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WDSC: Step by Step

A Practical Guide to Becoming Proficient in WebSphere Development Studio Client

MC Press

Step 1

Welcome to WDSC!

And welcome to WDSC: Step by Step.

About the time this book goes to editing, the next version of WebSphere Development Studio Client for iSeries (WDSC) will be getting ready for release. The biggest additions to Version 5.1.2 are new support for JavaServer Faces and the integration of Enterprise Generation Language (EGL), a feature borrowed from WebSphere Studio Enterprise Developer. You'll also see enhancements to the various Web-enablement tools, such as WebFacing and HATS. I consider most of these to be "advanced" features, dealing specifically with the integration of Web applications and legacy systems. As with any other release, there are minor changes to the UI as well. Wherever changes have been made to the tool, I'll address them in the text. I have also included a complete addendum on the CD-ROM that includes screen shots for areas that have changed. SideStep 5 of the book addresses this addendum in detail.

But WDSC is much more than that. WDSC is like an amalgam of all the tools required to build a great application, from Web site design to application deployment. Combine FrontPage and Dreamweaver, mix in VisualAge for Java, and add a dash of Paint Shop Pro, and you begin to get an idea of the capabilities that WDSC brings to the table. Include on top of that the unique capabilities of the built-in CSS and XML editors, the ability to syntax check Java code within a JavaServer Page (JSP), and the flexibility of the template language, and you've got more than a Web site designer; you've got a Web application development environment that allows you to build all of your pieces in one coherent environment.

If that weren't enough already, you then add the unique testing and deployment capabilities of WDSC — from integrated JUnit testing to the WebSphere Test Environment, from hot deployment to WAR/EAR creation — and now you've got an unsurpassed Web development environment.

But that's only what WDSC brings to the table itself. WDSC is built on the Eclipse platform, so it's also able to include all of the great Eclipse plug-ins currently available — things ranging from high-end UML editors to SQL tools to editors for other languages.

So how can one book possibly teach you all of that? Well, it can't. What a book can do, though, is guide you through every step needed to create a dynamic, data-oriented Web site and make you comfortable and productive using the tool. For green-screen programmers especially, that means being able to use WDSC in place of the old green-screen and being introduced to the brave new world of GUIs and browsers.

Prerequisites

In order to do all this, there are a few prerequisites. Most importantly, you need to have WDSC installed on your machine. During the installation, you must also install the WebSphere Test Environment. So the machine needs to be a good-sized machine. These are the minimum requirements to run a full- blown WDSC session (including the WebSphere Test Environment):

1. A CPU of 2GHz or better

2. 1GB of RAM

3. 2GB of disk space

4. 1024×768 screen resolution highly recommended

5. Windows 2000 or better for Windows machines

That might look like a hefty machine, but if you plan to do development using today's generation of tools, that's a minimum (technically, you may squeak by on half the RAM and a slightly slower CPU, but you'll occasionally be dissatisfied with response times). Personally, I find that 1280×1024 is necessary if I plan to use the tools on a daily basis, but the specs I posted above are enough to get started.

With some judicious shopping on the Internet, you can find a machine with those specifications for under $1,000 US. It could be a little more if you go with a flat-screen monitor, which I find indispensable, but I write for a living.

As I said, you'll need to have WDSC installed on your machine, including the WebSphere Test Environment. That's where the 2GB of disk space goes. Not only that, you need to have everything up-to-date. As of this writing, the latest version of WDSC is Version 5.1.0.3. If you aren't quite sure how to upgrade WDSC, don't worry about it; I was confused, too. However, SideStep 1 provides documentation on the upgrade process.

For the client/server development, you'll need the following:

1. An iSeries at V5R1M0 or later

2. A value in your HOSTS file that points to the machine (the book assumes a name of WDSCHOST)

3. A user profile on the iSeries (the book assumes a name of WDSCUSER with a password of WDSCUSER) that is authorized to

a. CRTLIB

b. STRSRVJOB, ENDSRVJOB, STRDBG, ENDDBG

c. The program Q5BATTACH in QSYS

Please note that these requirements are only necessary for the client/server portions of the book, starting at Step 11. Prior to that step, you don't even need to be connected to an iSeries; you can do all your development and testing right on your workstation.

