Migrating from Preface VisualAge to Borland JBuilder...

Migrating fromIBM® VisualAge®

to Borland®

JBuilder™ 6by Hartwig Gunzer, Sales Engineer, Borland®

Preface

IntroductionThe intention of this paper is to show how to migrate existing

projects from IBM® VisualAge™ for Java,™ version 4.0 to

Borland® JBuilder™ 6. Therefore, various types of applications

are discussed. We start with simple GUI applications that have

been developed in VisualAge, then we move on to database

applications that have bean generated by a smart guide using

Data Access Beans. Enterprise applications are addressed in the

final two chapters, where we show how to migrate Enterprise

JavaBeans™ (EJB™) from VisualAge to JBuilder and how to

create test clients within JBuilder. After migration, the EJB will

run in Borland® Enterprise Server 5, which is shipped with

JBuilder 6 Enterprise.

Finally, we will use session beans to demonstrate deployment to

IBM WebSphere® 3.5.

AudienceEvaluators of JBuilder 6 and Borland Enterprise Server 5 who

are also evaluating VisualAge might find this paper useful for

comparing concepts between the two IDEs.

However, since a thorough knowledge of the Java programming

language is needed to understand the steps for migrating the

projects, this paper for the most part is targeted toward Java

developers.

Table of ContentsPreface 1

General differences 2

Migrating GUI applications 2

Migrating applets 8

Migrating database applications 8

Migrating EJB™: session beans 13

Deploying to WebSphere® 17

Migrating EJB:entity beans 18

Conclusion 21

JBuilder™

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General differences between VisualAgeand JBuilderVisualAge maintains a repository to store all projects. Thus, no

file is visible on the hard disk until it is exported from the

repository. Files existing on the hard disk must be imported into

the repository prior to being used in VisualAge. In contrast,

JBuilder stores projects and associated files on the file system;

there is no need for exporting project files.

Migrating GUI applications

Concepts of VisualAgeClasses that extend java.awt.Component, such as a frame or an

applet, can be modified visually in the VisualAge Visual

Composition Editor. Usually GUI applications are developed

this way. For the event handling, the editor lets you chose either

a single inner class for the entire event handling code or one

single inner class for each event that is to be processed.

We continue by assuming that one inner class for the entire

event handling has been chosen.

The reference to the inner class is stored in an attribute called

ivjEventHandler; the inner class itself is called IvjEventHandler.

The inner class reference is registered with the components as a

listener. This registration takes place in a method called

initConnections(). Thus, the inner class implements all the

necessary interfaces. Inside each of the implementations, there is

a method of the outer class named connEToC1(…),

connEToC2(…), and so on. These methods contain the event

handling code. Depending on the kind of connection that has

been used in the Visual Composition Editor, they might be

named in slightly different ways, such as:

• connEtoCxxx()

- For Event-To-Code connections

• connEtoMxxx()

- For Event-To-Method connections

• conPtoPxxx()

- For PropertyToProperty connections

The default constructor of the GUI class calls super() explicitly

and afterwards a method called initialize(). This method contains

all the initialization routines, including a call to initConnections().

VisualAge uses lazy initialization for the sub-components, that is,

components like buttons or text fields are not initialized until

they are needed for the first time. Therefore, appropriate

methods like getButton1(), getTextField1() are provided. The default

name of the sub-components contains the prefix ivj followed by

the components’ names, e.g. ivjButton1. The following drawing

shows the dependencies between the methods and attributes for

one button:

Dependencies in VisualAge

Concepts of JBuilderJBuilder features a designer that lets you construct classes

visually. In order to keep the designer and the source code in

sync, a private method called jbInit() is used. This method gets

parsed each time the view is switched to the designer tab.

Without the jbInit() method, the appearance of the application

would not be visible within the designer.

constructor

initialize()

initConnections()

getButton1() ivjEventHandler

connEToC2()

button1_ActionPerformed()

JBuilder™

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In contrast to VisualAge, JBuilder uses both anonymous and

standard adapter classes. No inner classes are used. The code

style can be changed in the project properties.

