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Running Sample Applications
Sun has provided several sample applications that are simple to use and come with a lot of documentation. Going through the sample applications is an excellent way to get a feel of JSF and JSC. Java Studio Creator Early Access 2 comes loaded with three sample applications:
- JAAS Authentication
- Jump Start Cycles
- Travel Center
To run one of these applications, select File—>New Project from the main menu, choose "Samples" as the category and the name of the sample app you want to test. The rest is similar to starting a new application. After the wizard closes, chose Run—>Run Main Application from the main menu to start the demo.
The User Interface
The user-interface is very intuitive and easy to use. Java newbies should be able to develop a production-ready application with little effort. The help and samples are very helpful for novices. Developers who have been working on Visual Basic and other Microsoft technologies will find themselves at ease with JSC.
Custom Development Architecture/Technology: The JSC is not very suited for migrating custom development. I tried to import an existing Web application that had a lot of style sheets and custom code that used a custom framework. JSC imported all the JSP pages and helped to integrate the style sheets with some effort. JavaScript code was smoothly integrated too, but when it came to integrating with the busniness classes, a lot of work had to be done in the JSP code and the helper classes. I felt it was better done on a regular Java IDE like Eclipse or JBuilder. The problem intensifies if the applications has interactions with disparate data sources like XML and flat files.
JSC is an excellent tool for small- and medium-sized applications that don't have to interact with complicated data structures. It may be helpful with big applications, but only if they are developed in JSC from scratch. In the case of bigger applications, maintainability could become a problem, as JSC generates a lot of code.
Performance
The RAM requirements for the Windows/Linux version are 512MB, while that for Unix/Solaris is 1GB. Just like any IDE, JSC consumes a good amount of RAM. Here are the results of two case studies that I ran on two machines:
- System One, P4 3GHz HT, 512MB RAM, Windows XP, 12GB HDD: Build and deploy time was on an average 41/2 minutes (using Sun's sample projects).
- System Two, P4 1.6GHz, 640MB RAM, Windows 2000, 80GB: Build and deploy time was on an average six-eight minutes (also using Sun's sample projects). Sometimes, it took more than fifteen minutes.
Compiling and packaging time on both machines was always less than ten seconds.
These tests show that the performance of the IDE needs to be improved. Though the numbers aren't bad compared to other IDEs, like Eclipse, they do lag behind. The performance degradation can, perhaps, be attributed to fact that JSC uses heavy components. Looks like low-performance is a price you will have to pay for an easy, drag-and-drop development environment.
Integration with Version Control
Any good IDE should be able to work with various version control systems and Java Studio Creator provides integration with VSS and CVS. To be able to use version control capabilities, you will first need to assign a repository and a working directory. You can do this using the Versioning Manager wizard, which is provided as part of JSC. JSC does not support other popular version control softwares like Subversion, ClearCase, StarTeam, TeamWare etc. However NetBeans, another Java IDE from Sun, supports all these version control systems through a generic VCS module. Since JSC is based on NetBeans, you can expect the same support for the version control systems mentioned above in the future.
Integration with Other Software
The JSC integrates with any Java-based, third-party API. Just include the API in the classpath and call the methods in the API as you would call any business class. JSC should display all the public classes and their public methods. You can access any of the classes and methods directly from the JSP page and the IDE would show the parameters required and the return type of the method. JSC will write the logic to access the method with the specified parameters.
Java Studio Creator's Strengths
- Easy to use: The IDE was very intuitive and easy to use. Using the IDE requires a little experience with Java, JSP, and databases. Experience in JSF was not required to understand and use the IDE.
- Built-in components: The IDE comes with a wide range of useful components you'd use in any Java application. Most Java developers spend a lot of time writing routine functions like Calendars, Paginators, and Rowsets. With JSC, you can just drag and drop the required components into the JSP page and JSC automatically generates its associated code.
- Built-in Http Monitor: This is great tool—very helpful in debugging HTTP requests and in monitoring JSP page performance.
- Support for Existing EJBs and Web Services: JSC provides a visual medium to integrate with Web services, EJBs, and business classes. This abstracts the UI developer from the complexity of the business layer.
- Debugger: JSC's built-in JSP debugger is very helpful—especially when developers have to find.
Java Studio Creator's Weaknesses
- No Profiling Support: Having a basic profiling tool embedded in the IDE would be helpful to find memory leaks and other potential problems during the development process. It would also allow users to gauge application performance during development.
- Lack of Integration with Modeling Tools: Most IDEs have some integration with modeling tools like Rational Rose, TogetherJ, etc. At the very least, having a plug-in to interface with modeling tools would very helpful.
- Deployment: JSC only has direct built-in deployment support to Sun One Application server. Most IDEs have, at least, plug-ins to deploy directly to popular application servers like Weblogic, WebShpere, and Tomcat.
The Pros and Cons
Choosing whether to use Java Studio Creator as your Java IDE is a matter of weighing the pros and cons. The interface is easy and you don't need to be a Java guru to get an application up and running. However, due to the difficulties JSC has interacting with complicated data structures, it's probably better to choose JSC only when you're developing simpler, smaller applications.
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