What's new in Rational Business Developer V9.5

This Fix Pack contains fixes for APARS and internal defects.

This Fix Pack contains fixes for APARS and internal defects.

Additional converseLib functions have been added to the converseLib system library which provides functions related to the EGL converse statement. For more details on the added functions, refer to ConverseLib Functions.

A new dynamic array feature that allows a variable to be used as the initialize size of the array has been added. With this, a literal integer, a variable or the return of a function can be used to initialize the number of elements. For more details on the Dynamic Array feature, refer to Array Reference.

Large Object types like BLOB (Binary datatype) and CLOB (Character datatype) can be processed as BLOB and CLOB locators for COBOL Generation. For more details on the Large object types, refer to Large object types.

Alternate methods have been added to declare values for Constants, by using dataitems instead of having the equal to (=) sign with a value on the const field. For more details on Declaring Variables and Constants, refer to Declaring Variables and Constants.

A new symbolic parameter has been added that can be set by IMSVS EGL application programs to trap IMS Errors, while performing a transfer to a transaction. For more details on Predefined Symbolic Parameters that are set automatically, refer to Predefined Symbolic Parameters.

This Fix Pack contains fixes for APARS and internal defects.

• Mac OS X Support

  Now you can install Rational Business Developer on Mac OS X. For more details on supported versions of Mac OS X, refer to Software Product Compatibility Reports. Most features of RBD are supported.

  MAC is added as a target system for Java™ generation and resource associations (seqws and remote vsam types are supported).

  The following features are not supported:

  • Remote SQL access to z/VSE DB2®
  • Remote VSAM access via DDM/DFM

• Ubuntu Support

  Now Rational Business Developer officially supports Ubuntu.

• open considerations for file I/O

  In the context of file I/O that does not involve databases, the EGL open statement opens the file that is associated with a given record variable. As the EGL get or add statements open files automatically, you can use the EGL open statement to clear the file without any actual I/O being done. For more information, see open considerations for file I/O

• setCharacterEncoding()

  setCharacterEncoding() is a system function that specifies an alternative encoding for a CHAR, MBCHAR, or DBCHAR variable. For more information, see setCharacterEncoding()

• Support for CICS Channels on VSE

  EGL programs that are generated for VSE CICS can now use CICS Channels to pass parameters. This means that you can pass up to 30 parameters of unlimited size (bounded by the storage available in the CICS region). Both the caller and the callee must run under CICS. This feature requires CICS Transaction Server for z/VSE 2.1, which is available for z/VSE 6.1.

  • For more information on CICS Channels, see "Part 8. CICS Channels and containers" in CICS Transaction Server for z/VSE V2.1 Enhancements Guide.
  • For more information on EGL support for CICS Channels, see parmForm in callLink element.
• XMLLIB support for COBOL generation

  EGL programs that are generated for COBOL environments can now use the XMLLIB system function to generate to XML strings or extract from XML strings. For more information, see EGL library XMLLib

• Rich UI widget projects update

  By default, the following Rich UI system projects are in use:

  • For EGL widgets that are not based on Dojo: com.ibm.egl.rui_4.3.3
  • For EGL Dojo widgets: com.ibm.egl.rui.dojo.widgets_2.3.1
  • For EGL Dojo samples: com.ibm.egl.rui.dojo.samples_2.3.1
  • For the local Dojo runtime access: com.ibm.egl.rui.dojo.runtime.local_1.10.4

• fixFirstColumn property for DataGrid

  fixFirstColumn is a new property for the DataGrid widget to specify whether the first column (like a title column) will be fixed when you scroll horizontally. For more information, see Rich UI DataGrid and DataGridTooltip.

• Support move by name for RUI

  Move.. by name statement is supported in RUI now to enable quick copy of record in RUI. For more information, see move.

• EGL Dojo Mobile widgets

  By default, the mobile widgets in use are updated to 1.5.0.

  More widgets such as DojoMobileTextBox, DojoMobileRadioButton are added to provide more capability. For more information, see EGL Dojo mobile widgets

• Global way to set http authentication for calling all services

  In Rational Business Developer V9.5.1, you can set UserID and Password for calling all services by serviceLib.setHTTPBasicAuthentication (UserID, Password).

• Ant task egl.createInterfaceFromWSDL

  A new Ant task named egl.createInterfaceFromWSDL is introduced to enable creation of egl interface from a WSDL file via Ant. For more information, see egl.createInterfaceFromWSDL.

• enableSaveRestore

  Rational Business Developer V9.5.1 updates the annotation enableSaveRestore. Now you can use it for program variables like records to control whether the variable's data is preserved across a segmented converse. For more information, see Master list of all EGL properties.

• deepNullCheck

  The deepNullaCheck build descriptor option specifies whether any variable will check the null status of the referred value when you compare the variable to null. For more information, see Overview of build descriptor options.

• defaultServiceHttpBasicUserId and defaultServiceHttpBasicPassword

  These two build descriptor options specify the default UserID and Password for calling all services. For more information, see Overview of build descriptor options.

• Add meta header for generated HTML

  Rational Business Developer V9.5.1 adds RUI preference to specify the HTML meta header that is used in development and deployed HTML. The meta section is also added in the EGL deployment descriptor, you can specify custom meta headers in the deployed HTML file. For more information, see Setting preferences for Rich UI.

• Allow to separate Javascript contents into another file in the deployed HTML

  Rational Business Developer V9.5.1 adds the preference to specify whether the JavaScript content of the deployed HTML file is separated from the HTML file as a single file. The .js file enables the browser cache for JavaScript file to boost the performance. For more information, see Setting preferences for Rich UI deployment.