Since a prerequisite is that you have already installed WDSC, I am going to assume that you have tried to load it. When you do load it, you get the following dialog:

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

I highly recommend the above setting. It will create a folder in your hard drive root called WDSCSBS, and then it will create a workspace called "ws1" within that folder (a workspace is just a hierarchy of folders). I suggest this because if you choose to use Checkpoints later, you want to know exactly where to copy those Checkpoints to, and if you follow the suggestion, you will always copy them to C:\WDSCSBS. (If you don't have enough room on your C: drive, substitute another drive letter, but still add WDSCSBS to the root.)

How It Works

The Step by Step books are very simple in format. The entire book is broken down into a series of sequential steps that are meant to be followed in order. Each Step will have a checklist. The checklist will look something like this:

[] 1.1(a) Place toothpaste on the toothbrush.

[] 1.1 (b) Brush teeth vigorously for two minutes.

The number on the left refers to the Step (1.1, 1.2, 2.1 ...) and the task within that step (a, b, c ... ). The number on the right refers to the page where that particular task can be found.

Each Step will start on a new page and will have a heading and a goal statement. There may be a paragraph or two of additional information as well. Each task will have detailed instructions and one or more associated illustrations (occasionally, several tasks will refer to the same image — for example, when you're being instructed how to fill out the fields of a dialog box).

Some of the steps may seem very simple, especially if you already have some experience in a given area, but I wanted to be sure not to leave anything out. If you follow all the Steps to the letter, by the time you finish the book, you will have completed the goal of creating a complete client/server Web application using WDSC.

SideSteps and InSteps

SideSteps are the Step by Step equivalent of appendices. These chapters are found at the end of the book, and they outline various procedures that are somewhat peripheral to the actual topic: upgrading WDSC, for example, or deploying an EAR file to WebSphere Express. InSteps, on the other hand, are detailed explanations of topics — explanations that aren't crucial to your finishing the book but provide additional insight to the topic.

What I'll Cover

In keeping with the spirit of the Step by Step series, WDSC: Step by Step will walk you through all of the areas of WDSC you would use to build a real, working application. Everything from basic Web site design to client/server programming will be covered. And it will all be done within the context of what you would encounter in your daily programming endeavors. By the end of the book, you will have created a working application that provides a Web interface to an RPG back-end on the iSeries, completely designed, written, and tested within the WDSC environment.

Web Site Development

Any good Web application development platform will provide the ability to create pages, manage them, and publish them. Web page development has become very complex, and a number of techniques are available, from ColdFusion to Perl. However, IBM's direction (and that of a good segment of the Web application world) is Sun's J2EE development paradigm, which centers on servlets and JSPs.

In addition, to create professional Web sites, you need to know how to create graphics, how to implement style sheets, and how to create a standard look and feel for your entire site. WDSC has tools for these areas, and you'll be introduced to all of them.

In the first section of the book you will:

1. Create a Web project for your Web site

2. Add Web pages

3. Organize your Web site

4. Apply a template

5. Create a logo

6. Modify your style sheets

7. Customize your navigation links

All of these steps will be done within the WDSC workbench, and by the time you're done, you'll have all the pieces for a working Web site.

Web Site Testing

Next, you'll be briefly introduced to one of the most powerful features of WDSC, the WebSphere Test Environment (or WTE). The WTE allows you to actually test your Web site right on your desktop as if you had published it to a production Web application server. This is a crucial productivity enhancement because it means you can actually test your entire Web site without having to go through the time-consuming process of deploying your application to a server. Not only that, but you can then debug the application right there on your desktop, setting breakpoints in the various pieces of your application. While you will only get a short initiation into the WTE, you'll be using it throughout the book, so rest assured that you'll become acquainted with it in as much detail as you need.

The productivity gains of the WTE alone are worth more than the cost of the tool, much less this book. By the way, I feel the need to mention that WDSC sells for about $2,400 US for a single-user license, but iSeries developers get it for free. It's good to be an iSeries developer!

