Introduction

Developers and corporations alike have all started developing critical applications in Java. With a growing set of needs, these developers and corporations are in constant search for a superior development tool that will give them a competitive edge, the latest technology, and a way to drastically cut their development cycle.

How can you gain a significant competitive advantage? Can you use the latest technology and still deliver your applications on time and on budget? What do corporations such as Volvo, Daiwa Securities, MicroAge, NationsBank, Ohio Department of Transportation, Eli Lilly, Nationwide Insurance, Mercedes Benz, Long Term Capital Management, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Manualife Financial, Chevron, Northern Telecom, Canadian Coast Guard, Kraft General Foods Canada, Xerox Canada, Novatel Communications, Crownlife Insurance Company, The Toronto Star Newspaper, Glaxo-Wellcome, and many others have in common? What all these corporations share is their selection and trust in a unique development tool–JBuilder. These corporations selected JBuilder for its 100% Pure Java code creation clean of markers and proprietary code, its intuitive user interface, fast compiler, complete graphical debugger, largest library of beans with source code, superb database architecture, easy creation of JavaBeans, tight CORBA integration, and full support for Java standards.

Today, JBuilder has sold over 100,000 copies in less than six months to a wide range of Java developers. JBuilder continues to be the best selling Java development tool on the market since its introduction in August 97. The JBuilder growing infrastructure is already the most impressive of all Java development tools with hundreds of third-party tools available, dozens of books, the most active Java developers community sharing tips and techniques on over 20 dedicated newsgroups, a growing number of certified trainers and consultants, state-of-the-art support, multimedia training, and more.

After its successful first introduction of JBuilder on the Java market, Inprise introduces JBuilder 2. Now, for the first time, there is a new generation Java tool—JBuilder 2—designed to meet the needs of corporations and businesses. JBuilder 2 bridges client/server systems and emerging multi-tier and Internet/intranet architectures and provides corporate users with a bridge that links legacy code to new applications and systems.

The INPRISE Strategy

The INPRISE Information Network Strategy
As a critical part of its new focus, Inprise plans to combine its unique object-oriented development tools, middleware technologies, and open architecture to allow users to create powerful applications that provide cross-platform access and analysis of corporate data over intranets, extranets, and the Internet. Inprise plans to bring to market new technologies and products that support connectivity to enterprise applications, distributed application management, and decision-support capabilities.

Construction of corporate Information Networks, offering cross-platform access to valuable information and enterprise-wide applications, represents one of the most potent opportunities facing IT organizations in the late 1990s. Yet, no company has stepped forward to deliver the solutions needed to enable rapid development of these integrated Information Networks. Most software tools providers have focused on supporting a single platform or proprietary system and do not offer the breadth of tools necessary for designing these powerful, next-generation information technology solutions.

"The tidal wave of software technologies unveiled during the 1990s presents the corporate developer with wonderful opportunities to deliver high-value solutions to their company. Unfortunately, dealing with idiosyncratic low-level APIs prevents corporate developers from taking advantage of the latest technologies.[Inprise's]* Information Network vision correctly moves developer emphasis to building solutions and hides the unnecessary complexities.

[Inprise's]* integrated breadth of open tools and middleware products are obvious choices for Information Network development." -Evan Quinn, Research Director of Java and Internet Software, International Data Corporation

The Information Network will become an essential, cost-effective computing platform for corporate customers during the next three years. Corporate IT will experience an increasing convergence of client/server with Internet and intranet application development technologies and technologies for decision support and online analytical processing.

The key foundations of the Information Network architecture include: enterprise-class application development tools, Java/Web integration, and rich information analysis. To deliver on this strategy, Inprise combines: superior development tools, a large and growing library of data analysis components, and above all, no platform agenda. With its new Java Development Environment—JBuilder 2—Inprise delivers what developers care about most: higher productivity and full support for Pure Java industry standards.

The Inprise Java Strategy
Inprise was one the first companies to license Java from Sun Microsystems. As a key partner of Sun, Inprise was significantly involved in the Java JDK, JavaBeans, and Enterprise JavaBeans development.

Inprise's focus is to leverage its experience as a leader in development tools and deliver a state-of-the-art Pure Java development tool—JBuilder 2—that meets developers' requirements and gives their business a competitive advantage.

