WebRunnerTM Bean Tools 1.1

Bean Wizard, Bean Tester, and Bean Works

If you use or develop JavaBeansTM, JavaTM applications, or Java applets, Taligent's WebRunner Bean Tools will help you do it faster. If you have already developed part of your application using ActiveXTM controls, the Migration Assistant will help you move to 100% Pure JavaTM. Your applications will be more portable and robust, and will include many of the features your users expect from production software.  WebRunner Bean Tools 

WebRunner Bean Tools includes class libraries, utilities, examples, and reference materials that enable the creation of JavaBeans components, applications, and applets. Bean Tools currently includes the following products: 

  • Bean Wizard
  • Bean Tester
  • Bean Works
  • Migration Assistant
  • Beans
This package contains the Bean Wizard, Bean Tester, and Bean Works. Some of the available WebRunner Beans are included as samples. The Migration Assistant and the complete set of Beans can be found on the Taligent WebRunner web site. 

A brief introduction to the Bean Wizard, Bean Tester, and Bean Works is provided below. For more information, see the documentation  installed with the product. Updates to the documentation can be found at the Taligent WebRunner Toolkit site. 

WebRunner Bean Wizard

If you are creating 100% Pure JavaTM beans for the first time, WebRunner Bean Wizard gives you a quick start. Once you enter the required information into the Bean Wizard dialog box, the Bean Wizard generates complete source code for a working Java bean, optionally compiled into byte code. This working Java bean understands activation and deactivation, handles events, and generally interacts well with other beans. If you selected the option in the dialog, you can even run your bean as a standalone application complete with menus, toolbars, a status bar, and fly-over help. 

 

The Bean Wizard steps you through the creation of your Java bean
Because the WebRunner Bean Wizard is a round-trip wizard, you can add your own logic yet still make changes to the overall structure of your Java bean at any time. 

WebRunner Bean Tester 

Once you've created your 100% Pure Java Bean, you can exercise it and validate its interaction using the WebRunner Bean Tester. Add your bean to the palette, drag it into the workspace, and link it to other beans. The WebRunner Bean Tester helps you evaluate your bean and feel confident when you deploy it. 

WebRunner Bean Works

All of the WebRunner Bean tools are based on WebRunner Bean Works, a comprehensive set of class libraries designed to help developers create scaleable, maintainable, and localizable Java beans and applications quickly and easily. If you are an experienced Java programmer, you will be able to use WebRunner Bean Works as the programming model for developing single Java beans or entire client-server applications. 

 

  

Sample Bean Work application, with standard menubars, toolbars, and charting bean to analyze the data
Menus and toolbars, activation and focus, Web access and distribution are all supplied to you. You can use the framework directly to create your Java bean or let the Bean Wizard step you through. 
 

 Installation Instructions

WebRunner Bean Tools can be installed on any of the following platforms:  Installation of WebRunner Bean Tools on a Windows platform 

In order to use the Bean Tools, you must have Sun's JDK1.1.1 already installed on your machine. 

  1. Double-click on the file btl120.exe (or btl120e.exe for the Evaluation version of the product) to install.
  2. The install utility will guide you through the remaining installation process.
  3. When the installation is complete, set your JAVA_HOME environment variable to point to the directory where JDK 1.1.1 is installed on your machine.
  4. Make sure that your PATH and CLASSPATH include JDK 1.1.1 binaries and class files.
 

Installation of Bean Tools for use with VisualAge for Java (VAJ) Version 1.0 

  1. Download the btl120.zip (or btl120e.zip for the Evaluation version of the product) file.
  2. Unzip and extract all the files in  btl120(e).zip  to a directory of your choice on your local drive.
  3. Importing the extracted files into VisualAge for Java:
    1. Launch your 's VisualAge for Java's   Integrated Development Environment (IDE).
    2. From the File menu, choose the Import menu item.

    3. A SmartGuide  Import dialog box appears. 
    4. Click on the Interchange file option then click on the Next button
    5. Browse to the directory where you extracted the files from the btl120(e).zip file and choose the beantool.dat file.
    6. Click on the Update button. 
    7. A list of the following four projects will show up in the list : 
      1. Taligent WebRunner Bean Wizard
      2. Taligent WebRunner Bean Works
      3. Taligent WebRunner Bean Works Samples
      4. Taligent WebRunner Beans
    8. Select all the projects , and click on the Finish button to import them into VisualAge for Java..
    9. From the Selected menu, choose Add Project menu item to bring the project in the workspace. A SmartGuide dialog will appear. 
    10. Choose Add project(s) from the repository.
    11. Click on the Browse button.
    12. Select each of the Taligent projects one at time, select the edition that shows up in the Editions list, and add it in the Editions to add column by clicking on the '>>' button. Click on the OK button.
    13. Back in the SmartGuide dialog, click on the Finish button and wait for all the projects to appear in the workspace.
    14. In order to import all the resources for the Taligent projects, you will need to unzip the resource.zip  file that was extracted from the btl120(e).zip file.
    15. Double click on the resource.zip file that should be in the directory where you had unzipped btl120(e).zip.
    16. Extract all the files from resource.zip to 
      1. <VisualAge for Java Install directory>/ide/project_resources
 

NOTE: The Bean Tester needs to run with Sun's JDK1.1.1 for Windows, and must therefore be run outside of VisualAge for Java. The document "Using Bean Tools with VisualAge for Java" explains how to use the Bean Tester.

