WebSphere Studio Application Developer Version 5 Programming Guide part 6 pptx

By using the -data parameter you can start a second instance of Application Developer that uses a different workspace.. If a file path is not given, the platform looks in the directory t

By using the -data parameter you can start a second instance of Application Developer that uses a different workspace To start a new instance of Application Developer, start Application Developer with the -data workspacePath parameter For example, if your second instance should use the NewWorkspace workspace folder, you can launch Application Developer with this command (this assumes Application Developer has been installed in the default installation directory): c:\Program Files\IBM\WebSphere Studio\wsappdev.exe -data c:\NewWorkspace There are a number of parameters that you can add when launching Application Developer (Table 2-1)

Table 2-1 Startup parameters

-data workspacedirectory Start Application Developer with a specific workspace -configuration

configurationFileURL

The location for the platform configuration file, expressed as a URL The configuration file determines the location of the platform, the set of available plug-ins, and the primary feature Note that relative URLs are not allowed The configuration file is written to this location when Application Developer is installed or updated -vm vmPath This optional option allows you to set the location of Java

Runtime Environment (JRE) to use to run Application Developer Relative paths are interpreted relative to the directory that Eclipse was started from

-vmargs -Xmx256M For large-scale development you should modify your VM

arguments to make more heap available This example allows the Java heap to grow to 256MB This may not be enough for large projects

-debug [optionsFileURL] Puts the platform in debug mode and loads the debug

options from the file at the given URL, if specified This file indicates which debug points are available for a plug-in and whether or not they are enabled If a file path

is not given, the platform looks in the directory that Application Developer was started from for a file called

".options" Note that relative URLs are not allowed -consolelog Mirrors the Eclipse platform's error log to the console

used to run Eclipse Handy when combined with -debug -setworkspace This flag forces Application Developer to display a

prompt dialog for selecting of the workspace directory

Setting the workspace with a prompt dialog

If you specify the flag -setworkspace, Application Developer displays a startup dialog for selecting the workspace directory (Figure 2-2)

Figure 2-2 Select workspace

Do not select the check box Use this workspace as the default , otherwise you are not prompted again

All other startup parameters are described in Application Developer’s help facility

Memory consideration

Use the -vmargs flag to set limits to the memory that is used by Application Developer

For example, with only 512 MB RAM you may be able to get better performance

by limiting the memory:

-vmargs -Xmx150M

You can also modify VMArgs initialization parameters in the wsappdev.ini file (in the installation directory):

VMArgs=-Xms64M -Xmx150M -Xquickstart -Xgcpolicy:optavgpause

These arguments significantly limit the memory utilization Setting the -Xmx argument below 150M does begin to degrade performance

For more information on memory management for the built-in WebSphere server, see “Environment page” on page 547

Tip: If you want to work with multiple workspaces create a duplicate startup

icon for Application Developer and use the -data flag to point to the

workspace

Application Developer’s log files

Application Developer provides logging facilities for plug-in developers to log and trace important events, primarily expected or unexpected errors Log files are a crucial part of the Application Developer problem determination process

The only reason to use log files is if you encounter unexpected program behavior

In some cases, an error message tells you explicitly to look at the error log There are two main log files in the metadata directory of the workspace folder:

򐂰 log—The log file is used by the Workbench to capture errors, and any uncaught exceptions from plug-ins The log file is cumulative, each new session of Application Developer appends its messages to the end of the log file without deleting any previous messages This enables you to see a history

of past messages over multiple Application Developer sessions, each one starting with the !SESSION string

򐂰 LoggingUtil.log—The LoggingUtil.log file is provided by the Application Developer specific tools (a set of plug-ins added on top of the Workbench) The Application Developer plug-ins use LoggingUtil.log to log various events, errors, and caught exceptions through a logging API

Both log files are ASCII files and can be viewed with any text editor

Preferences

Application Developer’s preferences can be modified by selecting Window -> Preferences from the menu bar Opening the preferences displays the dialog shown in Figure 2-3

In the left pane you can navigate through many entries Each entry has its own preferences page, where you can change the initial options

This section describes the most important options Application Developer’s help manual contains a complete description of all options available in the preferences dialogs

Tip: Each page of Application Developer’s preferences dialog contains a

Restore Defaults button When you click this button, Application Developer restores the settings of the current dialog to its initial values

