IBM Support

Rational Software Architect for WebSphere Software 8.5.x: new features and enhancements

Product Documentation


Abstract

This document provides an overview of the new features and enhancements in IBM Rational Software Architect for WebSphere Software version 8.5 releases.

Content

Rational Software Architect for WebSphere Software, Version 8.5.5.4
Link Date Released Status
Download 8.5.5.4 Release

This release of Rational Software Architect for WebSphere Software contains new features and enhancements in the following areas:

Product integration support
The following product integration is supported beginning with v8.5.5.4:
  • Rational Common Licensing 8.1.4.8
  • IBM Installation Manager 1.8.3
  • Rational Team Concert 5.0.2 and 6.0


IBM Runtime Environment Java Technology Edition updates
IBM Runtime Environment Java Technology Edition is updated to the following versions:
  • IBM 32/64-bit Runtime Environment for Windows, Java Technology Edition, Version 7.0 Service Release 9 FP10
  • IBM 32/64-bit Runtime Environment for Linux, Java Technology Edition, Version 7.0 Service Release 9 FP10


Eclipse platform updates
The following additional Eclipse 3.6.2.8 patches and fixes are included in this release:

Rational Software Architect for WebSphere Software, Version 8.5.5.3
Link Date Released Status
Download 8.5.5.3 Release

This release of Rational Software Architect for WebSphere Software contains new features and enhancements in the following areas:

Product integration support
The following product integration is supported beginning with v8.5.5.3:
  • Rational Common Licensing 8.1.4.5
  • Rational Team Concert 5.0.2


IBM Runtime Environment Java Technology Edition updates
IBM Runtime Environment Java Technology Edition is updated to the following versions:
  • IBM 32-bit Runtime Environment for Windows, Java Technology Edition, Version 7.0 Service Release 8 FP10
  • BM 32-bit Runtime Environment for Linux, Java Technology Edition, Version 7.0 Service Release 8 FP10


Eclipse platform updates
The following additional Eclipse 3.6.2.8 patches and fixes are included in this release:

Rational Software Architect for WebSphere Software, Version 8.5.5.2
Link Date Released Status
Download 8.5.5.2 Release

This release of Rational Software Architect for WebSphere Software contains new features and enhancements in the following areas:

IBM Runtime Environment Java Technology Edition updates
Beginning with version 8.5.5.2, IBM SDK for Java Technology Edition is updated to the following versions:
  • IBM 32-bit IBM SDK for Java Technology Edition for Windows, Version 7.0 Service Release 7 FP1
  • IBM 32-bit IBM SDK for Java Technology Edition for Linux, Version 7.0 Service Release 7 FP1


Eclipse platform updates
The following additional Eclipse 3.6.2.7 patches and fixes are included in this release:

Rational Software Architect for WebSphere Software, Version 8.5.5.1
Link Date Released Status
Download 8.5.5.1 Release

This release of Rational Software Architect for WebSphere Software contains new features and enhancements in the following areas:


IBM product integration support

Beginning with version 8.5.5.1, the following products are supported for integration:

  • Rational Common Licensing 8.1.4.2


IBM Runtime Environment Java Technology Edition updates

Beginning with version 8.5.5.1, IBM SDK for Java Technology Edition is updated to the following versions:

  • IBM 32-bit IBM SDK for Java Technology Edition for Windows, Version 7.0 Service Release 6 FP1
  • IBM 32-bit IBM SDK for Java Technology Edition for Linux, Version 7.0 Service Release 6 FP1


Deployment planning
  • With the enhancements in the WebSphere Message Queue domain capabilities, you now can capture more information in the existing units such as MQQueueManager, MQQueue, MQChannel, etc. while creating deployment plans.
  • WebSphere Message Queue domain deployment planning capabilities are now enhanced to model WMQ elements such as coupling facility structure, buffer pool, maximum shared messages, storage classes, etc.
  • Security domain related units and templates are now supported for the creation of deployment plans corresponding to WebSphere Message Queue security components.


Rational Software Architect for WebSphere Software, Version 8.5.5
Link Date Released Status
Download 8.5.5 Release

This release of Rational Software Architect for WebSphere Software contains new features and enhancements in the following areas:


IBM product integration support

Beginning with version 8.5.5, the following products are supported for integration:

  • IBM Installation Manager v1.6.3.1
  • Rational Common Licensing 8.1.3.3


IBM Runtime Environment Java Technology Edition updates

IBM Runtime Environment Java Technology Edition is updated to the following versions:

  • IBM 32-bit Runtime Environment for Windows, Java Technology Edition, Version 7.0 Service Release 5
  • IBM 32-bit Runtime Environment for Linux, Java Technology Edition, Version 7.0 Service Release 5


Eclipse platform updates

The following additional Eclipse 3.6.2.5 patches and fixes are included in this release:



BPMN modeling
  • You can now link collaboration and choreography models. You can reference the participants and message flows of collaboration models in choreography tasks through the Properties view and dialog boxes when creating choreography tasks.


Deployment planning
  • Deployment planning in v8.5.1 and earlier supports the basic modeling of IBM WebSphere MQ and IBM WebSphere Message Broker deployments. Now, the deployment planning capability for these domains are enhanced, and you can now model with more details.
  • By default, you can use the IBM Tivoli Application Dependency Discovery Manager (TADDM) import feature to import pre-defined content from IBM Tivoli Change and Configuration Management Database (CCMDB). Now, you can contribute custom mappings and filters to the TADDM import functionality. You can also override the default mappings.


