What is Visual Application Builder?

The Visual Application Builder is a set of WebSphere® Studio plug-ins that allow even non-expert programmers to quickly develop browser-based/J2EE applications and application templates that target various devices. The model-based Rapid Application Development (RAD) environment allows easy building of form-based applications that interface with data from various sources, such as RDB and Web services. It allows the use of one project to generate code for various target platforms and for new technologies that will evolve.

With the Visual Application Builder, application design is done at a high level of abstraction, using a visual interface, without writing code and without getting into low-level architectural issues. The tool allows the development of all application layers: user interactions, application flow, business logic, and data sources (such as DB2, Web Services) at an abstract level, releasing the developer from the J2EE complexity. It can serve as an integration tool for various back-end data sources and organization (such as DB2, CICS, IMS).

While developing the application, the developer sees information about its validity and can preview its flow and its look and feel. Once the application is designed, the developer can invoke code generation to get a viable application, ready for deployment. The generators can be extended and new ones can be added to the environment. Currently, HTML, XHTML-MP, and portlet-related artifacts are generated; this provides powerful support for application design reuse.

How does it work?

The Visual Application Builder has been extended into a Visual Template Builder, which provides an environment for the design of application templates. This allows the reuse of applications, such as electronic catalogs, online shops, address books, that share basic features. Such reuse is done through a simple, wizard-directed configuration process using the Template Application Wizard, which is delivered with the various WebSphere Studio products.

The Builder is started by opening the RAD perspective and creating a new Visual Application Builder project. The user can easily get started by using the downloadable sample applications, the demo, the Application Builder cheatsheet (delivered with the Builder), or the standard Help.

What is new in the 5.1 version?

This driver is updated to work on top of WebSphere Studio 5.1. It is based on WebSphere Studio Workbench 2.1 and introduces the look and feel of the Graphical Editing Framework (GEF). Undo functionality is fully supported now. The database connection dialog box allows specification of various filters for accessing a subset of database elements. The new version also includes some defect fixes and performance improvements.