IDM Review: Oracle Corporation JDeveloper 3.2

Nelson King

If your Internet/intranet applications rely heavily on database information-specifically from Oracle databases-then Oracle Corporation JDeveloper 3.2 can provide some unique advantages. The core strength of the package is in the Oracle Business Components for Java framework, a system for building and managing components for middle-tier applications. While not all elements of JDeveloper are smoothly integrated with the Oracle vision of using database components, this is a logical and effective approach for database applications.

Installation and setup of JDeveloper is customarily smooth. As is typical for these enterprise level development products it takes a lot longer to comprehend all the elements and their functionality than it does to set them up. While this is not a "beginners" product, Oracle should get credit for a genuine effort to assemble useful tutorials, wizards, documentation (including new task oriented user guides), forums, and even a full book (PDF format) to help developers learn not only JDeveloper and the Oracle way, but also Java in general.

The IDE of JDeveloper is a licensed version of Borland JBuilder-one of the best. This was a smart move by Oracle, which in the past has tended to more proprietary tools. The advantages are not only a solid and efficient user interface for developers but also a general approach to beans, servlets, and JSPs that reflects the effort by Borland to embrace every aspect of Java 2 and J2EE.

What distinguishes JDeveloper from other similar products (including Borland JBuilder) is the framework provided by Oracle Business Components for Java. This is a data driven framework, no surprise, and a powerful tool in an enterprise world where most business applications are also data driven. Working from a fairly large e-commerce application with an Oracle 8i database schema containing thirty-nine tables, I was able to use a JDeveloper wizard to create business components (data objects) with enough properties and methods to make them very handy for application construction. This whole process took less than ten minutes.

It's important to note that while JDeveloper provides plenty of tools for creating EJBs (after all the Borland JBuilder product was aimed at EJB development), this is not what Oracle is about. The support provided in JDeveloper is database and business rule oriented. Mastering this approach may be something of a challenge for developers. It's different than creating and using EJBs or CORBA objects. The interface Oracle has created to work with the components (including the wizards) isn't always clear or well integrated. Still, in the end I think developers working steadily with enterprise data and business rules will find the Business Components approach not only appropriate but easier to implement.

I especially like the way Business Components use XML to express business rules. I've never been comfortable with storing business rules in tables-much less coding them into Java. Half the battle with business rules is the ability to change them, which even the database approach doesn't do all that well, but the other half is understanding the rules and communicating them to other people (and programs). That's where XML shines because it forces a descriptive discipline and at the same time achieves a certain amount of general readability.

In this release of JDeveloper Oracle has paid considerable attention to improving the fit between components and the runtime world-especially in combination with the Oracle 9i Application Server. This includes support for application module pooling, database connection pooling, failover support, state persistence, support for non-Oracle databases (SQL-92 JDBC compliant), and XML messaging. Also a new component configuration manager and editor turned out to be extremely useful for tweaking the generated business components for a particular application.

Another benefit of the approach in JDeveloper is flexibility of deployment. You can employ the same application code and use Java Server Pages (JSP), EJBs, or CORBA components. In theory this should make the basic code more reusable on a variety of platforms including browsers and wireless devices. The most interesting and obviously closer to the Oracle way was the bridging of Business Components to JSP through XML Web Beans. Web beans can contain not only data (XML encoded) but also XML Stylesheets that guide the output of HTML. In this version Oracle has implemented a JSP 1.1 data tag library, which I think most developers will find helpful to access the business components. The Web beans only become fully visual at runtime, which is a bit disconcerting, but the amount of data and formatting prepackaged by the beans is efficient for application development. Runtime licensing of Oracle Business Components for Java is purchased separately with the Oracle 9i Application Server.

Debugging is often taken for granted, except by programmers who must actually try to do it. Web applications with multiple tiers and a lot of players (servers, components, clients, and whatall) are notoriously difficult to debug. Likewise debugging tools are difficult to build; across the board the early debuggers were anemic. In this case Oracle has taken the debugging facilities of JBuilder and adapted them to the Business Component model, including remote debugging of JSPs, stored procedures, CORBA objects, and EJBs. No Web application debugging is simple, but as I can attest from a particularly nasty error in a JSP, this system works.

Included with JDeveloper is a version of Visibroker for Java and C++ (delivered from Borland) and it should be noted that you must use the Oracle tools to develop for this CORBA server.

Those of you who are familiar with Oracle the corporation will know that it does not tend to do things in a small way. JDeveloper is sold as part of a larger package, the Oracle Internet Developer Suite (includes Designer, Forms Developer, Reports Developer, Discoverer, and Oracle Portal). This covers application development and deployment from soup to nuts much like similar suites from arch competitors Microsoft and IBM. Consequently when you pick up JDeveloper you're tacitly or otherwise buying into the Oracle system, including database management (above all), application server, and tools in the Developer Suite. Yes, you can use some third party tools and no Oracle is not rigidly proprietary, as JDeveloper amply demonstrates. If you're already an Oracle shop, then JDeveloper is designed to make your life better-and it will. If you're not an Oracle shop, then maybe the level of commitment to Oracle is the first decision to be made.

Oracle Corporation
World Headquarters
500 Oracle Parkway
Redwood Shores, CA 94065
(650) 506-7000
(800) 672-2531
www.oracle.com

Platforms: Windows NT, Windows 2000, deployment on any Java supported system. Requirements: Pentium 200 MHz, 96 MB RAM is minimum, 280 MB Disk Space

Direct Price: Internet Developer Suite $ 4,995. (multi-server perpetual license); $3,995 (single server perpetual license) 2 and 4 year licenses available.

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