Headless build tools

You can now add an Ant task for the creation of a Rational Team Concert repository connection.




IBM Assembly and Deploy Tools support
IBM Assembly and Deploy Tools for WebSphere Administration is updated to 8.5.5 version.


IBM Build Utility support
IBM Rational Application Developer for WebSphere Software Build Utility is updated to 8.5.5 version.


IBM Cloud Tools support
IBM Rational Desktop Connection Toolkit for IBM Cloud Environments is updated to 1.0.5.3 version.


IBM Integrated Test Environment Extension support
IBM Intergrated Test Environment Extension support is updated for the IBM WebSphere Application Server, version 7.0.0.29, 8.0.07 and 8.5.5.


Java EE Connector (J2C) tools
  • CICS v8.1.0.2 resource adapter
  • IMS v12.1.2 and and v11.3.3 resource adapter


Page Designer
You can now use "The same as template's links (unchanged)" option located at Window > Preferences > Web > Page Template > Links for a page, and apply "Default Link path when design-time" group template.
When you apply a design-time template to a web page, the link path contributed by the template are as follows:
  • Relative to document root directory
  • Relative to document directory
  • The same as template's links (unchanged)
By selecting "The same as template's links (unchanged)" option, link paths from design-time templates are not modified in the web pages.


SCA tools

Web service over Java Message Service (JMS) is now supported by the SCA tools. In a service, you can now have attributes in a WebService binding that are accepted and validated.




UML modeler
  • The functionality of creating relationships between attributes of different classes has been improved. It leverages the node representation of attributes in the structure compartment of classes in class diagrams to create relationships between attributes. The improvements have been done in the following areas:
    • You can now enable the structure compartment for all classes at the diagram level.
    • The layout of attributes nodes can now be changed to vertical order. The default order is horizontal, but it can be customized from the Preferences window to ease the creation of relationships between attributes.
    • Relationships between attributes in a diagram can now be re-established during drag/drop of elements, switching on/off the structure compartment views.
  • You can now change the target and source of multiple messages concurrently in a sequence diagram.


Web services tools

The Web services wizard supports the creation of JAX-WS Web services and clients targeting IBM WebSphere Application Server Liberty.



You can create JAX-WS Web services with the bottom-up and top-down approaches, and clients. You can create JAX-WS EJB Web services top-down.

You can secure your web services and clients by using the new Web Service Security Policy for Liberty Server wizard. In this wizard, you can choose from a list of common policy 'templates' to apply policies to your web service.

A new Deployment Descriptor Editor for the ibm-ws-bnd.xml files. This file allows you to override or customize settings and properties. The editor provides you with content assist and guided editing.



WSDL and XSD transformations
  • You can now control whether files, folders, or namespaces are renamed or not by using an option in the transformation configuration.


WSDL modeling and transformations
  • The WSDL modeling and transformations feature now supports editing of target namespaces and file names on the Output Options tab of the UML-to-WSDL transformation configuration window. With this, collation of multiple WSDL definitions and XSD schemas into a single WSDL file is now possible as is the collation of multiple XSD schemas into a single XSD file.
    Validation errors are thrown both on the table entries and on the transformation configuration validation if the collated WSDL definitions do not share the same target namespace.

Rational Software Architect for WebSphere Software, Version 8.5.1
Link Date Released Status
Download 8.5.1 Release

This release of Rational Software Architect for WebSphere Software contains new features and enhancements in the following areas:




Additional supported operating system versions

Beginning with version 8..5.1, the following additional operating system versions are supported:

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Update 8
  • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 Service Pack 2
  • SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 Service Pack 2
  • Ubuntu 12.04 LTS x32 & x64


IBM product integration support

Beginning with version 8.5.1, the following products are supported for integration:

  • IBM Installation Manager v1.6
  • Rational Common Licensing 8.1.3.1


IBM Runtime Environment Java Technology Edition updates

IBM Runtime Environment Java Technology Edition is updated to the following versions:

  • IBM 32-bit Runtime Environment for Windows, Java Technology Edition, Version 7.0 Service Release 2
  • IBM 32-bit Runtime Environment for Linux, Java Technology Edition, Version 7.0 Service Release 2


Eclipse platform updates

The following additional Eclipse 3.6.2.4 patches and fixes are included in this release:



Agent Controller updates

Application build
  • New Ant task <generateEJB3Stubs> for generating EJB 3 stubs had been added
  • A <launchJUnit> task for generating JUnit reports has been enhanced to generate formatted reports of the test runs.


BPMN modeling
  • You can now create Multi-Instance markers for activities, pools, and choreography activities. The multi-instance characteristic properties of activities can be configured from the properties view. Also the multiple participant properties of pools and looptype characteristic of choreography activities can be configured from properties view. And the multi-instance characteristics can be exported to standard format file and imported from standard format file back into the product.
  • You can now export BPMN project from the product to archive files outside the workspace and import of standard format BPMN files from archives back into the product.
  • You can now create message flows to and from message events. Also the message flows can be exported to standard format and imported back into the product.
  • Tags list in the exported page are now sorted.
  • Tag page in the Export wizard has been enhanced with explanatory descriptions.
  • Now in-place expansion of callactivities is supported. Callactivities can be expanded to show the details of the process it references and can be collapsed to hide the details.
  • The export and import wizards are now more responsive (by making them asynch and have a progress indicator, which is cancelable):
    • The wizard page has been consolidated and items have been regrouped for an optimal/usable experience.
    • You will get a feedback at the end of the process if an export or import fails.
    • Some usability improvements have been made (like history of last target, archive to be the default option, etc).


