Rational Business Developer 9.6 is now available. This is the first major release after RBD is partnered with HCL. This release contains many new features and customer requested enhancements across the various technologies within the product. It also includes fixes from previous releases. For more information on each enhancement, see the "What's new in Rational Business Developer V9.6" section of the RBD Knowledge Center.
New capabilities that are introduced in RBD v9.6 as below
New OS Version Support
z/OS 2.3 Support: Rational Business Developer V9.6 supports z/OS 2.3. For more details on changes in IBM z/OS V2R3.0, refer to IBM z/OS V2.3 documentation.
IBM i 7.3 Support: Rational Business Developer V9.6 supports IBM i 7.3. For more details on IBM i 7.3, refer to IBM i 7.3 documentation.
New Supported Software
The following Software versions are now supported by Rational Business Developer, starting from V9.6:
• Websphere Application Server 9.0
• Apache Tomcat versions 8.5 and 9.0
• CICS Transaction Gateway 9.2
• CICS Transaction Server for z/OS 5.5
Language Enhancements
JSON Generate and JSON Parse support in COBOLGen:
These are two new functions supported in this change, complying to COBOL version 6.2. The upgraded version of COBOL V6.2 should be used for these two new functions. For detailed information on the usage of JSON PARSE and JSON GENERATE, see the new Cheat Sheet 'JSON Generation and Parsing', which has been included in RBD version 9.6 Product Help.
REST service invocation via CICS:
EGL CICS applications can now invoke REST services. Detailed steps can be found in the new Cheat Sheet 'Create a REST Service Client for CICS', which has been included in RBD version 9.6 Product Help. Following are a few points to be noted :
• Only stateless invocations are supported.
• Request and response data are limited to 32KB.
• The following serviceLib function is supported: setHttpBasicAuthentication(). You must specify a service variable defined with the @BindService annotation. For more information, see setHTTPBasicAuthentication()
• The latest PTF for Rational COBOL Runtime For zSeries is required when using setHttpBasicAuthentication() with REST service variables.
SOAP 1.2 support:
EGL Services can now be invoked using SOAP 1.2 messages. This can be set as the default SOAP version in the EGL Service preferences page. For more information, see Setting preferences for service generation.
Support for Japanese new era in Java generation:
Rational Business Developer version 9.6 supports the Japanese new era for date format.
Rich UI Enhancements
Responsive Design Support:
RBD 9.6 supports Bootstrap 4 and Ionic 4 frameworks. New EGL widgets have been added to support responsive design. For more information, see Responsive Design Support in RBD
Rich UI Password Text Field placeholder:
RBD v9.6 supports a new widget 'DojoPasswordTextField' to provide a unified look and feel, for password fields in Dojo widgets.
Rich UI widget projects update:
By default, the following Rich UI system projects are in use:
• For EGL widgets that are not based on Dojo: com.ibm.egl.rui_4.3.6
• For EGL Dojo widgets: com.ibm.egl.rui.dojo.widgets_2.4.0
• For EGL Dojo samples: com.ibm.egl.rui.dojo.samples_2.4.0
• For the local Dojo runtime access: com.ibm.egl.rui.dojo.runtime.local_1.15.0
Mobile projects update:
• By default, the Dojo mobile widgets in use are updated to 1.5.1
• EGL Cordova library and tools are updated to 6.5.0
IDE Enhancements
Ant task 'egl.export':
'egl.export' is supported to run in non-UI headless environment such as linux bash.
Redundant parts warning message:
When an EGL program is opened in the EGL editor, it displays a redundant parts warning message.
New INCLUDE Statement in Build Scripts for z/OS Builds:
• This new functionality allows a new script to be included in the current script by INCLUDE MEMBER Statement.
• An included member can contain other INCLUDE statements. However, the nesting level cannot exceed 5.
• An INCLUDE statement must follow a complete pseudo-JCL statement, and the included member must contain complete pseudo-JCL statements. That means a statement cannot be split across scripts.
Chromium render engine support:
Added a new render engine chromium for RBD visual editor for RUI to support designing and running web component and other modern RUI application inside visual editor. For more information on the render engines and limitations, see Setting preferences for Rich UI appearance.
Fixes for APARs
Some Internal defects and APAR Fixes have also been added as part of Rational Business Developer V9.6.
Technical videos and whitepapers
A series of technical videos and whitepapers are provided to introduce the new features.
Technical Video Topics: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2tETTrnR4wu2m6ZvuD3YhRgTCtgeDJyC
1. A Introduction on Ionic 4 support in RBD9.6
2. Consuming REST Services From CICS With EGL
3. RUI application with EGL Boostrap Widgets and Data Access
4. Use of INCLUDE Member Statement in Z/OS COBOL Runtime Build Scripts
5. JSON Parse and JSON Generate for EGL COBOL - Simple Case
6. JSON Parse and JSON Generate for EGL COBOL - Complex Case
7. JSON Parse when JSON received from external system
Technical Whitepapers (To be published, will update link later):
1. Consuming REST Services From CICS With EGL
2. Recommendations and Considerations Regarding Support for JSON in EGL for Generated COBOL Applications using RBD
3. SOC4 Abends after Migration in RBD (From 8.5 to 9.5)
4. Recommendations and Considerations Regarding Deployment Architecture Models for Generated Applications using IBM Business Developer
5. Develop Responsive RUI application with EGL Bootstrap widgets
6. Use of INCLUDE Member Statement in Z/OS COBOL Runtime Build Scripts