Dynamic Web Sites

The next section of the book will cover dynamic Web site design. As I mentioned earlier, there are a number of designs, but I will introduce you to perhaps the most powerful design technique, JSP Model II.

In JSP Model II development, the servlet receives a request, reads database data to build Beans, and then passes the Beans to a JSP to render the data for the user. Sound familiar? It should, because it's basically the same thing we've been doing with green-screens since the early days of the midrange. You get a request from the user, you read data from the database and stick it into screen variables, and then you output a display file record to the user.

And while there are many ways to build Web sites, with lots of third-party and open-source tools and template engines to help you, in this book you'll do it all from the ground up, using the basic J2EE technology and WDSC. I'll explain each piece of the architecture so that you not only know how something works, but why it works the way it does. I'll also spend some time discussing the architecture so that you have a firm understanding of the pros and cons of the JSP Model II approach.

In addition, you'll be introduced to another facet of the WTE: the debugging mode. This is where the WTE becomes invaluable. You can set breakpoints in either the servlet or the JSP, and you can then do all the things you're used to doing in debugging: inspect variables, set watch points, even change variables on the fly. This is a far cry from the days of logging problems to "stdout" and digging through server execution dumps to try to find an error.

The iSeries Extensions

What really sets WDSC apart from its various ancestors is its rich set of extensions specific to the iSeries. Integration with various iSeries functions — from editing to compiling to debugging — continues to improve with each release. At this time, you can pretty much develop an entire application without having to ever sign on to a green-screen. There are some shortcomings — spooled file and native database viewers would be nice features to have — but WDSC is a formidable successor to the green-screen development tools we've come to love.

In WDSC: Step by Step, you'll run through the paces of editing, verifying, compiling, and debugging a simple program in order to get you familiar with these extensions. And after all of this, you're just getting started!

Multi-Language Development

One of the problems with tutorials is that they tend to be simple in nature and not very business-oriented. By the time you get around to applying this knowledge to a business application, you've forgotten what you learned. But the iSeries is all about business, and thus, so is WDSC. And the crowning achievement of this book is to take all the introductory material that you learned in the previous steps and immediately use it to create a real (albeit simple) business application. But unlike other tutorials, where the examples are somewhat standalone, in WDSC: Step by Step the object of the entire book is to have a single, cohesive Web site that has both static and dynamic information connected to an RPG back-end for business logic. You can then build from this foundation to make your own Web site, without having to worry about how you will integrate the various pieces. I've done all the integration for you!

Deployment

And finally, while I don't spend a lot of time on this particular subject, I do go through the basics of deploying a Web site like the one you'll build. The reason I don't spend a lot of time on this topic is because many different factors come into play when you are deploying Web applications. So rather than try to address every possible occurrence, I simply provide the basics. However, even though it's impossible to guess what your network configuration will be, I have included a couple of SideSteps that walk you through deployment on the server you are most likely to use: WebSphere Express on the iSeries. But please note that the rest of the book is entirely independent of what Web application server you use.

A Different Look

The MC Press Step by Step book series employs a technique of walking the reader through each step of a process visually via screen shots. But in WDSC: Step by Step, we've added something called "InSteps," which provide additional detail on a specific topic. If you're following the book's lessons step by step, you can just skip these InSteps. Then, at your leisure, you can read them to get more information on the topic or a detailed look at the actual code.

In order to fit everything I've mentioned into one book, I must assume a certain degree of Integrated Development Environment (IDE) knowledge. For example, I'm going to assume you're relatively familiar with Windows and a mouse. While previous IDE experience is unnecessary, I'm also going to assume that you understand how pop-up menus work and what a right-click is. If these terms are foreign to you, you might want to pick up a copy of Eclipse: Step by Step. The first book in this series, Eclipse: Step by Step leaves nothing to the imagination and is a perfect introduction to the WDSC/Eclipse environment.

Additional Materials

WDSC: Step by Step includes a CD-ROM that contains hundreds of megabytes of supplementary materials.

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Excerpted from WDSC: Step by Step by Joe Pluta. Copyright © 2004 MC Press Online, LP. Excerpted by permission of MC Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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