Development and assembly tools

You can use an Integrated Development Environment to develop, assemble, and deploy Java™ Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE) modules for WebSphere® Application Server.

The IBM® WebSphere Application Server Developer Tools for Eclipse product and the IBM Rational® Application Developer for WebSphere Software product are supported tools for integrated development environments.

This documentation refers to the products as the assembly tools. However, you can use the products to do more than assemble modules. Use these tools in an integrated development environment to develop, assemble, and deploy Java EE modules.

IBM WebSphere Application Server Developer Tools for Eclipse is a lightweight set of tools for developing, assembling, and deploying Java EE applications to WebSphere Application Server Version 7.0 and 8.x. This workbench integrates with the application server to help you to quickly deploy and test applications. This product contains wizards and visual editors that support the Java EE programming model.

To install WebSphere Application Server Developer Tools for Eclipse for use with WebSphere Application Server, see Installing WebSphere Application Server Developer Tools for Eclipse in the WebSphere Developer Tools documentation.

The Rational Application Developer for WebSphere Software is a more extensive set of tools that support enterprise development. This workbench integrates support for WebSphere Application Server Version 7.0 and later. This workbench also supports both the OSGi and Java EE programming models, and contains wizards and visual editors to help you develop Web 2.0, Service Component Architecture (SCA), Java, and Java EE applications. This product contains code quality tools to help you analyze code and improve performance. This product integrates with Rational Team Concert to provide a team-based environment to help developers share information and work collaboratively. The Trial download for Rational Application Developer is available at https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/downloads/r/rad/.

For documentation on the tools, see WebSphere Developer Tools and Rational Application Developer documentation. Topics on application assembly in this information supplement that documentation.

Important: The tools run on Windows, Linux® Intel, and Mac operating systems. Users of WebSphere Application Server on all operating systems must assemble their modules using an assembly tool installed on Windows, Linux Intel, or Mac operating systems. To install a tool, follow instructions available with the tool.