There is one adapter class for each sub-component. These

adapter classes call a method of the GUI class that handles the

event delegated by the sub-component. The default name starts

with the name of the attribute that holds the reference to the

sub-component, followed by an underscore and the name of the

event-handling method as specified in the appropriate interface.

This is the place where you usually put in your event-handling

code. The picture below illustrates the dependencies in JBuilder.

Dependencies in JBuilder

Important notes about the designerThis section discusses important rules by which the JBuilder

designer parses and generates source code:

The JBuilder designer accepts only property settings as defined

in the JavaBeans specification. That means that any setter

method for a property must take one parameter only. Any other

kind of method calls—that is, calls that take multiple

parameters—will be changed when the properties are modified.

A typical example in VisualAge is the method initialize() calling

setSize() with multiple parameters.

Setting the form’s size in VisualAge

The JBuilder designer recognizes the multiple parameters and

will change the method call the next time the property is

modified to look like the example below:

Changes the call done by the designer

The Visual Composition Editor of VisualAge often creates

panes with a null layout. As a result, the initialization routines for

the child components contain calls to setBounds or setLocation

taking multiple parameters. But, as we have seen, this is no

problem for JBuilder.

Steps for migrationNext, we examine the steps necessary for migrating GUI

applications from VisualAge to JBuilder.

The Approach The following approach tries to reuse as much code as possible.

It might appear that calling the method button1_ActionPerformed()

directly within the adapter class is a better solution. However, in

VisualAge the connEToCx() methods, as well as the

constructor

jbInit()

register adapter class

ivjButton1_actionPerformed()

private void initialize() {

...

setSize(640, 480);

...

}

private void initialize() {

...

setSize( new Dimension (640, 480) ); ...

}

JBuilder™

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initConnections() methods, may contain user code next to the code

that has been generated. If the methods contain user code, they

must not be removed. So the approach shown below is the

preferred one. We will add the necessary methods generated by

VisualAge and call them from methods needed by JBuilder.

The calls to the event handlers will be put into adapter classes so

that the inner classes are no longer needed.

Dependencies in JBuilder after migration

The necessary stepsWe will show all the steps necessary for migration by applying

them to a small GUI application that has been developed in

VisualAge. The appearance of our application is illustrated

below.

Sample GUI application in VisualAge

Our application consists of exactly one class AWTApp that

extends java.awt.Frame and contains two buttons and two edit

fields. If the user enters a string into the upper text field and

clicks the left button, the string will be converted to upper case

and displayed in the text field at the bottom of the frame.

Clicking on the right button will cause the application to be

terminated.

As shown above, there are three event-handling methods in the

application: button1_ActionPerformed, dispose, and

button2_ActionPerformed.

1) Exporting the project files from the repository ofVisualAge to the file systemBy choosing File|Export in VisualAge, a dialog window will

open with the smart guide, helping us export the application.

First, we must decide where to export the application. In our

case we chose the uppermost radio button specifying that the

project files will be exported to a directory.

constructor

jbInit() register adapter class

ivjButton1_actionPerformed()

connEToC2()

initialize()

getButton1()

initConnections()

button1_ActionPerformed()

JBuilder™

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Exporting files in VisualAge

Click “Next ” to proceed to the next window. Now you must

enter the directory and specify all of the files that are to be

exported. In our example, we just need to export our application

source file, that is, the .java file.

Selecting an export destination

By clic

compl

2) SetStart b

ProjeThe p

projec

from V

will ad

Setting

Exporting to a directory

king “Finish,” the part concerning VisualAge is

eted, and we move on to the part concerning JBuilder.

ting up the project in JBuildery creating a new project in JBuilder (select File|New

ct)roject wizard opens up where you should change the

t directory to the directory you entered when exporting

isualAge( refer to the previous step) Note that JBuilder

d the src directory, so you do not have to specify it.

the project directory

JBuilder™

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When you are done, click “Next.” Now you can check the

directory settings.

