Java, WebSphere, DB2, Lotus Domino and the WebSphere Development Tools for AS/400. Dave Slater is World Wide Market Manager of AS/400 Application Development at IBM Canada. --------------------------------------------- ADVICE ON WEBSPHERE AND WEB DEVELOPMENT --------------------------------------------- Do you have questions about WebSphere and Web development? Our search400 experts, who include Jim Mason and Dave Slater, can help. Submit your Ask the Expert questions at http://search400.techtarget.com/ateQuestion/0,289624,sid3_tax285218,00.html Or to view Web development questions that have already been answered, go to http://search400.techtarget.com/ateAnswers/0,289620,sid3_tax285218,00.html ------------------------------------- FEATURED BOOK ------------------------------------- Title: Enterprise Development with VisualAge for Java, Version 3 Authoe: Dale R. Nilsson Description: Using this book you'll discover how to utilize VisualAge for Java to develop Enterprise JavaBeans, Servlets, Swing components and much more. You'll also progress through a series of programming examples that will help you master the necessary skills to ace IBM's VisualAge for Java and WebSphere certification exams. http://www.digitalguru.com/dgstore/product.asp?isbn=0471389498%20&ac_id=55 -------------------------------------- To Remove your email address from the distribution list for this specific newsletter "Reply" to this message with REMOVE in the subject line. You will receive an email confirming that you have been removed. To Remove yourself from additional distribution lists or to update your preferences, go to the search400.com registration page at: http://search400.techtarget.com/register
