JBuilder Product Roadmap

ved: David Intersimone

Utdrag: This article contains the CodeGear JBuilder product roadmap. It contains future development plans and time frames for product releases. (Last Updated 10/30/2007)

    Introduction

This information describes CodeGear’s general product direction at this time, and should not be relied on in making a licensing decision. The future development, release and timing of features and functionality remains at our sole discretion and may be changed at any time without notice.

    General Overview

With the JBuilder 2007 release in November of 2006 CodeGear began a major shift in its approach to delivering innovative tooling for Java developers. JBuilder 2007 is built on the popular Eclipse IDE core, and from the beginning our focus has been on building new innovation to developer problems rather than attempting to make an existing Eclipse feature slightly better.

With the initial JBuilder 2007 release we delivered:

  • LiveSource-based EJB graphical workbench
  • LiveSource-based JPA graphical workbench
  • LiveSource-based Web Services graphical workbench
  • LiveSource-based UML diagrams
  • Comprehensive code design and implementation analysis
  • Code profiling, heap analysis, and thread debugging based on Optimizeit
  • Cross-tier request monitoring and analysis based on Optimizeit Request Analyzer
  • A complete team development environment with integrated tools for source control, bug tracking, requirements management, project planning/tracking and continuous integration builds – a complete best-practices developer stack

In May of 2007 we released JBuilder 2007 R2, which extended the initial release with:

  • Windows Server 2003 support for the team environment administrator (Project Assist) tools and server platform
  • IDE support on Windows Vista, Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Mac
  • Extension of team development environment to allow teams to choose the tools they will use on a project-by-project basis, while still providing the high level of integration and visibility demanded by high performance teams including StarTeam (SCM, Tasks, Change Requests/Bugs, Requirements) and CVS
  • BES application server support

Customer input, market dynamics, and emerging trends and technologies all provide input into CodeGear’s future product development plans. CodeGear roadmaps are reviewed regularly and updated periodically to reflect these inputs.

Future JBuilder features and technologies will focus on:

  • Greatly simplifying Java web development
  • Specialized focus on building AJAX based Web 2.0 applications
  • Allowing developers to mix-and-match server frameworks while still focusing on the application features instead of the framework configuration
  • Making Java Enterprise development truly simple, allowing a developer to focus on application functionality without giving up any control or capabilities through re-use, navigation and open logic
  • Expanding the TeamInsight team platform with additional tool selections
  • Interconnecting static code analysis with live code analysis to help developers identify, quantify and rectify problems earlier in the development cycle
  • Composition of distributed applications
  • Customer-defined managed Eclipse configuration and provisioning
  • Customer-defined team workflows for developer activities like check-ins, code reviews and defect lifecycle management

As always, this roadmap indicates plans and intentions, but no firm commitment to deliver any of the products or features described below.

    Planned Releases

The following picture shows the JBuilder planned releases.

Hide image
JBuilder Roadmap Image

    JGear "Brisco"

Codename: Brisco
Time Frame: Second half of 2007 – Shipped!
Theme: Solution-specific extensions for any Eclipse 3.2 based IDE

Based on the most popular productivity tools in JBuilder 2007, CodeGear will release four add-on packs for developers that have already standardized on another Eclipse 3.2-based IDE. The JBuilder product is the most economical and complete solution for Java developers, but if you are using any other Eclipse-based IDE these JGear packs will enable you to add focused extensions to your development toolset.

Brisco will be based on latest Eclipse 3.2 and JBuilder 2007 releases, and is expected to include:

  • JGear™ Performance for Eclipse, Based on the extremely popular Optimizeit technology, the performance pack will include profiling, thread analysis and code coverage tools tightly integrated into Eclipse. In addition, the static code analysis tools for code design and implementation (“Audits and Metrics”) are integrated into Eclipse.
  • JGear™ LiveSource® for Eclipse, Built on the Together LiveSource engine this package takes roundtrip development to the next level. As a baseline, all Java code is live and editable in graphical form as UML 2.0 sequence diagrams and class diagrams. Specialized graphical workbenches are provided for EJB 2, EJB 3, JPA and web services.
  • JGear™ Team Server for Eclipse, ProjectAssist, CodeGear’s innovative developer focused lifecycle platform installer/management tool is now available separately for the first time. The Team Server JGear provides one click installation and configuration of a complete team lifecycle stack through the ProjectAssist software, including tools for source code managements, continuous integration, requirements management, project planning and management, defect tracking, change request management, and a comprehensive project portal.
  • JGear™ Team Client for Eclipse, Working in conjunction with the Team Server JGear, the Team Client JGear provides portal access, peer code reviews and a unified tool for developers to manage their bugs, tasks, requirements and to-dos – regardless of where the original data is stored. In addition, Team Client JGear incorporates a briefcase mode that allows developers to work on tasks, requirements and bugs offline.

