Oracle reuses biz logic

by Maggie Biggs

December 14, 2000 —

JAVA development teams tasked with building and deploying applications often
find that the construction of business logic consumes an inordinate amount of time.
Organizations that can reduce the time spent on this construction phase will find
sizable cost savings quite achievable.

Oracle's JDeveloper 3.0 goes a long way toward speeding the pace of building
business-logic components. A newly included Extensible Markup Language-based framework -
- Oracle Business Components for Java -- makes initial component creation far easier
than conventional methods.

In addition, developers can use the Oracle-supplied framework to reuse components
to rapidly create composite applications. This support enables JDeveloper customers to
respond more proactively to changing market conditions, which may provide a competitive
edge over corporate rivals.

Java developers who are familiar with Inprise's JBuilder will feel right at home
with JDeveloper. Under the hood, JDeveloper is built upon technology licensed from
Inprise that Oracle has augmented in order to simplify the development of data-related
Java applications.

Organizations that already use Oracle technology, such as Oracle databases or the
Oracle Application Server, will find JDeveloper neatly integrates with these products.
Although applications created with JDeveloper are not limited to Oracle-related
deployments, the greatest developer productivity boost will be felt at sites that are
already leveraging Oracle solutions.

I found JDeveloper easy to set up and use, though at times the development
interface was rather sluggish. Those who purchase JDeveloper can expect lower developer
training expenditures compared to some rival developmeent tools. Oracle has provided
useful graphical tools that should be a welcome relief for less experienced developers
while also providing helpful low-level coding interfaces for more knowledgeable
developers.

JDeveloper is available only as part of the JDeveloper Suite, which also includes
other Oracle products such as Oracle8i, Oracle Application Server, and Oracle8i Lite.
This is a good solution for sites that have not yet chosen a database or application
server for electronic-business projects. However, existing Oracle customers may find
they are required to buy unnecessary product licenses to get JDeveloper.

Like rivals such as IBM, Symantec, and Inprise (see our Test Center Comparison of
integrated Java development environments, December 13, 1999), Oracle's JDeveloper can
be used to easily build general-purpose Java applications. For example, I found it
simple to create and deploy several test applications on various Enterprise JavaBeans-
capable application servers I had on hand. However, I found JDeveloper's facilities
best suited to Oracle8i and Oracle Application Server deployments.

I found JDeveloper's Oracle Business Components for Java framework particularly
compelling. Building my test applications was very straightforward; I was able to build
business-logic components as well as to create view objects, which enabled me to join,
filter, and sort my data as needed. I found the framework particularly flexible because
I was able to use it when I chose to or override it when necessary.

This latest release of JDeveloper adds support for Java Server Pages (JSPs). The
included tools make creation, debugging, and deployment of JSPs really easy. In
particular, I liked the fact that Oracle includes a JSP run-time engine with
JDeveloper. I used the JSP run-time engine to launch and debug my JSPs, which sped up
my development process.

JDeveloper is a good investment for new customers as well as existing Oracle sites
that want to rapidly build and deploy Java applications. The included tools will speed
up initial development, and the support for business-logic reuse will make it easier
for companies to build composite applications over time.

Organizations that are evaluating Java development tools will want to include
JDeveloper in their list of potential solutions.

InfoWorld