Supported Platforms

    The current release of WebRunner Toolkit has been tested for use with the JDK1.1.1 available on WindowsNT and Windows95. 
    Releases on other platforms will be supported in the near future, depending on the availability of stable releases of the JDK1.1.1  on those platforms. 

    When using Bean Tools on the Windows 95 platform, you may find the following hints helpful: 

    • You might encounter an "Out of environment space" problem when launching the applications from the Program group. To correct this problem, add the following line to your config.sys file: 
    • shell=X:\command.com /e:4096 /p 
      where "X:" is the drive path where your Windows 95 operating system is installed.
    • You may get a "MSVCRT.DLL not Found" error. This file is required to run java.exe. To correct this problem, copy your Windows 95 MSVCRT40.DLL over to MSVCRT.DLL as follows (in single command string): 
    • copy X:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\MSVCRT40.DLL 
      X:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\MSVCRT.DLL 
      where "X:" is the drive path where your Windows 95 operating system is installed.
    • If you open the Bean Tools Wizard, generate files, and then close the Wizard, the DOS window that brought up the Wizard will say the Wizard is finished but will not close automatically. To correct this problem, close the window manually by clicking on the close button (X) in the extreme upper right corner of the DOS window. 

Known Problems

The following problems have been identified:

    Bean Wizard

    1. The Wizard currently does not generate a JAR file. As a workaround, the Wizard creates a file called makejar.bat. Generate your code with the Wizard in the usual way. Then go to the directory containing the generated code and run the makejar.bat file. This will create the necessary JAR file. You are now ready to load your bean into the WebRunner Bean Tester.
    2. If your application code has a System.out.println call in it, running your application using the Wizard's Run button might cause it to hang. (This happens because the instance of the Java virtual machine is launched using the exec command. This instance has no standard output stream associated with it, which causes it to hang. ) To avoid this problem, simply run your application from a command shell.
    3. The Wizard allows you to enter free-form parameter types. It does not check that these types are valid. For instance, it will allow you to create a class with a method that takes a parameter of type 'foo'. It will not warn you if 'foo' is not in your CLASSPATH or even that it is not a valid Java type.
    4. Currently, the Wizard does not provide backward compatibility for Project files (files with the .WIZ extension) that it creates. So, you would not be able to open a .WIZ file created by an earlier version of the Wizard, in a later version of the Wizard.
     

    Running the Samples as Applets

    1. The provided applets are JDK 1.1.1-based. For this reason, the applets do not run in any web browser that does not support JDK1.1.1. (all except HotJava 1.0 browser, as of this release of WebRunner Toolkit).
    2. When you run any of the sample applets in the appletviewer, you might see an AppletSecurityException. If this happens, remove the ARCHIVE tag from the HTML files for the sample applets, and include the paths specified by the ARCHIVE tag in your CLASSPATH environment variable.

    Beans

    When using the Network Beans, users have occasionally reported a problem of these beans "freezing up". We have been unable to pinpoint the cause. If you experience this problem, simply terminate the process the bean is  running in.
 

    Tiles Sample

    In the Tiles sample, when you disable the toolbar or status line, a thin black line is left on the screen. This is corrected by forcing a refresh and does not affect the operation of the tiles.
 

    Using WebRunner inside VisualAge for Java

    Some problems have been found, when using some pieces of the WebRunner Toolkit inside VisualAge for Java,   although these do not seem to affect the functioning of these pieces. These problems are not seen when the toolkit is used independent of VisualAge for Java.
    1. In the Visual Composition Editor for VisualAge for Java, the Bean Customizer dialogs for any of the Network Beans --- the FTPSession Bean, the NNTPSession Bean, the NNTPSession Bean and the SMTPSession Bean ---  are displayed much smaller than the actual size of the customizer, and need to be resized. Once resized, and all the fields are visible, the beans  function normally.
    2. Some of the dialogs of the WebRunner Bean Wizard contain text labels that appear to be  truncated. This does not affect the functioning of the Bean Wizard. To see the correct labels, check the online documentation for the Wizard. Screen captures of the Bean Wizard interface can be found in the Bean Wizard section of the Contents panel. To get to the Contents panel, choose Overview from the documentation cover or click the Contents link on any inside page.
 
 
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© Copyright IBM Corp. 1997 
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