Cloud toolkit
  • Support for WebSphere Application Server, Version 8.5 is added.


Code coverage tools
  • Block coverage statistic is now measured in basic block, rather than based on the non-standard executable units (which more closely resemble source lines) as in previous releases.


Compare and merge
  • Ability to select one of the running instance of the product while performing compare merge.
  • Improvement in dependency information in compare merge structural change pane to include dependency-supplier information.
  • Improvement in trigger information in compare merge structural change pane to include related operation information.
  • Addition of a new filter "Filter Out CompareMerge Induced Reference Modifications" to suppress compare merge induced reference changes.
  • Text appearing in compare merge window of Transformation Configuration (TC) compare merge support showing the value field for a transformation property has been made as readable as possible so that it is comprehensible to the user. Earlier TC merge panes was displaying the text as it is as in the tc file which was not readable. It also provides extension point support that lets user provide display text for TC property IDs. It is now possible to exclude prerequisite TCs from being built. This can be accomplished by turning off TCs that are shown in the "Build transformation configurations" dialog box.


Deployment automation
  • When a topology is saved, persisting of the deployment model element's documentation without HTML tags is supported.

  • The following new boolean preference option will be provided:
    Window > Preferences > Topology Editor > Enable rich text editor. By default, it is enabled.
    If this option is disabled, documentation of deployment model elements will be displayed by using a Plain text editor. When topology is saved, the documentation will be saved.
  • Now you can adjust the order of the extended attributes by using the Customize attribute dialog box.
  • New JET tag <deploy:extendedAttribute> is provided to support the following functionality:

  • Search for the required extended attribute with matching name and type in the given owner capability. If matching extended attribute is present, update it. Otherwise create a new one.
  • Deployment planning of IBM System p domain is supported. Deployment automation of the same is not supported.
  • Deployment automation support for the IBM HTTP Server (IHS) domain is provided.


Developer tools support for creating applications by using Maven

Development support for Maven-based projects is added which provides a wizard to create new maven projects. This new feature can be optionally installed when you install IBM Rational Application Developer by using IBM Installation Manager.





Existing Maven projects can be imported into the tools.



The Maven POM can be edited using a form based editor.



Maven repositories can be browsed to aid in the discovery of modules.



Maven support can also be added to existing projects.


Hibernate modeling and transformations
  • Enhanced association support and joins.
  • Added index modeling and transformation support for columns.


IBM Worklight support for REST services
  • IBM Worklight adapters are the server-side code of applications that are deployed on the IBM Worklight mobile application platform, and mediate between the mobile apps such as smartphones and tablets and the back-end services such as IBM WebSphere Application Server.
    You can generate IBM Worklight adapters codes and mobile clients stubs (that use the procedures that are provided by the adapters in a Worklight project) from a Representational State Transfer (REST) model or a Java API for RESTful Web Services (JAX-RS) model by running the UML-to-Worklight transformation.


Java EE Connector (J2C) tools
  • New CICS V8.1.0.1 resource adapter.
  • New CICS Transaction Gateway for Multiplatforms V8.1.0.1. See the following pages for details of problems (APARS) fixed on Linux and Windows.
  • New WebSphere 7.5.0.3 adapters. See the following page for details of problems fixed.


Java EE tools

Contexts and dependency injection


The cdi-1.0 feature can be configured to enable initial support for the Contexts and Dependency Injection specification. The feature enables an expression language lookup of an @Named CDI style bean, with other CDI beans injected into it. 

The developer tools have been updated allow Context and Dependency Injection (CDI) support to be added to existing Java or JEE projects.

When adding a CDI annotation to a POJO the developer tools provide a Quickfix to add WebSphere and Liberty profile support.


The developer tools provide as-you-type validation for CDI specification rules.


EJB lite

The ejblite-3.1 feature can be configured to enable initial support for the EJB lite subset of the EJB specification. You can create @Stateless and @Singleton EJBs packaged in an EJB jar in an EAR file. The EJBs can then be injected into EJBs and Servlets using the @EJB annotation. Configuring the appSecurity-1.0 feature will allow the use of the @DenyAll, @DeclareRoles,@RunAs, @PermitAll, @RolesAllowed annotations.



The developer tools have been updated to allow the deployment of applications containing EJBs to the Liberty profile, including adding the ejblite-3.1 feature to the runtime when the application is deployed.


Java web services tools
  • The jaxws-2.2 feature provides basic enablement of JAX-WS 2.2 specification for Web services. The support allows for annotated Web services and Web service references to be used within the web container. Stub clients and dynamic clients are both supported. Services may be POJO based, use Service Endpoint Interfaces, or be Provider based. Services may use automatically generated WSDL (bottom up) or may specify WSDL (top down). WSDL files are published to a URL of the service soap address concatenated with "?wsdl". Handler chains, resource injection, and MTOM attachments are also supported.
  • Java API for XML Binding 2.2

  • The jaxb-2.2 feature can be configured to enable support for JAXB 2.2 specification.


