IBM Rational Application Developer
Encyclopedia
IBM Rational Application Developer for WebSphere Software (RAD) is a commercial Eclipse-based integrated development environment
(IDE), made by IBM
's Rational Software
division, for visually designing, constructing, testing, and deploying Web services, portals, and Java Enterprise Edition
(JEE) applications.
Rational Application Developer includes tools to improve code quality. A Java profiling tool helps to analyze an application's performance, memory usage, and threading problems. A software analysis tool identifies patterns and antipatterns in application code, and compares code to coding standards.
To manage source code, a development team can configure Rational Application Developer to work with a source code repository system. The product ships with connectors to IBM Rational ClearCase for source control and IBM Rational ClearQuest for defect management. It also ships with a Rational Team Concert client that can be used for both source control and defect management.
The workbench includes tools for deploying an application to a local or remote server. It contains test environments for IBM WebSphere Application Server and IBM WebSphere Portal
. It also supports Apache Tomcat
. Using these tools, a software developer can test their application locally before publishing it to a production server. Cloud computing
capability is provided for the IBM SmartCloud Enterprise and the IBM Workload Deployer.
Because Rational Application Developer is Eclipse-based, it can support the third-party plug-ins for Eclipse, as well as plug-ins specifically for Rational tools.
Also in 2001, IBM replaced the VisualAge for Java and WebSphere Studio products with WebSphere Studio Application Developer (WSAD), version 4.0. WSAD extended the Eclipse platform and included tools to develop Web services and XML applications, and for performance profiling.
In 2002, IBM released version 5.0 of WSAD adding a Java Visual Editor, an XSL debugger, and test and analysis tools. Applications could be deployed to WebSphere Application Server version 5.0. New supported programming standards included J2EE 1.3.
In 2003, IBM completed the purchase of Rational Software and a year later, replaced WSAD with Rational Application Developer version 6.0. This release supported WebSphere Application Server version 6.0 and updated programming standards such as J2EE 1.4. Also included were tools for visual portlet and portal development.
In 2006, IBM donated the Web Tools Platform (WTP) to Eclipse. WTP included tools for developing Web and Java EE applications. That year also saw the release of Rational Application Developer version 7.0, with new features supporting Java Server Faces, and tools for XSD and WSDL visualization and transforms. In this release, Rational Application Developer could be installed in a single workbench with other Rational tools.
In 2008, IBM released Rational Application Developer version 7.5. This release supported WebSphere Application Server version 7.0 as well as the new Java EE 5 programming standard. This release included tools for Service Component Architecture (SCA), a component-based programming model, and tools for communication enabled applications.
In 2010, IBM released Rational Application Developer version 8.0. This release supported WebSphere Application Server version 8.0 as well as the new Java EE 6 programming standard. This release included tools supporting the OSGi applications framework and cloud computing.
The latest version of Rational Application Developer is Version 8.0.4, which was released in November 2011.
Integrated development environment
An integrated development environment is a software application that provides comprehensive facilities to computer programmers for software development...
(IDE), made by IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
's Rational Software
Rational Software
Rational Machines was founded by Paul Levy and Mike Devlin in 1981 to provide tools to expand the use of modern software engineering practices, particularly explicit modular architecture and iterative development...
division, for visually designing, constructing, testing, and deploying Web services, portals, and Java Enterprise Edition
Java Platform, Enterprise Edition
Java Platform, Enterprise Edition or Java EE is widely used platform for server programming in the Java programming language. The Java platform differs from the Java Standard Edition Platform in that it adds libraries which provide functionality to deploy fault-tolerant, distributed, multi-tier...
(JEE) applications.
Overview
Rational Application Developer is an integrated development environment that helps Java software developers design, develop, and deploy their applications. It contains specialized wizards, editors, and validators for a variety of technologies:- Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE): This architecture is used to build distributed Web and enterprise applications. Java EE applications include: Enterprise Java beans (EJB) applications for distributed, secure applications with transactional support, Java Persistence APIJava Persistence APIThe Java Persistence API, sometimes referred to as JPA, is a Java programming language framework managing relational data in applications using Java Platform, Standard Edition and Java Platform, Enterprise Edition....
(JPA) applications to access persistent data, and JavaServer PagesJavaServer PagesJavaServer Pages is a Java technology that helps software developers serve dynamically generated web pages based on HTML, XML, or other document types...
(JSP) or JavaServer FacesJavaServer FacesJavaServer Faces is a Java-based Web application framework intended to simplify development integration of web-based user interfaces....
(JSF) for developing presentation logic. - Web services: A Web service is a self-contained, self-describing, modular application that can be published, located, and invoked across the Internet. Web services tools enable software developers to discover existing Web services for integration, create Web services from existing artifacts or from Web Services Description Language (WSDL) files, and to deploy Web services to a variety of environments.
- Service Component ArchitectureService Component ArchitectureService Component Architecture is a software technology created by major software vendors including IBM and Oracle. SCA provides a model for composing applications that follow Service-Oriented Architecture principles...
(SCA): SCA enables software reuse by assembling a set of services into a composite application. SCA development tools provide graphical wiring of components to form composite services, associate protocol bindings and quality of service intents to SCA components, and package SCA assets for deployment. - Extensible Markup LanguageExtensible Markup LanguageExtensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
(XML): XML is a generic language that can be used to describe any kind of content in a structured way. XML is used extensively to create Web services. XML tools include DTD, XSL, schema, and mapping editors. - Java EE Connector (J2C): J2C tools enable applications to access operations and data on enterprise information systems such as CICSCICSCustomer Information Control System is a transaction server that runs primarily on IBM mainframe systems under z/OS and z/VSE.CICS is a transaction manager designed for rapid, high-volume online processing. This processing is mostly interactive , but background transactions are possible...
or IMS. Wizards assist with file importing, data mapping, and the creation of Java classes and methods to access data. - Web applicationWeb applicationA web application is an application that is accessed over a network such as the Internet or an intranet. The term may also mean a computer software application that is coded in a browser-supported language and reliant on a common web browser to render the application executable.Web applications are...