    JBuilder “Bonanza”

Codename: Bonanza
Time Frame: First Half of 2008
Theme: Powerful new Application-driven development capabilities

“Bonanza” is the codename for the next major release of JBuilder, which will be available in the first half of 2008. Bonanza provides a powerful new set of tools for building Java-based web applications.

One of the powerful characteristics of Java development in general, and JEE/Java web development in particular, is a preponderance of application frameworks, libraries, server runtimes and component packages. Many powerful frameworks have grown out of the open source movement to address specific shortcomings in JSR-centric frameworks. The limitless number of approaches to developing Java server applications provided by this rich collection of tools is both a blessing and a curse. Java developers have grown accustomed to spending inordinate amounts of time selecting frameworks, establishing build and runtime configurations, and interconnecting heterogeneous frameworks before being able to focus on developing application features.

Further, decisions made early in the development phase – whether tooling choices or configuration choices – are difficult if not impossible to change later. This is unfortunate, because early lifecycle decisions are regularly invalidated as the team learns more about the application domain and project requirements.

Bonanza will provide powerful innovations to address these core issues. Traditional approaches to complexity are based on abstraction – this is not the approach taken with Bonanza. CodeGear will deliver a new set of capabilities collectively called “Application Factories” that will focus instead on navigation and open logic.

Specific areas of focus under consideration for Bonanza are:

  • Eclipse 3.3 (Europa) core
  • Expanded lifecycle tool selection in TeamInsight, including StarTeam
  • JDK6 support
  • Updated support for JEE application servers
  • Code coverage, profiling and heap analysis, thread analysis and request analyzer based on Optimizeit technology
    1. Integrated into Eclipse 3.3 and TPTP
    2. Support for JDK6 and JEE5
    3. Mac support
    4. Integration between static code analysis and dynamic code analysis
  • InterBase updated, including Mac support
  • Application Factories
    1. Specialized, cross framework support for Tomcat, MySQL, Spring, Hibernate, iBATIS, JUnit, jMock, StrutsTestCase, Canoo's WebTest, Struts Menu, Display Tag Library, OSCache, JSTL, Struts2, Spring MVC and JSF
    2. High level application functionality development
    3. Full stack composable framework support

    JGear “Laredo”

Codename: Laredo
Time Frame: First half 2008
Theme: Solution-specific extensions for any Eclipse 3.3 based IDE

“Laredo” will provide updates to the JGear packs previously released as “Brisco”, updating them for Eclipse 3.3 and adding in new functionality developed for JBuilder 2008. Specific changes planned for Laredo are:

  • JGear Application Factories
  • JGear Performance Monitoring, based on Optimizeit Request Analyzer and Server Trace

    JBuilder “Grasshopper”

Codename: Grasshopper
Time Frame: Second half 2008
Theme: Expanded, user-definable Application Factories

“Grasshopper” will provide a significant extension of the Application Factory tooling, and will add features specifically for teams concerned with provisioning and lifecycle issues. The following items are under consideration for Grasshopper:

  • Eclipse 3.4 core update
  • Updates for JEE and OSS application servers and frameworks
  • Application Factory update
    1. Expanded types of applications and expended framework coverage
    2. User-defined modules for proprietary/in-house frameworks and libraries
    3. Code re-use mining
  • Team lifecycle workflows for common developer activities:
    1. Code check-in
    2. Peer code review
    3. Automated testing and profiling
    4. Defect lifecycle management
    5. Requirements lifecycle management
  • Eclipse configuration and provisioning
    1. Customer-defined Eclipse profiles
    2. Custom update sites
    3. Custom provisioning by team and project
    4. Managed, auditable configuration

    JGear “Bumblebee”

Codename: Bumblebee
Time Frame: Second half 2008
Theme: Solution-specific extensions for any Eclipse 3.4 based IDE

“Bumblebee” will provide updates to the JGear packs, updating them for Eclipse 3.4 and adding in new functionality developed for JBuilder 2009. Specific changes planned for Bumblebee are:

  • Eclipse provisioning pack
  • Eclipse 3.4 core
  • Updates to all existing JGear packs

    JBuilder “Optimus”

Codename: Optimus
Time Frame: Second half 2009
Theme: Distributed Application Factories composition

“Optimus” will provide new capabilities, extending both TeamInsight and Application Factories to enable the rapid assembly of applications by composing existing applications and services into managed assemblies. Optimus will be based on the latest major release of the Eclipse platform, expected to be Eclipse 3.5.

    Roadmap Update History:

10/30/2007 – Bonanza time frame moved from Second Half 2007 to First Half of 2008

08/13/2007 – CodeGear JBuilder Roadmap updated to reflect Eclipse-based direction

05/16/2006 – Borland JBuilder Roadmap first publication


Publisert: 10/30/2007 5:30:00 AM


Serversvar fra: BDN10A

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