NOTE: On October 30, 2020, the technology preview mentioned in this blog has been replaced by the GA of IBM Wazi Developer 1.1.0. The capabilities to enable z/OS application development in an OpenShift environment are now brought to you via the IDE called IBM Wazi Developer for Workspaces.
You are entitled to IBM Support when using IBM Wazi Developer 1.1.0. Enhancements made to the 1.1.0 version can be found in What's new for IBM Wazi Developer 1.1.0. To get started, see IBM Knowledge Center. Have you ever wondered whether z/OS application developers can leverage emerging technologies for modern development experience and improved efficiency? Now cloud-native development is a reality for IBM Z® upon the debut of IBM® Wazi Development Client. Once deployed to OpenShift®, IBM Wazi Development Client provides the capabilities for z/OS application development in the Red Hat® CodeReady Workspaces. It can eliminate the task of installing an IDE and configuring a workspace for an individual z/OS developer.
After IBM Wazi Development Client is deployed to Red Hat CodeReady Workspaces, z/OS application developers can use the in-browser Red Hat CodeReady Workspaces IDE, to code, build, test, and run mainframe applications from any workstation. It provides a single-click developer workspace and eliminates local environment configuration.
With these capabilities, z/OS application developers can be relieved from the struggles to figure out how to install right tools, get access to the right system, and configure development profiles before being able to get down to the core responsibilities, development.
Fig 1: Editing experience of COBOL files by using IBM Wazi Development Client
Features in the Red Hat CodeReady Workspaces by IBM Wazi Development Client
By using the IBM Wazi Development Client stack with custom plug-in and devfile registry support, z/OS application developers can now have the all-in-one mainframe development package that includes the following capabilities in the Red Hat CodeReady Workspaces.
- Rich language support for COBOL, PL/I, HLASM, and JCL
- Connectivity to Z host via a command-line interface or GUI
- Running user builds by using IBM User Build
For detailed feature introduction, read the blog Kubernetes-Native Integrated Z Developer Environment with IBM Wazi Development Client.
Try it out by yourself
Now you must wonder how the hands-on experience would be. The good news is that currently the z/OS application development capabilities in the Red Hat CodeReady Workspaces, brought to you by IBM Wazi Development Client, are provided as a technology preview. You are encouraged to download and try out the technology preview. Your feedback is highly appreciated and will help shape future direction.
Disclaimer: For a technology preview, IBM provides the information without obligation of support and "as is" without warranty of any kind.
You can install IBM Wazi Development Client into the OperatorHub of an OpenShift cluster via a CASE bundle.
Download
Download IBM Wazi Development Client CASE archive by using the following URL:
https://github.com/IBM/cloud-pak/tree/master/repo/case/ibm-wazi-development-client/1.0.0
Note: To try out Wazi Development Client in Red Hat CodeReady Workspaces, ensure that you have a connection to a Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform cluster and meet the following requirements:
- You have cluster-admin permissions.
- The Red Hat OpenShift cluster must be configured with a default storage class.
Get started
Follow the roadmap to enable the capabilities for z/OS application development in the Red Hat CodeReady Workspaces by using IBM Wazi Development Client.
Questions or feedback
We would love to hear what you think of this solution. For any questions, issues, or enhancement ideas, you can open an issue in the Wazi CodeReady Workspaces GitHub repository.
We are always looking for ways to improve.
Resources