Preface


The iPlanet Application Builder 6.0 User's Guide describes how to use the application builder tool. This manual is intended for the software developer, but can be used by anyone involved in application development; including application integrators, administrators, and release engineers.

This manual assumes some understanding of the iPlanet Application Server^TM, the Solaris^TM operating environment and UNIX® commands, and the Windows NT operating system.

Multiplatform Release

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This iPlanet Application Builder 6.0 release supports versions 2.6 and 8 of the Solaris ^TM SPARC^TM Platform Edition, the Solaris Intel Platform Edition, and the Windows NT operating environments.

How This Book Is Organized

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Chapter 1, "Desigining Applications," presents the design logic and application planning needed in developing a well designed application.

Chapter 2, "Setting Application Builder Options," describes how to set and change the iPlanet Application Builder options.

Chapter 3, "Creating and Managing Projects," provides step-by-step instructions on how to create, edit, and build a project.

Chapter 4, "Creating Data Access Logic," describes the concepts and tasks for creating a model of your data source.

Chapter 5, "Creating Presentation Logic," describes the concepts and tasks associated with creating .the presentation logic for web aplications and describes how the use the Java Editor and Properties window to customize servlets.

Chapter 6, "Creating Presentation Layout," describes how to create the pages that make up your application user interface.

Chapter 7, "Creating Business Logic.describes how to create Enterprise Java Beans.

Chapter 8, "Using Wizards to Generate Project Files," describes the code generation wizards that help you perform common tasks associated with building an iPlanet application.

Chapter 9, "Compiling, Testing, and Debugging Applications," gives a brief overview of the steps required to successfully build, test, and debug your application.

Chapter 10, "Deploying and Downloading Applications," describes deploying the finished product onto one or more iPlanet Application Servers.

Chapter 11, "Working with Source Control," describes how to configure the source code control and share the settings among your programmers.

Appendix A, "Component Reference," identifies each of the reusable components available with the application builder.

Appendix B, "Using the Application Builder with Third-Party Tools," describes the interoperability considerations for using the application builder with third-party tools.

Appendix C, "Using Existing Projects with iPlanet Application Builder," describes how you can use projects from an earlier application server release with the application builder 6.0 release.

The Glossary defines terms that may be unfamiliar to application builder users.

The graphic images in this manual are on the NT platform. UNIX image displays may appear slightly different.

Typographic Conventions

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File and directory paths are provided in Windows NT format (with backslashes separating directory names). For UNIX versions, the directory paths are the same, except the slashes are used, instead of the backslashes, to separate directories.

URLs are used in the form http://server.domain/path/file.html

Where:

• server is the name of the server where you are running the application.

• domain is your internet domain name.

• path is the directory structure on the server.

• file is an individual filename.

The following table shows the typographic conventions used throughout the iPlanet documentation.

Table 1 Typographic Conventions 

Typeface	Meaning	Examples
AaBbCc123	The names of files, directories, sample code, and code listings; and HTML tags	Open Hello.html file. <HEAD1> creates a top heading.
AaBbCc123	Book titles, variables and placeholders, words to be emphasized; words used in the literal sense	Read Chapter 8of the Programmer's Guide. Enter your UserID. Enter Login in the Name field.
AaBbCc123	glossary terms	Templates are page outlines.

Related Documentation

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You can access documentation about the iPlanet Application Server (iAS) and iPlanet Application Builder (iAB) in the following ways:

• Through the Internet at the iplanet.com Web site at:
  http://docs.iplanet.com/docs/manuals

• Through the installed iPlanet Application Server on your local system or network. Open the installdir/ias/docs/index.htm, where installdir is the directory in which you installed the iPlanet Application Server. From there, you can locate the documentation for the iPlanet Application Builder.

The following table lists related iPlanet manuals by the task you are trying to perform.

Table 2 Related iPlanet Manuals 

For information about	See the following	Shipped with
Late-breaking information about the software and documentation	readme.html	iAS 6.0 Developer Edition
Installing the Application Server and its components, and configuring the sample applications	Installation Guide	iAS 6.0
Installing the Application Builder	install.html	iAB 6.0
iAs features , such as the components, general capabilities, and system architecture	Overview	iAS 6.0
Deploying the Application Server at your site, by performing the following tasks: Planning your Application Server environment Integrating the product within your existing enterprise and network topology Developing server capacity and performance goals Running stress tests to measure server performance Fine-tuning the server to improve performance	Deployment Guide	iAS 6.0
Administering one or more application servers using the Application Server Administrator tool to perform the following tasks: Deploying applications with the Deployment Manager tool Monitoring and logging server activity Setting up users and groups Administering database connectivity Administering transactions Load balancing servers Managing distributed data synchronization	Administration Guide	iAS 6.0
Migrating your applications to the new iPlanet Application Server 6.0 programming model from version 2.1, and 4.0; including a sample migration of an Online Bank application provided with the Application Server	Migration Guide	iAS and iAB 6.0
Creating iAS 6.0 applications within an integrated development environment by performing the following tasks: Creating and managing projects Using wizards Creating data-access logic Creating presentation logic and layout Creating business logic Compiling, testing, and debugging applications Deploying and downloading applications Working with source control Using third-party tools	User's Guide	iAB 6.0
Creating iAS 6.0 applications that follow the J2EE standard (Servlets, EJBs, JSPs, and JDBC), by performing the following tasks: Creating the presentation and execution layers of an application Placing discrete pieces of business logic and entities into Enterprise Java Bean (EJB) components Using JDBC to communicate with databases Using iterative testing, debugging, and application fine-tuning procedures to generate applications that execute correctly and quickly	Programmer's Guide (Java)	iAS 6.0
Using the public classes and interfaces, and their methods in the iPlanet Application Server class library to write Java applications	Server Foundation Class Reference (Java)	iAS and iAB 6.0
Creating iAS C++ applications using the iAS class library by performing the following tasks: Designing applications Writing AppLogics Creating HTML templates Creating queries Running and debugging applications	Programmer's Guide (C++)	Order separately
Using the public classes and interfaces, and their methods in the iPlanet Application Server class library to write C++ applications	Server Foundation Class Reference (C++)	Order separately