Figure 2-3 Workbench preferences

Automatic builds

By default, builds in Application Developer are done automatically whenever a resource has been modified and saved If you require more control regarding builds you can disable the auto-building feature To perform a build you have to explicitly start it This may be a desirable in cases where you know that building is

of no value until you finish a large set of changes

If you want to turn off the automatic build feature, select Windows -> Preferences -> Workbench and deselect the Perform build automatically on resource

modification check box (see previous Figure 2-3)

In this dialog you can also specify whether or not you want unsaved resources to

be saved before performing a manual build Check the Save all modified resources automatically prior to manual build check box to enable this feature

File associations

The File Associations preferences page (Figure 2-4) enables you to add or remove file types recognized by the Workbench You can also associate editors

or external programs with file types in the file types list

Figure 2-4 File associations preferences The top right pane allows you to add and remove the file types The bottom right pane allows you to add or remove the associated editors

If you want to add, for example, the Internet Explorer as an additional program to open your gif files, select *.gif from the file types list and click Add next to the associated editors pane

A new dialog opens (Figure 2-5) where you have to select the External Programs option, then click Browse and select iexplore.exe from the folder where Internet Explorer is installed and confirm the dialog with Open

Figure 2-5 File association editor selection Confirm the Editor Selection dialog with OK and you will notice that the program has been added to the editors list Optionally you can set this program as the default program for this file type by clicking Default

Now you can open the file by using the context menu on the file and select Open With and select the appropriate program

Local history

A local edit history of a file is maintained when you create or modify a file A copy

is saved each time you edit and save the file This allows you to replace the current file with a previous edit or even restore a deleted file You can also compare the content of all the local edits Each edit in the local history is uniquely represented by the data and time the file has been saved

Note: Only files have local history Projects and folders do not have a local

history

To compare a file with the local history, select Compare With -> Local History from its context menu To replace a file with an edit from the local history, select Replace With -> Local History from its context menu

Select Window -> Preferences -> Workbench -> Local History to open its preferences page (Figure 2-6)

Figure 2-6 Local history preferences Table 2-2 explains the options for the local history preferences

Table 2-2 Local history settings

Days to keep files Indicates for how many days you want to maintain changes

in the local history History state older than this value will be lost

Entries per file This option indicates how many history states per file you

want to maintain in the local history If you exceed this value, you will lose older history to make room for new history Maximum file size (MB) Indicates the maximum size of individual states in the history

store If a file is over this size, it will not be stored

Perspectives preferences

The Perspectives preferences page enables you to manage the various perspectives defined in the Workbench To open the page, click Window -> Preferences -> Workbench -> Perspectives (Figure 2-7)

Figure 2-7 Perspectives preferences Here you can change the following options:

򐂰 Open a new perspective in the same or in a new window

򐂰 Open a new view within the perspective or as a fast view (docked to the side

of the current perspective)

򐂰 Open a new project in the same window, in a new window or do not switch the perspective

There is also a list with all available perspectives where you can select the default perspective If you have added one or more customized perspectives you can delete them here if you want to

Internet preferences

When using Application Developer and working within an intranet, you may want

to use a proxy server to get across the firewall to access the Internet

To be able to access the Internet from Application Developer, you have to set preferences for the HTTP proxy server within the Workbench You can do this by clicking Window -> Preferences and selecting Internet (Figure 2-8)

Figure 2-8 Internet preferences

Java development preferences

Application Developer provides a number of coding preferences Some of these are described in this section Chapter 5, “Developing Java applications” on page 93 also provides information regarding these preferences and Java coding

Java classpath variables

Application Developer provides a number of default classpath variables

classpath variables can be used in a Java build path to avoid a reference to the local file system Using a variable entry, the classpath only contains a variable This is a good idea when developing within a team as the team members do not have to change their directory structure

Depending on the type of Java coding you plan to do, you may have to add variables pointing to other code libraries For example, this can be driver classes

to access relational databases or locally developed code that you would like to reuse in other projects

Once you have created a Java project, you can add any of these variables to the project’s classpath Chapter 5, “Developing Java applications” on page 93 provides more information on adding classpath variables to a Java project

To view and change the default classpath variables, click Window -> Preferences and select Java -> Classpath Variables from the list A list of the existing

classpath variables is displayed as shown in Figure 2-9

You can create, edit and remove variables by using this dialog Click New to add

a new variable A new dialog comes up where you have to enter the name of the variable and specify its path and file