IBM Rational Developer for System z enables companies to accelerate time to market with higher quality solutions while reducing the costs of maintenance over an application's lifetime. IBM Rational Developer for System z positions businesses to design and construct traditional mainframe applications, Web applications, and integrated service oriented architecture (SOA)-based composites quickly and efficiently. It helps companies enhance existing and create new applications in a more productive manner, with a focus on COBOL, PL/I, C, C++, High-Level Assembler, JCL, REXX, and Java.
IBM Rational Developer for System z uses industry standards to simplify the development of rich client interfaces, Web user interfaces, traditional terminal interfaces, and back-end, business logic deployable to CICS, IMS, DB2, Batch, z/OS UNIX, and WebSphere transactional environments. IBM Rational Developer for System z integrates with existing System z development processes, including problem determination and System z source management systems.
When IBM Rational Developer for System z is used with the IBM Software Development Platform, developers can extend processing to meet a broad range of requirements, including change management and testing functions, usable directly from the IBM Rational Developer for System z desktop. Consisting of a common workbench and an integrated set of tools that support end-to-end, model-based development, run-time testing, and rapid deployment of simple and complex applications. It offers an integrated development environment (IDE) with advanced, easy-to-use tools and features to help WebSphere, CICS, IMS, and DB2 developers rapidly design, code, and deploy complex applications.
Rational Developer for System z includes significant enhancements in Version 8.0 that further increase the efficiency of traditional mainframe and Web services creation.
Rational Developer for System z with EGL
IBM Rational Developer for System z with EGL provides a single development environment for modern System z application developers. IBM Rational Developer for System z with EGL allows developers to create traditional System z CICS, IMS, DB2, and Batch applications and connect them to Web 2.0 front-end applications using EGL.
The development environment includes tools for creating and maintaining traditional System z applications and transactional processing, System z Web Services, as well as lightweight Web 2.0 UI development using EGL. IBM Rational Developer for System z with EGL helps to increase developer productivity by delivering integrated, high-quality code while working within the organizations development processes, tools, and philosophy.
IBM Rational Developer for System z with EGL also helps to make learning the mainframe environment easier for developers new to the platform by offering easily accessible tools and wizards to assist in difficult and complex operations.
CICS Service Flow Feature
The Service Flow feature allows you to develop a comprehensive Web service that collects and processes data from multiple sources, such as programs, screens, databases, and Web service invokable processing. A specific Service Flow project is included in the Enterprise Service tooling to facilitate service flow creation.
The CICS Service Flow runtime option (included in CICS Service Flow Feature) must be installed to run a Service Flow project in CICS Transaction Server (CICS TS) V3.1, V3.2, or V4.1. Certain functionality, for example channel and container access, requires Service Flow Runtime V3.2 or V4.1.
The base capabilities provided by CICS TS to access CICS application interfaces extend to capabilities such as:
- Web services
- Link3270 Bridge
- Distributed Program Link (DPL)
- WebSphere MQ Adapter
- Front End Programming Interface (FEPI)
The CICS Service Flow Runtime exploits these capabilities when generating the CICS business service function to provide the implementation needed to reuse the existing CICS applications as components in the CICS business service flow.
CICS Service Component Architecture
To make it easier to publish and use CICS applications in a service oriented application, CICS TS V4.1 provides infrastructure and run-time support for deploying and managing application components. These components provide a common programming interface for service invocation, and a service description that is compliant with the SCA. IBM Rational Developer for System z provides tooling to assist in modeling, generating, configuring, and deploying the components to the CICS V4.1 environment.
The SCA capability provided by CICS TS gives customers investigating their own component architecture solutions the opportunity to exploit the CICS infrastructure instead, reducing their maintenance costs and potentially providing a richer more flexible solution. For customers that have not yet embarked on a SCA strategy, this capability provides both a low cost of entry option to doing so and a benefit from the CICS tooling enhancements built on top of the component architecture.