The project directories

Click “Finish” to create the project. The automatic package

discovery of JBuilder will add all java packages to the project,

which will be found under the src directory. In our case these are

exactly the exported classes from VisualAge.

If you look at the project pane you can see that our package has

been found and has become part of our project.

The JBuilder project pane

JBuilder 6 is able to read and parse code that has been generated

by VisualAge 4.0. But before we can move on to the designer,

we have to make sure that all property settings have been

changed so they can be understood by the designer. Refer to the

section "Important notes about the designer".

By now we are able to see the GUI layout in the designer.

The application in the designer

But we will not see any event handlers in the property inspector.

So, the next step is to make the event handlers known to

JBuilder. Therefore let’s take a look at the inner class

IvjEventHandler.

class IvjEventHandler implements

java.awt.event.ActionListener,

java.awt.event.WindowListener

{

public void actionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent e)

{

if (e.getSource() == AWTApp.this.getButton1())

connEtoC2(e); if (e.getSource() == AWTApp.this.getButton2())

connEtoC3(e); };

public void windowActivated(java.awt.event.WindowEvent e) {};

public void windowClosed(java.awt.event.WindowEvent e) {};

T
he inner class IvjEventHandler, part 1

JBuilder™

Since this is the action performed handler for button1, enter

connEtoC2() in the newly generated method.

public void windowClosing(java.awt.event.WindowEvent e) {

if (e.getSource() == AWTApp.this)

connEtoC1(e); };

public void windowDeactivated(java.awt.event.WindowEvent e) {};

public void windowDeiconified(java.awt.event.WindowEvent e) {};

public void windowIconified(java.awt.event.WindowEvent e) {};

public void windowOpened(java.awt.event.WindowEvent e) {};

};

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The inner class IvjEventHandler, part 2

By examining the if-statements, we see that the event handling

routine for Button1 is connEToC2(), for Button2 it is

connEToC3(), and for the windowClosing event of our

application, it is connEToC1() . Since JBuilder does not use inner

classes we have to provide adapter classes.

Switch to the designer, click on the button with the

“toUpperCase” label, and select the “Event” tab in the property

inspector.

We let JBuilder generate an event handler for the action

performed event by double-clicking the appropriate text field.

Generating an action performed event handler

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void ivjButton1_actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {

connEtoC2(e); }

The complete event handler for button1

ext, we repeat the last steps for the other button and the

indowClosing event of our application so that we get the

ollowing event handling code within our application class:


connEtoC2(e); }


connEtoC3(e); }

void this_windowClosing(WindowEvent e) {

connEtoC1(e); }

The complete event handling code

ow that we have our own event handling code in JBuilder,

here is no need for the inner class anymore, and it is time for

ome clean up.

) Removing source code that is no longer neededs mentioned before, you can remove the inner class

vjEventHandler as well as the attribute of the outer class that

olds a reference to it. This attribute is called

ivjEventHandler”.

n the next step, we remove the code from initConnections(),

here the registration of ivjEventHandler at the sub-

omponents take place. In our case, the method will contain an

mpty body afterwards, so we might choose to remove the

JBuilder™

whole method. But keep in mind that we would have to remove

the call to initConnections() from within the method initialize() as

well.

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private void initConnections() throws java.lang.Exception {

// user code begin {1}

// user code end

this.addWindowListener(ivjEventHandler); getButton1().addActionListener(ivjEventHandler); getButton2().addActionListener(ivjEventHandler);

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These three lines of code are no longer needed

ompile and run your application, checking to see that

erything works properly.

Working on the project within JBuilderow the migration is complete, and we can work on the project

the way we are accustomed. JBuilder will put all the code that

as to be generated in the correct places, as the following

ample shows. If we want to change the background color of

e left button as well as its foreground color, then we set the

roperties in the property inspector as show below.