JSF tools
New tooling added to support JCDI beans in JSF 2.0 projects:
  • Named Beans category in the Paga Data view to content JCDI Named beans.
  • EL auto-completion for JCDI Named beans, available in the source editor.
  • A wizard option to add JCDI support from project creation.


Liberty Profile tools

Extending the Liberty profile


You can expand the capability of the Liberty profile by using product extensions.  Product extensions usually contain one or more features but can have any content that extends the liberty profile environment, for example scripts or resources. You can write your own Liberty features and install them into an existing Liberty profile server, or you can package them for delivery to your users. Implementing a function as a feature instead of as an application might be appropriate in a number of scenarios. The following list describes some of the benefits of using a feature:
  • Features are controlled through feature manager configuration, so they are separate from user application management.
  • Feature code has access to the liberty profile SPI, which allows deeper integration with the runtime environment.
  • Features can receive user-specified configuration from the server.xml file, and expose their configuration settings in the development tools without the tools having to be changed.
  • Features can easily expose classes and services to each other and to user applications.
  • Features can be extremely lightweight with no application container dependencies.

To write your own feature, create an OSGi bundle and a corresponding feature manifest, and place them into the required locations (the OSGi bundle goes in ${wlp.usr.dir}/extension/lib, and the feature manifest goes in ${wlp.user.dir}/extension/lib/features).

The developer tools provide a wizard to create a Liberty feature and to easily add OSGi Bundles to it.


A Subsystem Manifest Editor allows you to add OSGi bundles to the Liberty feature, declare API and SPI packages.


Wizards allow the import and export of Liberty features as a zip file.




Simplified server creation
The server creation wizard has been simplified to reduce the time required to create an initial Liberty profile server.

Server landing page

Accessing the root page of the Liberty http endpoint now provides a basic introduction page to the Liberty profile.

Developer friendly error page

When running applications from a developer page the Liberty profile has always provided a different error page for application errors. This page has been updated to look like the landing page.

Custom User Registries

In addition to using the Basic, LDAP, and SAF registries you can now write and deploy custom user registries into the server. Custom User Registries are made available by defining an implementation of the com.ibm.websphere.security.UserRegistry class, packaging it in an OSGi bundle, and registering it as an OSGi service. The bundle is then engaged into the runtime using a Liberty feature.

Generate Java dumps

The server command can now be used to request a Java dump for a running server. The type of dump requested can be set using the --include option. Options are heap, system,and thread.

For example, if you wanted all three of these, you would issue the command:

server javadump --include=thread,system,heap

The developer tools have been updated to allow the creation of a JVM dump as well as to expose all the normal server dump options.


Note that not all dump report types are available on all Java Runtime Environments.




Microsoft Visio diagram import
  • UI Tooling support has been added as basic level capability to map Visio elements to UML elements (not attributes), and reuse them through a template-like mechanism.


Performance tools
  • Enhanced the WebSphere Application Server performance tuning annotation scan task to better identify which annotated resources can be safely filtered to improve publishing performance.
  • Provides support to automatically fix performance tuning suggestions found by the WebSphere Application Server definition scan to improve server integration performance.


Portal tools
  • In business portlets, you can now use web-service interface in WebSphere Process Server instead of using the EJB APIs.
  • Portlet palette items are now enabled for use with Rich Page Editor and available for drag and drop onto the portlet JSP.
  • The Mobile Views wizard is enabled to allow in-line creation of multiple mobile views within portlets.


Project Explorer view
  • In the Project Explorer view, the ordering of elements did not consider the storage order for ordered meta features and there was no preference to control this behavior. With this Enhancement a new preference was provided to control this behavior.
  • Find/Replace from the Project Explorer view now has a new scope "Enclosing Project".


REST modeling and JAXB transformations
  • You can now model the data as an XSD model. You can use UML-to-JAXB transformation to generate the JAXB classes from the model. JAXB-to-UML transformation is not supported as JAXB classes are mostly generated and not directly edited.


REST modeling and JAXRS transformations
  • JSON root wrapping is now support in REST modeling.
    The product now supports RootWrapping/Un-wrapping of JAXB classes for REST services. You can model a Custom Provider class called "Root Wrapper class". UML-to-JAXRS transformation generates this RootWrapping provider class which root-wraps/un-wraps the classes.

    By default the JSON serialization (of JAXB classes) will not root-wrap. Jackson, the JSON processor shipped with Websphere 8.0/8.5, doesn't support this either.


SCA tools

This release introduces improvements to facilitate SCA 1.1 (OASIS) development. These improvements include:


  • Right-click actions added in the composite editor canvas:
    • Create components, services, references.
    • Set implementations and interfaces.
    • Add bindings.
    • Reflect implementation details for Java and Composite implementations into the component.
    • Copy a WSDL URL of a published service that has Web Service binding.
  • JMS binding properties editing updates:
    • Configure Apache Tuscany's SCA 1.1 extensions.
    • Configure IBM WebSphere Application Server's SCA 1.1 extensions.
  • Additional updates:
    • Deployment Assembly support for SCA 1.1 projects. New projects will have this support by default. For projects created in version 8.5, support can be added with the Add Deployment Assembly Support action in the context menu of the project.
    • Create a deployment assembly layout. The layout can consist of a single jar, embedded jar and/or shared asset.
    • Export an SCA 1.1 project by contribution or composite.
    • Configure export preferences so that you can predefine options in the export wizard.
    • EJB binding browse action: browse to a deployed remote EJB interface to let the tools configure the EJB binding URI.