"Following the release and enthusiastic market response to Borland Delphi, we are excited about [Inprise]* applying its core technology and expertise to a Java development environment. [Inprise]* tools will help to position Java as the platform of choice for a new generation of distributed computing applications." -Eric Schmidt, chief technology officer for Sun Microsystems

- "[Inprise's]* expertise in component-based development tools such as Delphi is a valuable asset to the Java community, and JavaSoft is excited about component-based Java RAD tools such as JBuilder." -David Spenhoff, Director of Product Marketing for JavaSoft

"We recognize the importance of development tools such as Borland JBuilder to create robust reusable Enterprise JavaBeans. With full support for Session Beans and Entity Beans, JBuilder 2 BeansExpress technology makes it point-and-click easy to create industry-standard Enterprise JavaBeans." -Jonathan Schwartz, Director of Product Marketing, Sun Microsystems, JavaSoft Division

Customer Needs

Inprise has established itself as the leading development tool vendor by listening to developers and by delivering superior tools to the market. To make sure that a tool meets customers' requirements, Inprise involves key developers and businesses in the tool's early stages of development. A sample representative of the market is selected by including Fortune 100 to Fortune 1000 companies, VARs, IT managers, independent consultants, and more. In addition, product teams conduct substantial marketing research, including focus groups and thorough study of market trends and industry needs. Research findings highlight the following requirements for Java developers:

Platform Independence
The whole idea of "Write Once and Run Anywhere" has been a developer's dream for a long time. Since Java has now become the de facto standard for platform-independent development at the enterprise level, it makes sense for corporations to develop and deploy their applications in Java. To deliver on the promise of "Write Once, Run Anywhere," development tools need to generate 100% Pure Java Code.

Reliability
To handle professional applications, the tool itself and its inherent technology need to be robust. The first generation of Java development tools, based on the early JDK 1.0.2, failed in delivering the robustness necessary to create Java applications for the Enterprise. The new JDK 1.1 and JDK 1.2, however, with significant improvements on database connectivity, components, security, internationalization, graphic support, and more, offer a much-improved environment. Therefore, a Java development tool needs to be built on top of the latest JDK.

Extensibility
In the rapidly evolving Java arena, developers require a development tool that offers an open and extensible architecture to let them easily expand and enhance the development environment as their needs evolve. Such a tool should make it easy for developers to integrate new JDKs as well as their favorite CASE tools, testing tools, version control, Wizards, and commercial JavaBeans. It should also support multiple VMs, new drivers, new tools, and new file types.

Scalability
As corporate developers face increasing demands for information delivery, some critical decisions need to be made. What's the best way to integrate current client/server technology with the exploding use of corporate intranets and emerging use of the Web? Can the applications handle increase in the volume of users, data, and transactions? How can developers quickly build robust applications that are scalable, that will work across all platforms, and that will preserve investment in systems and corporate data?

Java developers' ideal development tool should create applications that can scale from interactive applets for Web pages to platform-independent, multi-tier applications for use across the entire enterprise.

Java Development Tool Requirements:
To satisfy the most important needs and wants of Java developers, professional development tools need to provide the following:


• 100% Pure Java Code creation for complete platform independence
• JavaBeans and Enterprise JavaBeans support, creation, and deployment for increased productivity through component reuse
• Pure Java Two-Way-Tools without proprietary code or markers for complete control over the Java code
• Open architecture for the flexibility of adding new JDKs, components, beans, Wizards, editors, CASE tools, etc. to tailor the tool to their specific needs
• Productive environment with a professional compiler, debugger, editor, and project manager for faster development cycles
• Large number of reusable JavaBeans with source code for higher productivity
• Full database integration and tools to create applications that can scale from a Web applet to complete client/server and multi-tier applications
• Tighter CORBA integration for developing robust distributed applications

The JBuilder 2 Advantage

"JBuilder2 represents an exciting new evolutionary step for Inprise. As the leader in providing high-performance, high-productivity visual development tools for Windows and client/server computing, we are bringing this experience to the platform-independent world of Java and the new generation of corporate 'Information Network' applications. We invite all software developers to take a look at what an industrial-strength Java development environment should be: Borland JBuilder2." -Del Yocam, Inprise's President and CEO

Borland JBuilder 2 is a family of highly productive, visual development tools for creating high-performance, platform-independent applications using the Java programming language created by Sun Microsystems. The JBuilder 2 scalable, component-based environment is designed for all levels of "Information Network" development projects, ranging from applets and applications that require networked database connectivity to client/server and enterprise-wide, distributed multi-tier computing solutions. The JBuilder 2 open environment supports 100% Pure Java, JavaBeans, Enterprise JavaBeans, Servlets, JDK 1.1, JDK 1.2, JFC/Swing, RMI, CORBA, JDBC, ODBC, and all major corporate database servers. JBuilder 2 will also provide developers with a flexible open architecture to incorporate new JDKs, third-party tools, add-ins, and JavaBean components.