Changing the color properties of the left button

he generated code is not put into the method jbInit(), as you

ight expect, but into the method getButton1(). This is correct

nce all the setting of the properties for this button take place in

is method.

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}

private java.awt.Button getButton1() {

if (ivjButton1 == null) {

try {

ivjButton1 = new java.awt.Button();

ivjButton1.setName("Button1");

ivjButton1.addActionListener(new

AWTApp_ivjButton1_actionAdapter(this));

ivjButton1.setBackground(Color.orange); ivjButton1.setForeground(Color.red); ivjButton1.setLabel("toUpperCase");


// user code end

} catch (java.lang.Throwable ivjExc) { … };

}

The method getButton1() after migration

ote also that the registration of the adapter class has been put

to this method.

igrating appletshe steps needed for migrating applets from VisualAge to

uilder are much the same as before. The only difference is that

e have all our initialization code within the method init().

igrating database applicationsow let’s look at the different concepts of the two IDEs with

spect to database applications. We show only the classes with

hich a developer works directly when creating a typical

atabase application. For the underlying architecture, please refer

the help pages of the IDEs.

JBuilder™

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Concepts of VisualAgeDatabase applications that have been created by the smart guide

of VisualAge usually consist of two different kinds of classes:

classes that are used to display the data received from the

database and classes that are responsible for the database access

itself. The access classes extend the class DatabaseAccess that

belongs to a library of VisualAge called Data Access Beans.

These beans are also used internally by the data access class to

communicate with the database. Within this class there are at

least two static methods. One returns a connection to the

database; the other maps to a SQL select statement. There is one

static method for each statement, as illustrated in the figures

below.

Since the view class represents a GUI to the application, the

view class structure resembles the one described in our

discussion about migrating GUI applications.

Concepts of JBuilderDevelopers use the JBuilder DataExpress™ database

functionality to create database applications. In addition,

dbSwing components are provided to create a user interface for

the application. If you use the database access components or

the dbSwing components, they will be placed as attributes within

the view class. So there is no separation in JBuilder, as in

VisualAge. Further, VisualAge, data received from a successful

database connection at design time already will be displayed

within the frame. The following two figures show the class

diagrams of the same application, as generated by VisualAge and

JBuilder, respectively.

Classes generated by the smart guide of VisualAge

Classes generated by JBuilder DataExpress

JBuilder™

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Resulting steps for migrationThe approachAs you can see, the approaches of the two IDEs are very

different. In order to reuse as much code as possible, we will

change only the view class of the application and retain the calls

to the data access class.

Since there exist almost the same dependencies as in the

previous chapter, the result of this approach will also look

similar. Please refer also to the previous chapter (“Migrating

GUI Applications”).

The necessary stepsThe example we use here is a database application that has been

generated by VisualAge. This application connects to the

InterBase employee database, displaying the rows of the country

table and allowing the user to change the data via a navigation

toolbar, as shown in the diagrams above. There are two classes:

InterbaseApp is the view class, and InterbaseAccess manages all

communication with the database.

Sample database application that has been generated by VisualAge

1) Exporting the project files from the repository ofVisualAge to the file system.In this case, we have to export the two classes of the database

application as well as all the referenced classes, especially the

DataAccess Beans of VisualAge.

We start with the referenced classes and export this time to a jar

file.

Chose File|Export as before.

Select Jar File and click Next.

Exporting to a jar file

Specify the path and the name to the jar file, and click the

button with the label

“Select referenced types and resources.”

Exporting to a jar file

JBuilder™

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Uncheck the .java checkbox, as we need only the class files.

Unfortunately, VisualAge does not select all the classes we need

to compile the application successfully..

Click the “Details” button next to the .class label.

Specify to export all the DataAccessBeans classes

To keep things simple, select all the DataAccessBeans by

clicking the checkbox.

Uncheck all classes from your project, especially the two classes

the application consists of (click checkbox twice).