Spring modeling and transformations
  • Modeling of Spring Web Flow 2.x is now supported. All the flows can be captured in a flow diagram. You can transform these models to target artifacts including the flow XML and related Java code.
    Reverse engineering is also supported to transform an existing application to a Spring Web Flow model.


UML-to-EJB 3.0 and UML-to-JPA transformations
  • The UML-to-EJB 3 and UML-to-JPA transformations now preserve the annotation and annotation attributes that cannot be modeled and hence not supported by the transformation. The transformation does not delete them when they are added to the generated code in the target project. Also the name and named native queries that are added to the generated code but not modeled are preserved and not deleted by the UML-to-JPA transformation.


UML-to-JPA and UML-to-Hibernate transformations
  • The new JPA Profile Basic and Hibernate Basic tabs is added for the attributes of the entity when modeling JPA and Hibernate entities respectively. The UI of JPA Profile and Hibernate tabs for entity and its attribute is improved but no change in the attributes supported.


Web 2.0 and mobile

jQuery Mobile Visual Editing Tools.  jQuery Mobile widgets appear on the Palette for drag and drop generation.  Additionally, the Properties View has been enhanced to provide editing capabilities for a number of jQuery Mobile elements.


 jQuery Plugin and Widget wizards to create custom jQuery plugins and widgets.  This allows you to keep your custom jQuery code neatly organized into reusable modules.

Enhancements to the Rich Page Editor Development Page with improved mobile device appearance in editor's Design pane.


Rotation of the device layout in the design pane preview.


Mode to scale the previewed contents.


Support for jQuery Mobile




Direct edit actions for many jQuery widget combinations as well as support for jQuery grids.

jQuery Smart Highlight provides instant graphical feedback for jQuery selectors.




Content assist is available for the jQuery API in the source editor.



Rational Software Architect for WebSphere Software, Version 8.5
Link Date Released Status
Download 8.5 Release


This release of Rational Software Architect for WebSphere Software contains new features and enhancements in the following areas:




IBM product integration support

Beginning with version 8.5, the following products are supported for integration:

  • IBM Rational Software Architect Design Manager, Version 3.0
  • IBM InfoSphere Data Architect, Version 8.1


Updates to to supported web browser

Beginning with version 8.5, the following additional web browser versions are supported:

  • Mozilla Firefox 8.0 and later


Eclipse platform updates

The following additional Eclipse 3.6.2.3 patches and fixes are included in this release:



Application build
  • You can now import compressed .zip archives in headless mode.
  • You can now create a WebSphere Application Server 8.5 runtime by using pluggable SDK for Java 6 and Java 7 support in headless mode.
  • A new headless build sample is provided in the product for usage of modern functions and WebSphere Application Server 8.5.
  • You can now model DB2 for zSeries infrastructure elements in a deployment topology.


BPMN modeling
  • Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) modeling now supports SubProcess. A SubProcess is an Activity whose internal details have been modeled using Activities, Gateways, Events, and Sequence Flows. A SubProcess is a graphical object within a Process, but it also can be opened to show a lower-level Process. Modeling support has been provided for Embedded SubProcess and AdHoc SubProcess. These elements can dragged and dropped from the Tool Palette, other elements can be added to them and the SubProcess can be expanded and collapsed to show or hide the details. The properties of AdHoc SubProcess can be edited from the Properties view. In addition, the SubProcess can be exported to a standard format and imported into the product.
  • BPMN modeling now supports data association for events. Data objects, process data inputs, and data store can be connected to intermediate throw and end events to create data input associations. Start events and intermediate catch events can be connected to data objects, process data outputs, and data store to create data output associations. Also, the data associations can be exported to a standard format and imported into the product.
  • BPMN modeling now supports tagging of BPMN elements, which are visible in the diagram. Comma separated list of tags can be entered for an element in properties view. The tags can be used in BPMN 2.0 Export wizard to filter the elements that gets exported.
  • BPMN modeling now supports Black Box pools(pools without a process). Also support for adding message flows to/from boundary of pools has been added.
  • BPMN modeling now supports adding usecase artifacts to a sub process from the properties view.
  • BPMN modeling now supports adding assignments for data associations. The From and To assignment expressions for a data association can be edited from the properties view.


Hibernate modeling and transformations
  • Modeling and code generation for the Hibernate domain is now supported. Before you can use this feature, you must set up a Hibernate development environment. You can model hibernate elements, such as entity, entity from table, and inheritance. You can use the UML-to-Hibernate transformation to generate Java code that contains Hibernate annotations, and use the Hibernate-to-UML transformation to transform Java code that contains Hibernate annotations into UML models.


J2SE domain modeling and Java transformations
  • Java 7 is now supported in domain modeling and transformations. You can visualize Java 7 Language construts in static method sequence diagrams and generate Java 7 compatible code in forward and reverse transformations.

  • Important: To work with this new feature, you must install JDK 1.7 separately and include it in the build path of your Java project.


Microsoft Visio diagram import
  • The product now facilitates importing some Microsoft Visio diagrams, including class, usecase, and network diagrams. It is a one-time import and is automated in nature. Class and usecase diagrams are imported as UML diagrams, while network diagrams are imported as topology diagrams. The import captures the visual and semantic model, i.e. both the diagram as well as the underlying semantics. It uses Sketcher elements, wherever there is no matching target element in the product. The product supports Visio 2010 and the file format required is Visio XML (*.vdx).