"We needed a professional development tool to build our corporate Java applications. Our requirements were simple: 100% Java code, complete JDBC and JavaBeans support, and a professional IDE. Unlike other Java tools, JBuilder true Two¡Way¡Tools generate pure Java code, with no hidden tags or macros. We have evaluated most of the tools available on the market, and only JBuilder met our strict criteria. Unlike Visual J++ and Symantec Cafe, which lock you into one middle-tier architecture that we didn't care for, the code generated by Borland JBuilder is 100% Pure Java." -Patrick Ryan, Design Engineer at Hobart Corporation, the world's leading supplier of food equipment and service to the food service and food retail industries.

JBuilder 2 - The Choice of IT Leaders
After a thorough investigation of several Java development tools, Oracle has licensed JBuilder for its superior technology, highest quality, and best architecture. All internal Java development at Oracle will be done using JBuilder. Oracle has also chosen to promote JBuilder to its customer base because of the JBuilder DataExpress, a state-of-the art database architecture with superior support for the Oracle DBMS.

"Oracle licensed Borland JBuilder because of its superior Java technology. [Inprise's]* pure Java approach is the right approach for customers who are looking to maximize the benefits of network computing╛ no client administration, complete portability, and standards compliance." -Sohaib Abbasi, Senior Vice President, Oracle Tools.

"[Inprise]* and IBM are forging a strong partnership for the future. The synergy we are building through the optimization of the JBuilder development environment to take advantage of San Francisco business process components will speed San Francisco-based applications to the market. The continued strong relationship will drive benefits to San Francisco, JBuilder, and our mutual customers." -Steve Ladwig, General Manager, Network Computing and Solutions Frameworks, IBM Worldwide General Business.

JBuilder 2 - Platform-independent Solutions
To deliver on the promise of "Write Once, Run Anywhere," JBuilder 2 was architected to generate only 100% Pure Java code. All applications, applets, or JavaBeans created with JBuilder 2 can work on any platform running a Java Virtual Machine: Windows, UNIX, Mac, AS/400, mainframes, etc. They will also work in any browser supporting the latest JDK.

JBuilder 2 - The Most Powerful Development Environment
JBuilder 2 leverages the technology that made Inprise's development tools the preferred tools for high-end developers. It includes a lightning-fast compiler able to compile more than 10,000 lines of code a second. Its unique advanced SmartChecker feature offers the fastest rebuild/recompile speeds by compiling only files where changes have been made.

JBuilder 2 also includes a graphical debugger with all the features professional developers need to easily find and fix bugs. For faster development cycles, this professional debugger includes breakpoint setting, multi-thread support, single-step through the code, etc.

JBuilder 2 - Java Extensibility with JavaBeans
To increase developers' productivity by encouraging component reuse, JBuilder 2 features BeansExpress, the fastest and easiest way to build JavaBean and enterprise JavaBean components. With BeansExpress, developers can visually create components from scratch, or combine a number of existing components into a new JavaBean. JBuilder 2 introduces BeansExpress designers, an easy way to create properties, events, BeanInfo, etc. BeansExpress will also allow developers to easily deploy their JavaBeans in any Java environment or add them to the easy-to-navigate JBuilder 2 component palette. JBuilder 2 Professional and Client/Server Suite will also ship with more than 200 reusable JavaBeans for GUI design, Internet development and database access, including JFC/Swing, plus Grid, Tree, Navigator, Image, Checkbox, Choice, Picklist, Field, List, Locator, ButtonBar, StatusBar, and many more. Source code for these components will be included. In addition, each version of JBuilder 2 includes a set of award-winning JavaBeans from KL Group, Roguewave, Protoview, Object FX and JavaSoft's JFC/Swing components.

"We have selected Borland JBuilder to develop our commercial JavaBean components: Objective Blend and Objective Grid for Java. JBuilder offers the fastest way to create and deploy JavaBean components with Java BeansExpress. The JBuilder component architecture and its full support for the JavaBean standard make it the preferred development tool for professional JavaBeans development." -Bill Loeb, Chief Java Architect at Stingray Software

Building sophisticated database applications is easy with drag-and-drop, data-aware JavaBeans, including Grid, Chart, Navigator, TableDataSet, TextDataFile, QueryDataSet, QueryResolver, and DataSetView. With JBuilder 2, developers get full support for master-detail, lookups, sorting, bi-directional cursors, transactions, filtering, aggregation, calc fields, picklists, edit constraints, display formatting, and more.