• Allow to disable content assist

  A menu button is added, and you can press the keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+6) to disable content assist. When the workspace is too large, and causes the slow performance of the content assist, this function will be useful. For more information, see Content assist.

With Code Review, you can create configurations of coding rules for EGL source code. You can then run the configurations to check the source code for consistency with the rules. For more information, see Code review.

• Rich UI widget projects update

  By default, the following Rich UI system projects are in use:

  • For EGL widgets that are not based on Dojo: com.ibm.egl.rui_4.3.2
  • For EGL Dojo widgets: com.ibm.egl.rui.dojo.widgets_2.3.0
  • For EGL Dojo samples: com.ibm.egl.rui.dojo.samples_2.3.0
  • For the local Dojo runtime access: com.ibm.egl.rui.dojo.runtime.local_1.10.4

• DojoUploaderWidget

  DojoUploader widget is a new widget in Rational Business Developer V9.5. You can use it to upload files from client side to the server. For more information, see DojoUploader.

• maxHeight property for DojoFilteringSelect

  maxHeight is a new property for the DojoFilteringSelect widget to specify the max height of its dropdown view. For more information, see DojoFilteringSelect.

• Support of XulRunner in 64 bit Windows

  Xulrunner for Windows 64bit has been supported to be used as the visual editor render engine in EGL Dojo mobile widgets V9.5. For more information, see Support of XulRunner in 64-bit Windows.

• EGL Cordova library and tools

  Rational Business Developer introduces an EGL Cordova programming model in V9.5. You can develop, test, debug, and deploy hybrid mobile applications with this new library and toolset. You can learn how to develop with the EGL Cordova library and look up the EGL Cordova library API. For more information, see Reference to EGL Cordova.

• EGL Dojo Mobile widgets

  By default, the mobile widgets in use are updated to 1.4.0.

  More properties such as isLongList and isFilteredList are added to the DojoMobileList widget to provide a performance boost when processing long lists or using filters for a list. For more information, see DojoMobileList.

  More widgets such as DojoMobileAccordion, DojoMobileAccordionPane, DojoMobileContentPane, DojoMobileScrollablePane, and DojoMobileSimpleDialog are added to provide more container and layout capability. For more information, see EGL Dojo mobile widgets.

• SOAP V1.2 client support in JAX-WS

  Rational Business Developer V9.5 supports invoking third-party web services which use SOAP V1.2 bindings. You need to switch the service runtime to JAX-WS when calling a SOAP V1.2 web service. For more information, see SOAP V1.2 client support in JAX-WS.

• Unwrapped SOAP Service support

  Rational Business Developer V9.5 supports invoking third-party web services which provide document/literal unwrapped style WSDL files. You need to make sure the service runtime is JAX-RPC when calling a web service described by a document/literal unwrapped style WSDL file.

• Ant task egl.generateWSDL

  A new Ant task named egl.generateWSDL is introduced to enable generation of the WSDL file from an EGL service file via Ant. For more information, see egl.generateWSDL.

• isRemoved

  isRemoved is a new annotation in Rational Business Developer V9.5. You can use it to logically remove any of your own EGL parts or types such as libraries, services, external types, records or variables so that usage of these will display as an error in the IDE. For more information, see Master list of all EGL properties .

• genXSDFile

  The genXSDFile build descriptor option specifies whether an XML schema definition (XSD) side file is to be created or not, for called programs with passed parameters. This option will create the XSD file which can be used as input to enable testing with the Rational Virtualization Server. For more information, see Overview of build descriptor options.

• minSubstringLength

  The minSubstringLength build descriptor option specifies the smallest length allowed for a sub-string move before an IndexOutOfBoundsException is thrown. For more information, see minSubstringLength.

• ADDITIONALUSERFILES

  ADDITIONALUSERFILES is a new generation symbolic parameter which will identify additional files to be added to the build plan dependency list. This allows additional user files to be processed and uploaded to a host machine during generation of COBOL. For more information, see Predefined symbolic parameters that can be set by the user.

• CICS channels with J2C connections

  You can now use CICS Channels with CICS J2C connections. In your linkage options, set parmForm to CHANNEL and remoteComType to CICSJ2C. For more information on CICS Channels, see parmForm in callLink element. For more information on CICS J2C connections, see remoteComType in callLink element.

• New Resource Association Property includeRecordLengthField

  The property specifies whether to also write the Record Length field for variable-length sequential records when generating Java from EGL source. For more information, see Association elements.

• Delete generated files during project clean

  You can use this check box to delete all files (except the properties files) and any resulting empty directories from the EGLGen/JavaSource directory during a project clean. For more information, see Setting generation preferences.

• Search EGLARs for details

  You can use this check box to obtain function and variable descriptions from EGL editor when content assist is used. For more information, see Rich UI DataGrid and DataGridTooltip.

• Show advanced hover details

  You can use this check box to display extensive hover details when using the mouse-over function during an editor session for EGL source when content assist is used. For more information, see Rich UI DataGrid and DataGridTooltip.

• VSECON / Changes to VSE Build Server

  VSE Build Server now uses the environment variable VSECON to locate the VSE Connector Client. This variable should be set to the installation directory of the VSE Connector Client, or a directory containing both VSEConnector.jar and cci.jar. You no longer need to copy these files into the distributedbuild plugin directory. For more information, see Generation Reference for VSE Feature.

• EGL Debug Support for the Liberty Profile

  The ability to debug EGL services, Web Transactions, and UI programs when using the Liberty Profile has been added. For more information, see EGL Debug Support for the Liberty Profile.