MQ domain modeling
  • The WebSphere MQ domain now includes support for clustered queue mangers, queues, additional configurations, and many other enhancements to align it with the Tivoli Common Data Model and the MQ product itself.


RAFW configuration discovery
  • Now you can import the Rational Automation Framework (RAF) discovered configuration files into a deployment topology. Also supported is the import of ND environments, such as nodes, cells, servers, deployment managers, etc.


Rational RequisitePro integration

You can now use the Requirement perspective to open projects from a remote Rational RequisitePro web (RequisiteWeb) server, removing the requirement of having the Rational RequisitePro client for Windows installed on your local computer. You must have one of the following fix packs for Rational RequisitePro installed on the RequisiteWeb server for this configuration:

  • For version 7.1.1, use 7.1.1.8 or later
  • For version 7.1.2, use 7.1.2.5 or later
  • For version 7.1.3, use 7.1.3.1 or later


Spring and Hibernate integration
  • Profile and template model with Spring and Hibernate features have been added as part of this new functionality. You can use this template model for modeling Hibernate models, where you want to use Spring Core features as well.


Spring annotation
  • Modeling and code generation for Spring Core Annotations is now supported. Spring Annotations like Component, Configuration, Service, Bean, Autowired, Value, Required, and Qualifier have been added. However, custom Annotation with Qualifier and CustomAutowireConfigurer are not support yet. Annotations can be modeled through the class diagram Tool Palette and menu action, and details can be provided in the Properties view on the Spring tab. Transformation generates annotated Java classes.


Spring Core modeling and transformations
  • Modeling and code generation for the Spring Core domain is now supported. Before you can use this feature, you must set up a Spring development environment. You can model Spring Core beans and dependency injections by using class diagrams, and generate Spring configuration XML files by using the Spring transformation extension for Java transformations. You can also reverse engineer Spring projects: the Java-to-UML transformation, with the Spring transformation extension enabled, can identify Spring beans that are defined in XML files and create them in the generated model. Spring Core annotations are not currently supported.


Spring MVC modeling
  • Modeling and code generation for the Spring model-view-controller (MVC) domain is now supported. Before you can use this feature, you must set up a Spring development environment. Spring Core features are required to work with Spring MVC. Spring MVC elements like Controllers, handler mappings, interceptors, etc. can be modeled through a class diagram or an activity diagram, where the entire MVC flow can be modeled.
    Spring MVC artifacts along with Spring Core artifacts can be generated by using the Spring MVC transformation extension for Java transformations. You can also reverse engineer Spring MVC projects through the Java-to-UML transformation, with the Spring MVC transformation extension enabled. The Spring MVC transformation also generates the MVC flows for you by parsing the Spring xml files and annotated Java code.


Spring Transaction annotation
  • Modeling and code generation for Spring Transaction annotations has been added. Repository and Transactional features can be added in class diagrams through the Tool Palette and menu actions. Details can be provided in the Properties view on the Spring Txn tab. Transformation generates annotated Java classes.


Struts 2 modeling and transformations
  • Modeling and code generation for the Struts 2 domain is now supported. You can model Struts 2 navigation flows by using UML activity diagrams, and generate Struts 2 configuration XML files by using the Struts 2 transformation extension for Java transformations. You can also reverse engineer Struts 2 projects: the Java-to-UML transformation, with the Struts 2 transformation extension enabled, can identify navigation flows that are defined in XML files, and automatically generate activity diagrams.


Structured data import
  • Several new enhancements have been introduced in structured data import, including updated JET tags and the ability to use non-CSV files in the wizard.


TADDM discovery
  • Tivoli Application Dependency Discovery Manager (TADDM) discovery supports several enhancements, including the ability to discover MQ and Message Broker content.


UML modeler
  • The generation of UML class diagrams from UML models is now supported. A pop-up menu on a model or package for class diagram generation has been provided for generating UML diagrams based on Rational Software Analyzer UML model metric rules. You need to select rules based on which diagrams would be generated. The framework is extensible in the sense that you would be able to contribute your own customized rules and use the analysis result against that rule for diagram generation. All you need to do is to contribute and implement an interpreter for the rules through an extension point.
  • The Inheritance Explorer now supports sorting member elements according to the inheritance order (so that inherited elements are shown before locally defined elements).
  • The General tab of the Properties view now shows the qualified name of an element. Each name in the qualifier is a hyperlink that can be used for navigation. There is also a Copy button that places the qualified name in the clipboard.
  • The transformation configuration editor now provides an action Show in Project Explorer from its pop-up header menu, that will locate the .tc file in the Project Explorer view.
  • An action menu, Navigate > Navigate To Diagram, has been introduced. You can now navigate from a UML semantic element to it's view in diagram. If diagram is not open, the action will open the diagram where there is the view for the selected element, which is highlighted. If there happens to be more than one view for a given UML element, the search view is launched. It lists all the diagram references for the selected element within in the context of the enclosing model and the first reference from the search view is highlighted. You can double-click or right click and invoke the Select In Diagram action on any other references in the search view to navigate to those views in diagram.
  • The diagram generation UI now provides the relationship types tree. You can select the relationships types that you want to see in the generated diagram with respect to the elements fetched by the rule. You can also choose to generate individual diagram for individual elements found by the selected rule.
  • You can now perform incremental text searches on all UML elements in diagrams, except topic and browse diagrams.