JBuilder 2 - The Most Productive and Customizable IDE
The JBuilder RAD Workbench is designed for maximum productivity. Developers will welcome its Rapid Application Development based on the professional IDE that made Inprise tools, such as Delphi and C++Builder, so successful. Developers can customize JBuilder 2 to their liking by including their own tools, their preferred editor or designer, or by adding new JDKs, commercial JavaBeans, Wizards, etc. Based on the JavaBeans component model, JBuilder 2 delivers the most productive environment with component reuse. Developers can be up and running in no time with the intuitive application browser (AppBrowser) for project management, numerous Wizards, and more.

JBuilder 2 - Complete Developer Support
JBuilder 2 includes comprehensive Help and documentation with reference books for new Java users and advanced developers. JBuilder 2 was designed to decrease developers' learning curve by providing them with an easy-to-use and easy-to-learn interface and thorough documentation. In addition, only JBuilder 2 includes a "Welcome Project" for a smooth start in programming with JBuilder, a simple-to-use all-HTML help file with a browser look and feel, online Java Docs for full Java reference, a multimedia tutorial covering what's new in JBuilder 2 and teaching new developers how to use the JBuilder 2 IDE, and more.

JBuilder 2 Product Line

JBuilder 2 has been designed to answer the needs of a range of developers, from the new Java developer to the most advanced Enterprise developer. To satisfy all developers' needs, JBuilder 2 comes in three different editions: Professional, Client/Server Suite, and Standard.

JBuilder 2 Professional
JBuilder 2 Professional was designed with business application development needs in mind. It is the perfect development environment for developers creating robust database applications. JBuilder 2 Professional was specially engineered to deliver the ease-of-use, scalability, reliability, and extensibility that professional developers need. You get everything in JBuilder Standard, including JDK Switching, CodeInsight, BeansExpress, and BeanInsight, plus: Pure Java DataExpress components, complete JDBC connectivity, high-performance grid control with source, 200+ JBCL and JFC/Swing beans with source, data-aware dbSwing beans with source, Servlet Wizard, command-line tools, and Local InterBase Server.

JBuilder 2 Client/Server Suite
JBuilder 2 Client/Server suite was designed for developers of enterprise projects requiring robust, scalable, multi-tier client/server applications. JBuilder 2 Client/Server Suite is the most comprehensive set of visual development tools for creating Pure Java client and server applications for the enterprise. Deliver scalable multi-tier applications with full support for RMI and CORBA. You get everything in JBuilder 2 Professional, including CodeInsight, BeansExpress, and 200+ JavaBeans with source. You also get VisiBroker 3.2 for Java to rapidly build multi-tier CORBA applications. Connect to all your corporate data with DataGateway for Java high-performance native drivers for Oracle, Sybase, Informix, DB2, MS SQL, and InterBase. Plus, integrated SQL Builder, SQL Explorer, SQL Monitor, Deployment Server, DataStore, PVCS Version Manager, and InterBase. And, get full support for JDK1.2, JDK1.1, JFC/Swing, Enterprise JavaBeans, JDBC, Servlets, RMI, CORBA, JNI, JARs, and more.

JBuilder 2 Standard
JBuilder 2 Standard was designed with beginning Java programmers in mind. It is the perfect development tool for Java beginners, as well as for advanced programmers. Deliver JavaBean components in record time with Java BeansExpress. Create pure Java applications or applets for the coolest Internet programs and Web pages.

JBuilder 2 Feature Comparison

Platform Independence

JBuilder 2 creates 100% Java code and carries the Java-compatible logo on the box. Since Borland has no platform agenda, developers can be assured that everything they write with JBuilder 2 is Pure Java and fully platform-independent.

Full Support for Pure Java Standards

In addition, JBuilder 2 creates Pure Java applications that support all Java standards, including JDK1.1, JDK 1.2, JavaBeans, Enterprise JavaBeans, Customizers, Serialization, Inner classes, Servlets, JFC/Swing, JARs, JNI, Internationalization, JDBC, RMI, IIOP, and CORBA. JBuilder 2 applications will run in any Java environment.

Continue to Part II

Professional Development Tool
JavaBeans for Increased Productivity