Documentation Roadmap

By utilizing standardized, open source frameworks such as Eclipse and Beehive, BEA Workshop for WebLogic integrates a standard robust basic IDE platform with BEA's proprietary web development productivity features. However this provides a challenge for documentation delivery, since each component provides its own documentation and the Workshop for WebLogic documentation does not duplicate information located elsewhere.

While documentation is available on the Internet for various components used by Workshop for WebLogic, we recommend that you first consult the documentation shipped with the product. The document set shipped with Workshop for WebLogic is specific to the versions of the software components that are integrated into your version of the product.

Documentation within the IDE (Eclipse and Workshop for WebLogic)

The online documentation is available by clicking Help > Help Contents from the Workshop for WebLogic window.

Note: See below for information on launching help in standalone mode.

The documentation for Workshop for WebLogic is also available online at http://www.oracle.com/technology/documentation/index.html. Different versions of documentation are provided, so be sure to check your software version before consulting the web site.

If you are just getting started with Workshop for WebLogic, we recommend that you start with workbench documentation. Then review the BEA Workshop for WebLogic Programmer's Guide, especially the tutorials.

The BEA Workshop for WebLogic Platform User's Guide is divided into the following major sections:

Common IDE Tasks

This section of the manual describes how to get around the IDE:

• Navigation, screen layout
• Building applications, running/testing and debugging
• Defining, using and managing the test server

Upgrading Applications from WebLogic Workshop 8.1

Documentation for the upgrade wizard that converts applications from WebLogic Workshop 8.1 to BEA Workshop for WebLogic Platform 10.0. Since some upgrade requirements cannot be automated, this section of the manual also provides a detailed description of deprecated features and techniques for updating applications.

Web Applications

This section of the manual describes how to develop web applications using page flows. Page flows allow you to separate presentation from business logic by integrating JSP files with a Java controller that maintains state information as the user navigates through JSPs.

Web Services

This section of the manual describes how to develop web services. Web services facilitate Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) by automating the process of service implementation.

Controls

This section of the manual describes how to develop controls. Controls provide an object model for access to web services and resources. Controls are implemented as annotated classes that provide for standardized resource access or encapsulation of business logic.

Enterprise Java Beans

This section of the manual describes how to develop Enterprise Java Beans (EJBs) with Workshop for WebLogic.

Designing Asynchronous Interfaces

This section of the manual details building web services that are not synchronous ("conversational") and other asynchronous applications.

Beehive Documentation for Java 5 Annotations

Beehive provides extensive PDF and HTML documentation for the controls and annotations used within Workshop for WebLogic to build web applications, web services and EJBs.

The Beehive documents are available locally.

This documentation is also available on the Internet at http://beehive.apache.org.

Java, J2EE and EJB Documentation

The Sun website (http://sun.com) has extensive documentation on:

• Java (http://java.sun.com)
• Enterprise Java Beans (EJBs) (http://java.sun.com/ejb)
• J2EE (http://java.sun.com/javaee)
• Java 5 Annotations (http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/java/javaOO/annotations.html, http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/guide/language/annotations.html)

and a great deal more.

Using Help in a Standalone Mode

You might find it useful to launch Workshop for WebLogic help in a standalone mode. For example, due to a characteristic of Eclipse (on which Workshop for WebLogic is built), restarting the IDE by default causes links in an already open help browser to become unavailable after restart. You can have help functionality that's uninterrupted by IDE restarts by launching help in a mode that uses a standalone help server installed with the IDE.

To start standalone help

1. At the command line execute the following. (Execute this command on a single line; it is broken into multiple lines here for readability.)

   BEA_HOME\jdk150_06\bin\java -classpath BEA_HOME\workshop_10.0\eclipse\plugins\org.eclipse.help.base_3.2.1.R321_v20060822.jar 
       org.eclipse.help.standalone.Infocenter 
       -command start 
       -eclipsehome BEA_HOME\workshop_10.0\eclipse 
       -port 7034
       -noexec

2. Open a web browser and go to the following URL:

   http://localhost:7034/help/index.jsp

To shut down standalone help

• At the command line execute the following. (Again, execute this command on a single line.)

  BEA_HOME\jdk150_06\bin\java -classpath BEA_HOME\workshop_10.0\eclipse\plugins\org.eclipse.help.base_3.2.1.R321_v20060822.jar 
      org.eclipse.help.standalone.Infocenter 
      -command shutdown 
      -eclipsehome BEA_HOME\workshop_10.0\eclipse 
      -port 7034
      -noexec

  Note that after you shut down the help server, links in the help browser will be unavailable until you restart the server.