Specify to export no classes of the project

Now that we have created a jar file containing all the class files,

we can export the two source code files to a directory.

We select InterbaseApp and InterbaseAccess and export them to

a directory, as discussed in the previous chapter. Now let’s

switch to the JBuilder IDE

2) Setting up the project in JBuilderCreate a new project and set the project directories to point to

the directory to which you exported the .java files.

Now select the tab “Required libraries.” Click the “Add”button, and add the jar file we exported from VisualAge to our

project. You might have to create a new library in order to do so.

Please refer to the JBuilder help pages.

We also have to add the jar file containing the database driver

classes, which means that we have to tell JBuilder where to find

interclient.jar.

Adding the database driver classes

JBuilder should be able to compile and run the application by

now.

3) Changes in the source codeTo determine which event handlers we have to care about, we

switch to the source code of the GUI class ("InterbaseApp") and

move on to the inner class called IvjEventHandler..

JBuilder™

er.

4) Removing source code that is no longer neededRemove the inner class IvjEventHandler as well as the attribute

of the outer class that holds a reference to the inner class. The

attribute is called ivjEventHandler.

Now find the method initConnections:

private void initConnections() throws java.lang.Exception {


// user code end

getSelect().addPropertyChangeListener(ivjEventHandler); getScrollPaneTable().addMouseListener(ivjEventHandler); connPtoP1SetTarget();

connPtoP2SetTarget();

connPtoP3SetTarget();

this.getContentPane().add(getJFrameContentPane(), null); ivjSelect.addPropertyChangeListener(new

java.beans.PropertyChangeListener() {

By now you should be able to work on the class in the design

In the next step we make the event handling code known to

JBuilder.

class IvjEventHandler implements java.awt.event.MouseListener,

java.beans.PropertyChangeListener {

public void mouseClicked(java.awt.event.MouseEvent e) {

if (e.getSource() == InterbaseApp.this.getScrollPaneTable())

connPtoP3SetTarget(); };

public void mouseEntered(java.awt.event.MouseEvent e) {};

public void mouseExited(java.awt.event.MouseEvent e) {};

public void mousePressed(java.awt.event.MouseEvent e) {};

public void mouseReleased(java.awt.event.MouseEvent e) {};

public void propertyChange(java.beans.PropertyChangeEvent evt)

{

if (evt.getSource() == InterbaseApp.this.getSelect() &&

(evt.getPropertyName().equals("currentRow")))

connEtoC1(evt); };

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The inner class IvjEventHandler

As you can see, there is an event handler for the MouseEvent of

the ScrollPaneTable called connPToP3SetTarget() as well as an

event handler for the property change event of he property

called Select. The handler is called connEtoC1(...). The attribute

that holds the property values is called ivjSelect.

Let JBuilder generate adapter classes for the events, as shown in

the previous chapter, and add the event handling methods.

Afterwards, the class should contain methods that look like this:

The complete event handling code

The method initConnections

Remove the three bold printed lines. The first and the second

register the inner class as an event handler, while the third has

been inserted by JBuilder. If you do not remove it, your

application will still compile and run, but you will not see any

data displayed unless you click the “execute” button. So, you

should remove it to get exactly the same behavior as in

VisualAge. Since the method contains some more calls to other

methods, you must not remove the whole method.

Compile and run your application to see how everything works.

Note the message that the code generated by VisualAge contains

calls to methods that are marked as deprecated. Make sure

InterBase Server and InterServer are running before starting the

application. Otherwise, the driver would not be able to

communicate with the database.

void ivjSelect_propertyChange(PropertyChangeEvent e) {

if(e.getPropertyName().equals("currentRow")) connEtoC1(e); }

void ivjScrollPaneTable_mouseClicked(MouseEvent e) {

connPtoP3SetTarget(); }

public void propertyChange(PropertyChangeEvent e) {

ivjSelect_propertyChange(e);

}

});

}

JBuilder™

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The running database application

Migrating EJB: Session BeansIn this chapter, there is no need to examine contrasting concepts

between VisualAge and JBuilder because both IDEs adhere to the

EJB specification(VisualAge supports only the EJB 1.0 specification,

but that limitation will not cause problems for us here).

