Over the past few years the integrated development environment has raged on. For years I've used a text editor and a build tool to create my Java software; I used no set processes or design methods. The integration of UML modeling and Java coding makes obvious sense to a software designer, but a programmer like me has to ask, can XDE mentor me and make me think differently about the way I design software?
XDE stands for extended development environment; installation is a straightforward matter, as is installation of software on most Windows systems, but it only runs on Windows 2000/NT/ XP and you'll also need Service Pack 2 installed. The entire suite is based on IBM's Eclipse Platform but with added functionality in the UML modeling department. The distribution comes with two CDs - one that installs XDE in IBM's WebSphere Application Developer (WSAD) and one that installs XDE "standalone" with its own copy of WebSphere Workbench (WSW), which is based on Eclipse. For this review I just installed the stand-alone workbench.
Getting Started
Before I could get any coding done I had to create a project; the Java Modeling Project has the full features of UML modeling and round-trip engineering support. There are other project types you can use, including a Java Project (no modeling support) and a Web Modeling Project (for JSP or HTML Web applications).
Using XDE
The bulk of the modeling and coding goes on within the modeling perspectives. Rational has provided a lot of information for the help perspective covering Java and UML basics, deploying applications, and using patterns. One of the joys of XDE is that you can let it do as little or as much as you like. The level of code assistance is controlled from the preferences, and there are various options that can be generated such as constructors, finalizers, and bean properties. With synchronization enabled you can alter the source code and the UML diagram will update; if you make changes to the diagram the code will update accordingly (see Figure 1).
A very handy feature is the task list where you can add items for anything that you need to complete. This is also the place where any compilation errors are listed; clicking on an error will take you to the corresponding line of code where the error is. Once corrected, XDE will automatically update the task list and delete the corrected errors from it.
You can create and place new classes on the main model diagram either by using the right-click menus or by dragging and dropping from the Toolbox. The Toolbox is home to the different UML types (class, component, deployment, use case, collaboration, and sequence diagrams) plus Java elements (class, methods, interfaces, etc.), EJB elements (session, entity, and message-driven beans), and JSP elements (servlet, jsp server page, html forms, etc.). Features on the modeling side include Gang-of-Four patterns, J2EE patterns, and the ability to create your own patterns and code templates so you can reuse your core code over a number of projects.
