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Application Composer shows promise

WebGain tool takes a smart approach to component-based Java development but hits a few sour notes

By Todd E. Sundsted, InfoWorld, 07/26/01

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. What's this?
Component-based Web and enterprise application development has been a dream of forward-looking managers and technology leaders for years. In this dream, developers assemble powerful applications from prebuilt, pretested components. Development happens faster, introduces fewer bugs, and produces better software.

WebGain Application Composer, the development tool previously known as Spin, attempts to make this dream a reality. And it does a better job than you might expect for a 1.0 release. Application Composer's support for EJBs and JavaBeans, and its approach to integrating Java Server Pages (JSPs), Servlets, applications, and applets, almost led us to give it a score of Very Good. However, its lack of Swing user interface support and failure to integrate with source-code control software limited it to a score of Good.

The Bottom Line

WebGain Application Composer 1.0

Business Case
The potential benefits of component-based software development include greater code reuse, fewer defects, and reduced maintenance cost and effort. Combined with proper up-front planning by senior members of the technical team, this tool can help developers realize these potential benefits. Technology Case
WebGain Application Composer provides a uniform approach to building component-based applications with Java, EJBs, JSPs, servlets, and JavaBeans. It presents programmers with a component paradigm that encompasses all of these Java technologies and allows them to graphically assemble applications. Pros
  • Isn't based on a proprietary framework and language
  • Assembles reusable components with minimal coding
  • Supports JavaBeans and EJB component models
  • Solid deployment support
Cons
  • Lacks support for Swing user interface
  • Does not integrate with source-code control applications
Cost
,992 per developer Platforms
Windows NT, Windows 2000 WebGain, Santa Clara, Calif.; (408) 517-3700, www.webgain.com


A bundle of features

Rather than provide a proprietary toolkit and framework and ask developers to build applications with it, Application Composer starts with standards-based technologies such as Java, JavaBeans, servlets, JSPs, and EJBs. Application Composer solves the difficult problem of integrating components built with these technologies by introducing an assembly process based on the notions of behaviors and events.

In Application Composer's scheme, components, also known as agents, have behaviors; events generated internally or externally invoke those behaviors to carry out the business operations of the application. In other words, behaviors provide the procedural glue that ties together the components of an Application Composer application.

It's easy to import existing work into Application Composer. Existing HTML pages, images, and other static content can be added directly into a project via the Project|Add menu in the Project window. Once added, the content is accessible to other components in the project. EJBs also can be imported into your projects. Application Composer uses JavaBeans to construct a user interface to access imported EJBs, and the interface methods of imported EJBs remain accessible within the tool. But most other components must be created within Application Composer.


For more enterprise computing news, visit InfoWorld. Story copyright InfoWorld Media Group, Inc.

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