WebSphere Message Broker domain modeling
  • You can now model WebSphere Message Broker elements in a deployment topology, including message brokers, execution groups, message flows, message flow nodes, and more.


Liberty Profile tools
  • WebSphere Application Server V8.5 Liberty Profile Support

The WebSphere Application Server V8.5 Liberty Profile tools is a set of tools focusing on the needs of developers for rapid development and deployment.  Lightweight and fast, these tools support the features of IBM WebSphere Application Server 8.5 – Liberty Profile. The tools also facilitate application development and deployment, runtime installation, and server configuration and management.

The Liberty Profile tools accelerate and simplify your work by helping you to:

  • Develop, test, and deploy Web applications, enterprise applications, OSGi applications quickly.  You can run applications directly from your workspace regardless of how the project is structured.  It automatically adds required features to the server by analyzing your applications, ensuring that your applications can be run successfully on the server.
  • Debug application easily by clicking on linked error messages on your web pages that open the editor for your source files.
  • Make common resources to be shared by different applications on the server.  You can define, configure, and publish shared libraries for the common resources.
  • Download, install and set up WebSphere Application Server V8.5 Liberty Profile seamlessly within the tools.
  • Edit server configurations with the new Server Configuration Editor.  The editor has various dialogs and content assist to guide you through setting up the server configuration.  It contains validators to validate the correctness of the configuration, and quick fixes to help address any problems your configuration may have.
  • Manage the WebSphere Application Server V8.5 Liberty Profile runtime with the new runtime explorer view.  The runtime explorer view shows the servers defined on the runtimes, the shared resources, and the applications that are running on the server in a single view.  It allows you to create new servers and runtimes, to delete existing servers and runtimes, and to include configuration files in you server configuration.
  • Perform server tasks simply.  From the server context menu, you can package the server, create SSL certificates for the server, and generate Web server plug-in for the server.


Server tools
  • WebSphere Application Server V8.5 support
  • WebSphere Application Server V8.5 support is added for you to take advantage of the latest functionality provided by the WebSphere Application Server v8.5.  You can develop, test, and debug applications running on WebSphere Application Server V8.5.

  • Java 7 support for WebSphere Application Server V8.5
  • Java 7 support for WebSphere Application Server v8.5 applications is added for you to take advantage of the latest functionality provided by Java 7.
  • You can switch between Java 7 and Java 6 support for WebSphere Application Server v8.5 runtime.
  • Migration support is added to migrate projects targeted WebSphere Application Server v8.5 runtime with Java 7 to target WebSphere Application Server v8.5 runtime with Java 6.
  • Ability to deactivate a WebSphere Application Server in the Servers view
  • You can deactivate either a started or stopped WebSphere Application Server in the Servers view to reduce network traffic and memory consumption if you do not need to interact with the server for a long period of time.



Web tools

The Rich Page Editor can be used for Dojo Mobile Web Page editing and provides support for JSP and JSP fragment pages.



Safari browser support on Windows was added.

The Dojo libraries are optional in Rational Application Developer and Websphere Developer Tools, allowing the user to choose whether to install them which provides for greater control over disk footprint.

The wizards for creating a static or dynamic web project have been replaced by a single wizard providing a user-friendly interface for creating various types of web projects.

A web preview server replaces the Ajax test server providing improved publishing support and logging and error messages from running web projects.

Functional and performance improvements were made to the JavaScript and Dojo Tools. Dojo 1.7 RC2 is included.


OSGi tools
  • Modular EJBs
    • Full support of EJBs in OSGi Bundles, and OSGi applications.
    • The ability to create new, or convert existing EJB modules into OSGi bundles
    • The ability to create EJB Client bundles, during or after the creation of an EJB Bundle
    • Deployment of the OSGi application containing EJB Bundles to WebSphere v8.5
    • Support for promoting EJB session beans as OSGi Services
    • Support for EJB session beans in EJB or Web 3.x bundles.
  • Deployment of OSGi applications to WebSphere Application Server v8.5, and WebSphere Liberty Profile v8.5
  • OSGi Programming model selection in the first page of the Web Project wizard.
  • OSGi Deployment page in the wizard to add the generated web Bundle to an OSGi application
  • Integration of the OSGi programming model in the Web Project Wizard


SCA tools

This release provides tools for the development of OASIS SCA v1.1 applications for WebSphere Application Server v8.5. For more information about OASIS SCA 1.1, see http://oasis-opencsa.org/sca.

If you developed SCA applications with an earlier version of Rational Application Developer, then you will find the new OASIS SCA tools to be very similar to the existing OSOA SCA tools. You can install the existing SCA Tools, the new SCA 1.1 Tools or both. The following tools can be used to develop applications that conform to the OASIS SCA 1.1 assembly model:

  • Wizards
  • Graphical composite and contribution editors
  • Deployment, testing and debugging on WebSphere Application Server v8.5
  • Java and XML editor content assist enhancements including support for OASIS SCA annotations.
  • Validation rules for Java implementations and interfaces
  • Generation of JAXB interfaces from a WSDL
  • Preferences page
  • Samples

Rational Application Developer v8.5 and WebSphere Application Server v8.5 support the following OASIS SCA v1.1 specifications:

Modern Batch tools

The Modern Batch Tools, in addition to supporting the WebSphere Application Server Modern Batch Feature pack, now support targeting both WebSphere Application Server 8 augmented with WebSphere Compute Grid 8, and WebSphere Application Server 8.5 (with full WebSphere Compute Grid built in).