Steps for migrationWe created a stateless session bean in VisualAge that acts as a

calculator engine providing some basic arithmetical routines.

The session bean in VisualAge

The session bean’s remote interface

Do not export the bean and its two interfaces yet. JBuilder 6

does not let you specify a deployment descriptor without

generating an EJB as well. So we have to do little work around.

Assuming that you have already installed Borland Enterprise

Server 5 and configured JBuilder to work with it (refer to the

help pages, if necessary), create a new project and set the

directories of your project

package ejbtest;

/**

* This is an Enterprise Java Bean Remote Interface

*/

public interface EJBCalculator extends javax.ejb.EJBObject {

int add( int arg1, int arg2) throws

java.rmi.RemoteException;

int sub( int arg1, int arg2) throws


int div( int arg1, int arg2) throws


int mult( int arg1, int arg2) throws


int mod( int arg1, int arg2) throws


}

JBuilder™

Since VisualAge currently does not support the EJB 2.0

Setting up the project

Add an empty EJB group to the project by selecting

“File|New|Enterprise|EJB Module,” as shown below.

specification, we chose to let JBuilder create an EJB 1.1-

compliant EJB module.

To deploy the bean to the Borland Enterprise Server , we must

specify a deployment descriptor. Therefore, we have to generate

an EJB in JBuilder as well. So

select “File|New|Enterprise|Enterprise Java Bean 1.x”

Enter the full qualifying name of the bean class of your EJB,

that is, the package name and the class name, as specified in

VisualAge. In our case, we also specify that our EJB is a stateless

Creating an empty EJB Module

session bean:

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Creating an empty EJB group

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Creating the deployment descriptor for a new session bean

ow click “Finish.” Our module will now contain an EJB. By

licking the bean we may, if desired, edit the deployment

escriptor.

JBuilder™

Select “Tools|EJB Deployment.” The deployment wizard

The deployment descriptor

Now export the classes that comprise your enterprise bean to

the directory in which the EJB wizard of JBuilder generated the

source code, typically the “src” subdirectory of your project

directory.

Thus, we overwrite the generated source code with our bean

implementation from VisualAge and still have a valid

deployment descriptor in our project

Select the EJB module with the right mouse button and click the

button “Verify”

to check whethe

deploy the bean

You should see

Now rebuild the

This will also cre

the necessary fil

Before deployin

Enterprise Serve

find a container

opens and we just have to add the jar file that has just been

generated and chose a server partition.

In our case we deploy to a Borland Enterprise Server called Elvis

and use the standard partition.

The deployment wizard

Click "ΟΚΟΚΟΚΟΚ" to proceed and watch the bean being deployed to

Borland Enterprise Server:

r you provided all the information needed to

to Borland Enterprise Server.

“0 errors and 0 warnings” in the message pane.

whole project.

ate a jar file co

es needed for d

g the session be

r is up and run

to which it can

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ntaining our session bean and all

eployment.

an, make sure that Borland

ning. Otherwise, JBuilder will not

deploy.

D

By s

to t

of t

eploying an EJB to Borland Enterprise Server

tarting the Borland Enterprise Server console and switching

he contents of the partitions, you can see the bean as a result

he successful deployment as well:

JBuilder™

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The Borland Enterprise Server console

The migration of the session bean is now complete. To see the

session bean at work, let’s create a test client in JBuilder.

Creating a test client in JBuilderSelect “File|New” and “Application” on the tab “New.”Enter all the information the wizard requires, and click

“Finish.” Switch to the design tab and create the user interface

of a calculator with two text fields for entering the arguments

and one text field for displaying the result of the calculation. Five

buttons will be needed for the different calculations our session

bean provides.

