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Rational Business Developer 9.7 is now available

  
Rational Business Developer 9.7 is now available. This release contains many new features and customer-required enhancements across the product's various technologies. For more information on each enhancement, refer to the "What's new in Rational Business Developer V9.7" section of the  RBD Documentation.

New OS Version Support

  • z/OS 2.5 Support :

Now user can install Rational Business Developer on z/OS 2.4. For more details on changes in IBM z/OS V2R5.0, refer to IBM z/OS V2.5.0 documentation.

  • IBM i 7.4 Support :

Rational Business Developer V9.7 supports IBM i 7.4. For more details on IBM i 7.4, refer to IBM i 7.4 documentation.

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8.5 Support :

Rational Business Developer V9.7 supports RHEL 8.5. For more details on RHEL 8.5, refer to RHEL 8.5 Documentation.

New Supported Software

The following Software versions are now supported by Rational Business Developer, starting from V9.7 :

  • WebSphere Application Server 9.0.5.11
  • WAS Liberty 22.0.0.3
  • WebSphere Application server network deployment 9.0.5.11
  • Tomcat versions 8.5 & 9.0.60
  • CICS Transaction Gateway for Multiplatform 9.2.0.2
  • CICS Transaction Gateway for z/OS 9.3
  • CICS Transaction Server for z/OS 5.6
  • IBM MQ for Windows 9.2.5.0
  • IBM MQ for z/OS 9.2
  • IBM MQ for iSeries 9.2
  • IBM Debugger for z/OS 14.2.5
  • Docker desktop 4.8.0

Language Enhancements

  • New servicelib function - getRestResponseHeaders :

Users can access REST response headers in their EGL Java clients using the new serviceLib function getRestResponseHeaders. For more information, refer to getRestResponseHeaders.

  • New servicelib functions for setting REST response :

The new serviceLib functions serviceLib.setRestResponse and serviceLib.setCICSRestResponse allows an EGL Java and CICS REST Service respectively to set a custom HTTP response depending on the business logic. For more information, refer to setRestResponse and setCICSRestResponse.

  • JSON support for AS400 :
Support for JSON generate and parse has been extended to support AS400 (IBM i system). This solution will continue to support existing EGL functions – convertToJSON and convertFromJSON. Refer to the whitepaper for more information on usability.

  • CDATA section support for XML :

A new boolean property cdata has been added to the @XMLElement annotation, which indicates whether the record field to be written to an XML string is wrapped in a CDATA tag or not. For more information, refer to @XMLElement.

  • IBM Debugger Integration and enable debugging of EGL/COBOL code on z/OS Batch and CICS :

Rational Business Developer will be able to work in collaboration with IBM Debug for z/OS. This allows users to debug EGL’s generated COBOL code running in z/OS.

  • Memory de-allocation of library function variables :

Support has been added to de-allocate memory of library function variables before leaving the sub function in a CICS transaction.

  • Improved Support For Nullable Records :

Nullable EGL records will now have their null flag set to false when their fields are set.

  • Support for array initialization with a variable size :

User can now dynamically initialize an array using a numeric variable as the new size.

  • Detailed error message title for EGL ant tasks :

Title provided for error messages arising from EGL ant tasks was not detailed enough for users to get an understanding of the situation. This has been further enhanced.

  • Integration of IBM Debugger and enabling debugging of EGL/COBOL code on ZOSBatch and CICS :

Rational Business Developer will be able to work in collaboration with IBM Debug for zOS. This will allow users to debug EGL’s generated COBOL code running in zOS. More details are published in whitepaper.

  • Passphrase Implementation :

Rational Business Developer users can use Passphrase to authenticate Host Credentials during COBOL Generation.

Rich UI Enhancements

  • Drag and Drop for services in RUI :

Users can add services to the EGL data view by dragging and dropping them into EGL RUI’s design pane. This enables users to quickly add back end code to their front-end RUI pages.

  • RUI Support in data access application wizard :

The data access application wizard (DAA) is a handy tool to create a running EGL application in a few clicks. Rational Business Developer can create a simple data access application based on a database to which the user is connected. The resulting application contains data parts, logic parts, and web pages (optional) based on one or more database tables. Adding, Retrieving, Updating, and Deleting records are the data access functions that perform operations on the database.

IDE Enhancements

  • New Option for Rational Business Developer SQL Retrieve :

While performing SQL Retrieve, users can change the SQL record field name to lower case, capitalizing the first letter and the first letter after the underscore. For more information, refer to Setting preferences for SQL retrieve.

  • Temporary Credentials For SQL Editor :

Rational Business Developer provides the option of temporarily remembering SQL credentials supplied while performing SQL Retrieve and SQL Validate operations. These credentials will be remembered until the workbench closes or the user clears them in the EGL SQL Preferences page.

  • Generate SOAP header fields in WSDL and Client Interface :

While generating EGL Client Interface from WSDL, the wizard will generate EGL records corresponding to the SOAP Header elements and users can specify which EGL records will be generated as SOAP Header elements in the WSDL. For more information, refer to EGL support for accessing SOAP headers.

Cloud Enhancements

  • REST API Support For EGL Services :

EGL services can be invoked using REST API calls. GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE are the supported calls. For more information, refer to EGL Support For REST.

  • MQ Support Enhancements :
    • Support for MQ Topics (Publish/Subscribe) is for COBOL and Java environments.
    • Support for more MQ providers on Java – RabbitMQ and Apache ActiveMQ.
    • JMS support has been added for IBM MQ and Apache.

For more information, refer to Using direct WebSphere MQ API calls.

  • CICS as REST services provider on z/OS :

Introduced CICS System as REST service provider for EGL Generated COBOL programs on z/OS.

New Service SetCICSRestResponse < EGL function > introduced for customizing the REST Response from EGL application. Refer to the whitepaper for more information on usability.

  • Spring REST support for EGL :

EGL REST Services can be deployed as standalone Spring applications without the need for an explicitly defined application server. More details are published in whitepaper.

  • Cloud native EGL applications :

Rational Business Developer now has the capability to create Cloud-native EGL applications. Users can create EGL applications which can be containerized using the docker file that gets generated automatically during project generation.

User Productivity Enhancements

  • Eclipse Git integration with Rational Business Developer :

eGit has been integrated with Rational Business Developer in this release to enhance user productivity. This makes it possible for our users to seamlessly integrate with their git infrastructure from within Rational Business Developer.

  • Swagger support for REST API :

Rational Business Developer can generate Swagger (OpenAPI ) documents for REST services. For more information, refer to EGL Support For REST.

Fixes for APARs

Some Internal defects and APAR Fixes have also been added as part of Rational Business Developer V9.7.

You can view the fix lists for this and previous versions of Rational Business Developer at https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/fix-list-rational-business-developer

Technical Whitepapers :


    1. Programming Considerations About Usage of JSON Generate and Parse functionality on IBM i using EGL in Business Developer
    2. Collaborating IBM Debug for z/OS with Business Developer for Debugging EGL/COBOL Applications on ZOSBatch and CICS in Business Developer
    3. Creating CICS REST Service provider in Business Developer
    4. Access EGL Applications as a REST Service using Spring Framework
    5. Creating MQ PUB/SUB in Business Developer
    6. Messaging With EGL Web Services (To be published)