As the Internet continues to grow as a viable medium for enterprise-classapplications, the tools and technology for developing these applicationscontinue to advance at a frenetic pace. The state of the technology now allowsfor a multitiered application that involves anything from simple scriptingto complex objects. Such technological advances have created an environmentin which multiple developers can work together on a single “logical” application.
The J2EE specification defines a development model and provides supportingstandards and tools for developing multitiered Web-based applications. Newstandards are being defined in the Web services arena that extend applicationsacross enterprise boundaries. Vendors are working feverishly to harness theirintegrated development environments (IDE) to include the necessary toolsand features to address the needs of Java-centric Web services programmers.SilverStream eXtend Work-
bench 1.0 (XWB) is a new breed of software that has been designed to addressthis burgeoning market.
Overview
I like the name workbench, because it sums up what this productis all about. This application ties together all the tools you would needto create a J2EE/Web services application and puts them into one easy-to-useenvironment. It follows the J2EE development model and is capable of buildingstandards-based applications for any J2EE-compliant server. It speeds thedevelopment cycle by providing wizards that can automatically generate muchof the interface code necessary in a J2EE project. SilverStream XWB supportsthe full application life cycle, including coding, testing, debugging, deployment,and maintenance. There’s a lot of help provided in a set of HTML-based helpfiles, as well as a set of tutorials and sample applications. The eXtendWorkbench Web site (www.silverstream.com/workbench) also has downloads,discussion forums, news, tips, and techniques.
The eXtend Workbench comes with the SilverStream eXtend ApplicationServer that’s fully J2EE 1.3–compliant and supports many of the latest Javatechnology and Web services standards including EJB 2.0, SOAP 1.1, and JMS1.0.2. The application server was one of the first to pass all necessarycertification tests and SilverStream is dedicated to supporting future versionsof J2EE as they are approved. Still, the application server is a separateinstallation, and Workbench does integrate with most of the major third-partyapplication servers on the market, including BEA’s WebLogic (6.0 and higher)and IBM’s WebSphere 4.0. (SilverStream includes ample documentation and samplesthat detail how to integrate XWB with other application servers.)
Working with the Product
Installing the XWB was quick and easy. However, the eXtend ApplicationServer took a little longer to install, and it expects to have a databasealready running on the server. I happened to have Microsoft SQL Server alreadyinstalled, so I configured the eXtend Server for that database, which turnedout to be pretty simple. The XWB application has a rich graphical look toit. I’ve come to expect that most Java IDE tools today are built using JavaSwing code , so I was not surprised to see a “Java” look to this application.I did find it interesting that this version of the eXtend software was targetedspecifically toward Windows-based platforms.