Then select “Wizards|EJB| Use EJB Test Client.”

Creating a test client.

Click "Next," "Next," and "Finish."Your frame class now contains an attribute holding a reference

to the test client. This test client provides easy access to the

session bean.

Now we must specify the event handling code. Provide an

ActionEvent handler for each button and enter the code as

shown below.

Each button calls the appropriate method of the enterprise bean.

For example, the button containing the label “+” calls “add.”

void jButton4_actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {

eJBCalculatorTestClient1.create(); int arg1 = Integer.parseInt(jTextField1.getText());

int arg2 = Integer.parseInt(jTextField2.getText());

int result =

eJBCalculatorTestClient1.add(arg1, arg2); jTextField3.setText(String.valueOf(result));

}

Calling methods of the generated test client

Start the container by selecting the EJB group and selecting

“Run” from the context menu that pops up when you right-

click the mouse.

Now run the Test Client the same way, that is, select the client

application and select “Run” from the context menu..

You should see in the message pane that JBuilder has

successfully initialized the bean.

-- Initializing bean access.

-- Succeeded initializing bean access.

-- Execution time: 1280 ms.

The JBuilder message pane

JBuilder™

Test the application and do some calculations. Note that every

time you click a button, you talk to the session bean.

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The running test application

eploying to WebSpherehe development of EJBs in JBuilder does not depend on the

pplication server to which you will deploy. If you have used

isualAge and WebSphere before, there is no need to change

he application server. The required steps will be almost the

ame as when deploying to Borland Enterprise Server.

he setupwitch to the enterprise setup page in Tools|Enterpriseetup|Application Server. As you see, it is possible with

Builder to deploy to eight different application servers.

hose WebSphere 3.5 and specify the required installation

irectories. Once you have entered the information, click the

heckbox to make sure the changes will be applied to the current

roject. Click "OK" to finish the setup.

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The enterprise setup page for WebSphere

heck your project properties if they show the same settings:

ttings made in the enterprise setup page are global settings,

hereas the settings of your project might be different.

elect “Tools|EJB Deployment.” The deployment wizard

pens up once more, but this time it looks different.
Deploying to WebSphere

JBuilder™

The JBuilder message pane shows you the result of the

deployment. If you switch to the WebSphere console, you

should be able to see the EJB by now:

your classes in VisualAge. The entity bean we present consists of

five source code files:

the bean class, the home and the remote interface, a finder class,

and a key class. To keep things simple, all the files in this

example start with the name “Country” (shown further below in

the JBuilder project window and in the deployment descriptor).

18

The WebSphere console showing the deployed session bean

These few changes must to be done in order to deploy to

WebSphere. The other steps, creating a test client in JBuilder, for

example, are the same as before.

Migrating EJB: Entity BeansThis section discusses the migration of an entity bean with

container managed persistence (CMP) that has been generated in

VisualAge. In this part, we use JDataStore,™ a DBMS, written

entirely in Java, which is included with JBuilder Enterprise

The bean represents a mapping to the country table that is part

of the JDataStore employee database.

There are two attributes: country, which also acts as the primary

key, and currency.

Steps for migrationAs shown in the previous section, start with creating a project,

an EJB module, and an EJB. Use the exact names you use for

Generating an entity bean in JBuilder

Click “Next” to check if the settings are correct, then click

“Finish.”

Export from VisualAge all the files comprising the bean to the

source code directory of your project.

Also export all referenced classes to a jar file (we need only two

classes; both are called “Link,” but each belongs to a different

package).
Exporting the referenced classes

JBuilder™

19

Exporting the referenced classes

Now switch back to JBuilder and select “Project | ProjectProperties | Required Libraries.” The required libraries this

time are the Borland Enterprise Server 5 library and the jar file

containing the referenced classes from VisualAge.

The required libraries

The deployment descriptor for the entity bean

Now we tell the container about the mapping to the employee

database. Add a new datasource to the deployment descriptor by

right-clicking data source in the structure pane.