: Web applications range from Web sites, to complex applications that use JSF to access data, or Rich Internet applications that use Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AjaxAjax (programming)Ajax is a group of interrelated web development methods used on the client-side to create asynchronous web applications...
). The workbench includes wizards, editors, and palettes to assist with the creation and deployment of Web applications.
Rational Application Developer includes tools to improve code quality. A Java profiling tool helps to analyze an application's performance, memory usage, and threading problems. A software analysis tool identifies patterns and antipatterns in application code, and compares code to coding standards.
To manage source code, a development team can configure Rational Application Developer to work with a source code repository system. The product ships with connectors to IBM Rational ClearCase for source control and IBM Rational ClearQuest for defect management. It also ships with a Rational Team Concert client that can be used for both source control and defect management.
The workbench includes tools for deploying an application to a local or remote server. It contains test environments for IBM WebSphere Application Server and IBM WebSphere Portal
WebSphere Portal
IBM WebSphere Portal is a set of software tools that enables companies to build and manage web portals.According to a Gartner Research comparison of software for horizontal portals, WebSphere Portal software is a leader in that market, having delivered "significantproduct innovation," and being...
. It also supports Apache Tomcat
Apache Tomcat
Apache Tomcat is an open source web server and servlet container developed by the Apache Software Foundation...
. Using these tools, a software developer can test their application locally before publishing it to a production server. Cloud computing
Cloud computing
Cloud computing is the delivery of computing as a service rather than a product, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices as a utility over a network ....
capability is provided for the IBM SmartCloud Enterprise and the IBM Workload Deployer.
Because Rational Application Developer is Eclipse-based, it can support the third-party plug-ins for Eclipse, as well as plug-ins specifically for Rational tools.
History
In 2001, IBM donated the Eclipse Platform into Open Source to enable community-driven development of a Java workbench and tools. Eclipse was based on standards like J2EE and was designed with a plug-in based framework so that vendors could easily extend the features of the workbench.Also in 2001, IBM replaced the VisualAge for Java and WebSphere Studio products with WebSphere Studio Application Developer (WSAD), version 4.0. WSAD extended the Eclipse platform and included tools to develop Web services and XML applications, and for performance profiling.
In 2002, IBM released version 5.0 of WSAD adding a Java Visual Editor, an XSL debugger, and test and analysis tools. Applications could be deployed to WebSphere Application Server version 5.0. New supported programming standards included J2EE 1.3.
In 2003, IBM completed the purchase of Rational Software and a year later, replaced WSAD with Rational Application Developer version 6.0. This release supported WebSphere Application Server version 6.0 and updated programming standards such as J2EE 1.4. Also included were tools for visual portlet and portal development.
In 2006, IBM donated the Web Tools Platform (WTP) to Eclipse. WTP included tools for developing Web and Java EE applications. That year also saw the release of Rational Application Developer version 7.0, with new features supporting Java Server Faces, and tools for XSD and WSDL visualization and transforms. In this release, Rational Application Developer could be installed in a single workbench with other Rational tools.
In 2008, IBM released Rational Application Developer version 7.5. This release supported WebSphere Application Server version 7.0 as well as the new Java EE 5 programming standard. This release included tools for Service Component Architecture (SCA), a component-based programming model, and tools for communication enabled applications.
In 2010, IBM released Rational Application Developer version 8.0. This release supported WebSphere Application Server version 8.0 as well as the new Java EE 6 programming standard. This release included tools supporting the OSGi applications framework and cloud computing.
The latest version of Rational Application Developer is Version 8.0.4, which was released in November 2011.
See also
- List of integrated development environments
- IBM Rational Software ArchitectIBM Rational Software ArchitectIBM Rational Software Architect, made by IBM's Rational Software division, is a comprehensive modeling and development environment that uses the Unified Modeling Language for designing architecture for C++ and Java 2 Enterprise Edition applications and web services...
- IBM Rational Software ModelerIBM Rational Software ModelerIBM Rational Software Modeler was withdrawn from marketing on August 17, 2010. IBM Rational Software Modeler, made by IBM's Rational Software division, is a Unified Modeling Language 2.0-based visual modeling and design tool...
- IBM Rational Functional TesterIBM Rational Functional TesterIBM Rational Functional Tester is a tool for automated testing of software applications from the Rational Software division of IBM. It allows users to create tests that mimic the actions and assessments of a human tester...
- IBM Rational Team ConcertIBM Rational Team ConcertIBM Rational Team Concert is a software development team collaboration tool developed by the Rational brand of IBM and was first released in 2008. The software is available in both client versions and a Web version...
- WebSphere Integration DeveloperWebSphere Integration DeveloperWebSphere Integration Developer is an integrated development environment for building applications based on service-oriented architecture...
- WebSphere CommerceIBM WebSphere CommerceIBM WebSphere Commerce is a software platform framework for e-commerce, including marketing, sales, customer and order processing functionality in a tailorable, integrated package...
Toolkit
External links
- IBM developerWorks "Rational Application Developer Wiki"
- Product page for Rational Application Developer
- Information Center for Rational Application Developer version 7.5 documentation (RAD infocenter)
- IBM developerWorks page for Rational Application Developer
- 2001 press release announcing WebSphere Studio
- Release notes and installation guides for Rational Application Developer
- IBM Certifications for Rational Application Developer: