In Rational Business Developer Version 8.0.1.2, EGL archive (EGLAR) files are officially supported. (Until now, EGLARs were considered a technical preview.) In addition, RBD 8.0.1.2 supports creation of stand alone EGLAR files for shared components. These EGLAR files can be shared outside of the context of a "read only" binary project, making it possible to share components without sharing the EGL source code for those components. You can read more about EGLARs in the EGL help under the topic "Introduction to EGLAR files and binary projects."

One way to "kick the tires" for EGLAR support is to export the RUI widget projects as EGLARs. To export a project as an EGLAR file, first perform a clean build on the project to make sure the project builds without errors, then export the project using EGLAR as the export designation using File>Export> EGL> EGLAR file.


Once the EGLAR file has been created, you can now use the parts in the EGLAR file by adding the EGLAR file to the EGL Build Path of a source project. I chose to add my EGLARs as External EGLAR Files to a project named "Widgets" as show in this screen shot:

 

I also checked the EGLARs in the Order and Export list as shown below:

 

 

Now I can use all the RBD widgets in any Rich UI project by simply adding my Widgets project to the EGL Build Path in place of the RBD widget source projects. Using EGLARs is a good way to ensure your applications are using a consistent set of code. 

 

I hope you'll make use of the new EGLAR features provided in RBD!

 

Paul