Creating a new data source

Specify URL, driver class, user, and password. We use the

JDataStore driver to connect to a database called employee.jds. Test

the connection by clicking the appropriate button.

The datasource for the entity bean

JBuilder™

20

Now add the datasource we just specified as a resource to our

entity bean

Creating a resource reference

Switch to the “CMP 1.1” Node in the structure pane.

The CMP 1.1 Node in the structure pane

Here we will specify to which columns the attributes of our

entity bean will map.

Enter the table to which the entity bean maps (Country).

Click the Button “Get Meta Data,” and JBuilder will provide a

list box displaying all available columns in this table.

Mapping class attributes to table columns

Now we have specified all the necessary parts of the deployment

descriptor. Verify it to check for errors.

When you compile the project you will get the following error

message:

Compiler error message

JBuilder tells us that according to the EJB 1.1 Specification we

have to provide a different return type, that is, the primary key

class, so we change the source code accordingly in

CountryBean.java

"EJBCountryGroup.ejbgrpx": Entity Bean: "CountryBean"

Invalid bean method return type: expected:entitybean.CountryKeyactual: void in method:

public void entitybean.CountryBean

.ejbCreate(java.lang.String)

throws java.rmi.RemoteException,javax.ejb.CreateException

public CountryKey ejbCreate(java.lang.String argCountry)

throws javax.ejb.CreateException,

java.rmi.RemoteException {

_initLinks();

// All CMP fields should be initialized here.

country = argCountry;

currency = "";

return new CountryKey(country);

The ejbCreate method has to return an instance of the key class

}

When you rebuild your project you should not receive more

error messages. Deploy the entity bean to the Borland

Enterprise Server as shown in the previous chapter.

JBuilder™

If you switch to the Borland Enterprise Server Console you will

see the deployed entity bean next to the session bean we

deployed in the previous chapter.

The Borland Enterprise Server console showing the two deployed EJB

As before, we want to create a test application using the JBuilder

test client tool. Accordingly, we have to repeat the steps for

generating an EJB Test Client as discussed in the previous

section. We don't want to create a GUI application this time,

however. Instead, we generate a main method and enter the two

lines below to get a row of data from the country table. Then

we’ll want to get the contents of the column named "Currency."

T

Now you may start the test client application in JBuilder. You

should see the following results:

The entity bean at work

ConclusionWe hope this paper is helpful to those evaluating JBuilder and

VisualAge for Java and to those planning to migrate existing

applications to the JBuilder environment. Whether you are

building GUI applications, applets, database applications, or

EJBs, JBuilder provides tools to simplify Java application

development and deployment, including integration with leading

application servers such as Borland Enterprise Server and IBM

WebSphere. For more information on JBuilder, please visit our

Web site at www.borland.com/jbuilder.

10 0 S co twww

public static void main(String[] args) {

…

client.findByPrimaryKey("USA"); client.getCurrency(); }

21

he entity bean at work

Made BorlanCorpoof Suntradem

E n te r p r i se W ayts V a l l ey , CA 95 0 66 -3 2 49. b o r l a nd .c om | 83 1 -4 3 1- 10 0 0

-- Initializing bean access.

-- Succeeded initializing bean access.


-- Calling findByPrimaryKey(ejbtest.entity.EJBEntityK ...

-- Succeeded: findByPrimaryKey(ejbtest.entity.EJBEnti ...


-- Return value from findByPrimaryKey(ejbtest.entity. ...

-- Calling getCurrency()

-- Succeeded: getCurrency()


-- Return value from getCurrency(): Dollar.

in Borland® Copyright © 2002 Borland Software Corporation. All rights reserved. Alld brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of Borland Softwareration in the United States and other countries. Java is a trademark or registered trademark Microsystems, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. CORBA is a trademark or registeredark of Object Management Group, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. 12729

http://www.borland.com/jbuilder

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