The Modern Batch tools include additional enhancements, such as:

  • Improved support for additional xJCL commands and elements.
  • Improved validation and codegen options.
  • Supporting mixed type Job’s for more flexibility.
  • Editor changes for new model elements.
  • Support for Parallel jobs (run element).
  • Listener types.


Profiling tools
  • Java 7 support for profiling

  • You can now profile when running Java 7 applications.
  • Profiling support for WebSphere Application Server v8.5 and WebSphere Application Server v8.5 Liberty Profile

  • You can now profile applications running on WebSphere Application Server v8.5 and WebSphere Application Server v8.5 Liberty Profile using both Java 6 and Java 7. Note: For Java 7 support on a remote server, you must install Rational Agent Controller v8.3.5.
  • Removed profiling support for the JVMPI profiler and for Java 1.4 applications
    Profiling support for the JVMPI profiler and for application running on a Java 1.4 JVM have now been removed.  You can continue to use the JVMTI profiler which is supported for application running on Java 1.5 and newer JVMs.


Code coverage tools
  • Java 7 support for code coverage

  • You can now gather code coverage statistic when running Java 7 applications.
  • Code Coverage support for WebSphere Application Server v8.5 and WebSphere Application Server v8.5 Liberty Profile
    You can now collect code coverage statistic on applications running on onWebSphere Application Server v8.5 and WebSphere Application Server v8.5 Liberty Profile using both Java 6 and Java 7.
  • Code coverage supported in Run and Debug mode for all servers

  • When profiling on server, you will no longer be prompted to choose between different analysis types as "Code Coverage Analysis" had been removed from the Profile On Server wizard and the preference.  By default, profile on server will now always perform "Java Analysis".  Instead of selecting Profile on Server to collect code coverage statistics, you can now get code coverage analysis by running a code coverage enabled application on the server in Run or Debug mode.
  • Reset code coverage indicators on application running on server

  • When running a code coverage enabled application on the server, you can now choose to reset the code coverage indicators so that code coverage data is collected fresh based on your interaction with the application.


Portal tools
  • Support for creating JSF 2.0 portlets.
  • Support for Portlets built using Facelets.
  • Tools for creating portlets for smart phones and tablets.
  • Rich Page Editor functionality for portlet development with CSS3 & HTML5 support.
  • Support for WebSphere Portal V8.0 as a runtime to create and test portlet projects.
  • Support for using DOJO 1.7 in portlet projects.


XML tools
  • New Graphical Data Mapper

  • Features of the Graphical Data Mapper include:
    • Powerful graphical mapping capability.
    • Support for built-in XPath 1.0 and 2.0 constructs.
    • Support for XSLT 1, XSLT 2, and XQuery standards.
    • Ability to map to and from database mapping sources.
    • Support for auto-mapping of similar fields.
    • Support for quick search of data structures and mappings.
    • Support for reusable submaps and local maps.
    • Smart data-type conversions and direct casting.
    • Support for "if/elseif/else" conditions.
    • Support for Nillable and Empty elements.
    • Interoperability with user-defined Java transformation code.


Java web services tools

Provide JAX-RS support for Liberty


A new JAX-RS library provider for Liberty is added to the JAX-RS Facet Install Page.   When the JAX-RS facet is selected, this library will be pre-selected.   The Servlet information section is also pre-filled.

JAX-RPC support for WebSphere 8.5
Includes updates for web services and client code generation, thin clients, deployers and UDDI extensions

JAX-WS support on WebSphere 8.5
Includes updates for web services and client code generation, thin clients, deployers, private UDDI extensions and policy sets and bindings.

Java 7 support for JAX-WS
The web service wizard will properly generate web services and clients if a Java 7 JRE is used.


JSF tools

JSF Tools integrated with Rich Page Editor:

  • Facelet page editing in Rich Page Editor.
  • Drag and drop functionality.
  • Components visualization.
  • Component Editors.


Performance tools

Workspace performance scanning

You can scan your workspace for performance suggestions in the following areas:

  • Ways to improve the integration performance with your WebSphere Application Server instances.
  • Local WebSphere Application Server attributes scan.
  • Local WebSphere Application Server project structure scan.
  • WebSphere Application Server annotation scan.
  • Ways to improve the performance of the product.
  • Disk fragmentation scan.
  • Antivirus software scan.


Java EE Connector (J2C) tools

Performance improvement for COBOL, C, and PL/I data binding code generation.

To regenerate existing data binding classes to take advantage of the performance improvement, perform a Project > Clean action from the menu bar on the project containing the data binding classes.

[{"Product":{"code":"SS4JCV","label":"Rational Software Architect for WebSphere Software"},"Business Unit":{"code":"BU053","label":"Cloud & Data Platform"},"Component":"Documentation","Platform":[{"code":"PF016","label":"Linux"},{"code":"PF033","label":"Windows"}],"Version":"8.5;8.5.1;8.5.5;8.5.5.1;8.5.5.2;8.5.5.3;8.5.5.4","Edition":"","Line of Business":{"code":"LOB15","label":"Integration"}}]

Document Information

Modified date:
17 June 2018

UID

swg27024360