Rational Business Developer
Rational Business Developer (RBD) provides a workbench for Enterprise Generation Language (EGL) development, an end-to-end rapid development approach.
 | |
 Rational Business Developer | |
| Developer(s) | Rational Software |
|---|---|
| Initial release | ? |
| Written in | ? |
| Available in | English |
| License | IBM EULA |
| Website | RBD Product page |
Overview
Rational Business Developer (RBD) is an Integrated development environment (IDE) developed by the IBM Rational Software division that provides Eclipse based tools for development of cross platform applications and services using EGL.
Target platforms
EGL is a business oriented programming language which can be learned by programmers of any background and that shields them from the technical interfaces of systems and middleware allowing them to focus on building business functionality. EGL programs or services are written, tested and debugged at the EGL source level, and once they are satisfactorily functionally tested they can be generated into either COBOL or Java code for compilation and deployment to the following target runtime environments:
- Microsoft Windows, Linux, Unix running JVM or a Java EE application server
- IBM System z9: CICS, Batch, Unix System Services, Linux, WebSphere Application Server
- IBM System i: i5OS, WebSphere Application Server
Rational Business Developer enables development of browser based applications, business services (deployable as private services or web services), graphical user interface applications, batch applications and reports that access and manipulate data stored and managed in any relational database and file system that runs on the supported target platforms.
Integration with existing IDEs
Rational Business Developer can install as a standalone product or jointly with any of the following IBM Rational products
- Rational Application Developer (RAD)
- Rational Software Architect
- Rational Developer for System z
- Rational Developer for System i
Included tools
These extend the base programming workbench and tools offered by these products with EGL cross platform rapid development tools. The tools include:
- Ability to create, generated and deploy services
- Ability to consume services and web services
- Integration with Java Server Faces visual development tools
- Eclipse-based IDE with editing, code templates, code completion, refactoring, browsing, searching, etc.
- EGL source debugging
- Automated EGL applications and services generation from UML models or data schemas
- Inter-operability with any existing local or remote programs written in any language.
Benefits
The benefits of using Rational Business Developer include:
- Higher development productivity through the platform-neutral, business-oriented specification and rapid development tools and wizards
- Simplified Service-oriented architecture (SOA) support: The Enterprise Generation Language (EGL) language includes the notion of Service, and Rational Business Developer delivers the tools for defining, testing and deploying the service to all supported platforms, including automated Services generation from models.
- End-to-end Web application development
- Ability to deploy applications and services to platforms, including Java EE application servers as well as traditional mainframe transactional environments such as System z’s CICS or System i’s i5OS
- Legacy extension and modernization: EGL built-in interoperability with COBOL, RPG, PL/I or any other existing program enables reuse of existing investments into new services or web systems without the need for special adapters.