z/OS and z/OS Unix development
- Support for:
- CICS
- IMS
- DB2 data and DB2 stored procedures
- WAS
- z/OS batch programs
- zOS Unix programs
- Provides an interactive workstation-based environment to help create, maintain and reuse applications for traditional processing or for inclusion in an SOA
- quick and easy access to IBM z/OS datasets and z/OS UNIX Hierarchical File System (HFS) / System z File System (zFS) files
- Cost-saving development and maintenance tools for z/OS (COBOL, PL/I, C, C++, Java, High-Level Assembler) applications and Microsoft Windows (COBOL, PL/I) applications, as well as access to AIX file systems, z/OS, Linux for System z, x86 Linux Servers, and z/OS UNIX file systems, submitting z/OS jobs, monitoring z/OS Job execution queues, and debugging artifacts after access
- Direct access to z/OS based datasets, programs, and job submission facilities
- Color coded editing
- Indicates coding errors in real-time as code is changed
- Remote and local syntax check via IBM compilers
- Code refactoring and analysis tools
- Integrated build processing
- COBOL and PL/I code assistance
- Visual BMS/MFS mapping and JCL generation capabilities
- COBOL and PL/I code generation options
- UML modeling and generation of COBOL programs
- Application deployment assistance to zOS and CICS
- Integrated access to source code repositories
- Visually configurable editor and statement assisted creation, and verification of syntax for COBOL, PL/I, C, C++, High-Level Assembler, and Java languages
- Tooling to develop, test, and deploy Web Services to CICS, and IMS environments
Integration with z/OS lifecycle tools and services
- Tooling to collaborate and share both distributed and System z assets across the team using built-in IBM Rational Team Concert for System z, IBM Rational ClearCase version control, IBM Software Configuration and Library Management (SCLM) Toolkit, CA Endevor Software Change Manager, or supplied frameworks for integrating with other source code management systems
- Access to customized JCL or TSO commands from the workstation to take advantage of existing System z tools in use on the mainframe
- Ability to adapt and extend the development environment with Eclipse-based plug-ins to match developer needs
- Drag-and-drop components to quickly build and deploy interactive reports
- Use Host Access Transformation functions that:
- Support Host Access Transformation Services (HATS) development.
- Note. Customers must purchase independent HATS licenses for deployment
- Provide integrated, rich client access for IBM Rational Developer for System z licensed developers with TSO/ISPF access through a powerful GUI front-end.
- Integration with IBM Debug Tool for performing cross-platform and multi-language debugging of WAS and System z applications
- Integration with IBM File Manager to browse and update VSAM, QSAM, and other structured data content on System z
- Integration with IBM Fault Analyzer provides accesses to problem reports for diagnosing mainframe application errors and ABENDs
Enterprise Service Tools
Enterprise Service Tools is an integrated perspective that assists a Web Service developer in the following tasks:
- Creating a CICS Web service that uses a new or existing CICS application as its application component
- Creating a IMS SOAP Gateway Web service that uses a new or existing IMS application as its application component
- Creating a Web service that is not runtime-specific from a new or existing application
- Using the System z Database Application Generator to create a COBOL CICS application that accesses a z/OS DB2 database
- Developing a comprehensive Web service that collects and processes data from multiple sources, including CICS non-terminal applications, CICS terminal applications, and Web services
Web development
- Helps develop creative and data-rich Web-based applications
- Provides visual layout tools to help you write Java Server Faces (JSF), JavaServer Pages (JSP), EGL Web UI, EGL Rich UI, and HTML
- Includes a wizard to develop servlet and page handler code
- Lets you create Web applications from database queries and beans
- Includes graphic-design software for producing static and animated output
- Supports J2EE coding and deployment
Web services and XML development
- Offers the ability to create, view, edit and validate WSDL, document-type definitions (DTD) and XML schemas, transforms XML documents into text, HTML, or other XML document types
- Integrates relational databases and XML
- Generates COBOL or PL/I adapters and CICS TS WSBind for converting between Web Service Description Language (WSDL), XML and CICS program data in a Web services environment
- Generates COBOL or PL/I adapters, Web Service Description Language, and configuration files for enabling IMS Soap Gateway to accept Web Service calls to IMS transactions.
Bundled Software
The IBM Rational Developer for System z with EGL v8.0.1 media package contains complimentary bundled offerings. Usage of and service support for these bundled offerings is subject to restrictions. These restrictions are described in the License Information documents. In order to use any of the bundled offerings outside of the usage restrictions and to receive full service support, you must obtain a separate license for the offering.
The bundled offerings in IBM Rational Developer for System z with EGL include IBM Rational Business Developer v8.0.1. Rational Business Developer helps developers quickly design, develop, analyze, test, profile, and deploy high-quality Web, SOA, and Web 2.0 applications. Optimized for WebSphere software, this tool provides capabilities for deploying to other runtime platforms, helping customers increase productivity, minimize the learning curve, and shorten development and test cycles. IBM Rational Developer with EGL also includes:
- IBM TXSeries for Developers v7.1, this is a special edition of IBM TXSeries for Multiplatforms made for IBM Rational Developer for System z.
- IBM DB2 Workgroup Edition v9.7
- IBM DB2 Connect v9.7
- IBM Rational Team Concert for System z Client for Eclipse, v3.0
