I work with a lot of J2EE development tools. While some feel like solutions looking for a problem, every once in a while I run into one that feels like it was inspired by a developer's frustration at not being able to work quickly and effectively. Ensemble Glider from Ensemble Systems is that sort of tool.
What Is Glider?
Glider is an integrated development toolkit that accelerates J2EE development. It allows you to interactively create, build, and debug J2EE components before deploying to a server. Glider compresses the development cycle required to build and test EJBs and JSPs.
J2EE developers have to endure a fair amount of monkey motion in order to build and test J2EE components. Instead of having to endure a full cycle of code, compile, package, and deploy before debugging, Glider accelerates development by compressing that cycle into an interactive seamless coding and debugging session. It integrates with the Java compiler and debugger, and simulates a full-blown J2EE server, eliminating the need to package and deploy for testing.
Intermediate to advanced developers will get the most benefit from Glider. The tool doesn't provide extensive help for someone just learning about EJB development - you do need to have a moderate amount of knowledge to be productive. It's fast and lightweight, and stays out of your way so you can get some real work done.
Getting Started
There are versions of Glider for the Eclipse shell, for Rational/IBM Rose and Rational/IBM XDE UML modelers, and a standalone version. My testing was done with the standalone version.
Installation is simple. It's distributed as a compressed file that you decompress into a target directory. Not having a minor installation program to create a launch menu was a minor inconvenience. Glider is started by launching the executable in the bin subdirectory. It automatically found my Java runtime and configured itself - I didn't have to do anything else for configuration.
If you are using the Java 1.4 runtime, make sure you have a recent 1.4.1 build. I encountered problems with earlier 1.4 JREs, but Ensemble's technical support cheerfully pointed me in the right direction.
Running Glider
I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly Glider starts up. Its user interface is simple and intuitive. I started by creating a Glider project - a workspace that holds EJB modules and Web applications. Once created, you can create new J2EE components, or add existing components.
The project workspace provides a project browser with tabs for viewing and navigating the project by its directory structure, package structure, EJB components, and Web components. This browser is the primary means of navigation.
Online help is available from the main menu bar. It's HTML based and, by default, directs your browser to the Ensemble Systems Web site. I downloaded the help files and configured the options to use them.
Working with JSPs
You can create JSPs and associated Web components from the context menu of the Project Browser's Web tab. The new file is populated with a skeleton JSP. This skeleton is one of several templates provided with Glider. You can easily add your own templates or customize the stock templates provided.
