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Borland JBuilder 5.0 Enterprise

Borland JBuilder 5.0 Enterprise

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This is the Enterprise edition of Borland's highly regarded JBuilder integrated development environment (IDE). Which is to say, this is the edition you want if your Java ambitions include commercial work with Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) and the Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) environment. It's tightly integrated with Borland AppServer (which is included in this package), BEA WebLogic Server, and IBM WebSphere, and includes an assortment of tools and components that ease the process of designing, implementing, deploying, and testing distributed Java applications. On top of that, JBuilder's Enterprise edition allows development teams to work together, thanks to its integration with all popular version-control systems.

Like other versions of JBuilder, this is an example of a typical IDE, with which you can write software projects, debug them during test runs, and manage the collection of files they require. All the tools you expect are present, including a drag-and-drop form designer for assembling user interfaces graphically, a source code editor with syntax highlighting, a debugger that allows you to monitor variable content and set breakpoints, and an object browser that makes properties, methods, and hierarchical relationships explicitly obvious. The IDE is moderately customizable. Most of the components are fixed in place (albeit in a logical way) in a single tabbed window, but you can change the look and behavior of the code editor rather extensively.

A version manager lets you view the contents of earlier saved versions of a project and revert to previous (perhaps "known-good") versions. You can even, in this edition of JBuilder, see the differences between versions highlighted. The code editor's CodeInsight feature, which allows you to call up lists of appropriate parameters and object members with a (configurable) hot key combination, is another attractive touch. Speed of compilation is, subjectively speaking, totally adequate.

In addition to the considerable collection of features included in the Professional edition, this JBuilder variant includes extensive support for XML and all standard aspects of distributed application development. Just using wizards, you can create interface definition language (IDL) files for use as CORBA interfaces, create skeleton CORBA server applications from existing IDL files, and create EJB interface frameworks. Another wizard speeds creation of Java Message Service (JMS) consumer and producer classes. There's also an EJB deployment wizard that, in this latest version, allows you to deploy EJBs to containers without stopping the container, a feature Borland calls "hot deployment."

Other tools ease creation and editing of EJB home and remote interfaces, EJB deployment descriptors, deployable EJB archive files, and EJB packages. Most of the relevant ancillary technologies, like Java Naming and Directory Interface (JNDI), Java Transaction Service (JTS), and Remote Method Invocation (RMI), are supported as well. Plus, this product integrates with Concurrent Version System (CVS), Rational ClearCase, Microsoft Visual SourceSafe, and, to a limited extent, Merant PVCS Version Manager.

Borland JBuilder 5 Enterprise has the tools you need to create, improve, and profit from J2EE applications. You'll be pleased with its features and performance. --David Wall

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