Introduction to IBM Workplace Designer V2.6 Application Development

You've heard of IBM Workplace Designer and want to know what it is. This article introduces you to IBM Workplace Designer, describes who should use it, and when to use it, and walks you through building a sample application that explains how easy it is to develop custom applications with IBM Workplace Designer.

What is IBM Workplace Designer?

IBM Workplace Designer is a very new development platform for quickly building Java EE applications and eventually building rich client applications. It is a visual scripting environment for building components and deploying them to IBM Workplace Collaboration Services or IBM Workplace Services Express. Workplace Designer is part of the IBM Workplace software family.

Workplace Designer simplifies application development through a document-centric paradigm. Instead of working with relational tables, SQL, JSP, or custom JSP tags, developers use an Easy-to-understand API to work with documents and visually bind UI controls to document elements. In short, Workplace Designer allows developers to focus on application value rather than application pipeline (plumbing).

Positioning

When should you use Workplace Designer, and who should use it? Table 1 lists the IBM Workplace application development tools, showing the status of Workplace Designer in the IBM Developer Toolkit.

Table 1. IBM's Development Toolkit

Tools	Describe	Typical audiences	Skills	Sample Application
IBM Workplace Builder	A 0-Code application Assembly tool for Workplace Collaboration Services and Workplace services Express. Workplace Builder assembles existing components into composite application and application templates.	Power User Knowledge workers and subject matter experts Business Analyst	Business Requirements Knowledge Understanding Composite Applications	Service Project Team Space Marketing activities Employee Resource Center Document Library Call Center Any composite application built from an existing component
IBM Workplace form template	Graphically build simple, form-based application components (no coding required). Design a table forms with fields and lists to view the document. Note: This tool is not relevant to IBM Workplace Forms.	Power User Knowledge workers and subject matter experts Business Analyst	Business Requirements Knowledge Understanding forms, templates, and application assembly	Phone Call log The coming holiday Product positioning polling Project Target List
IBM Workplace Designer 2.5/2.6	A visual, script-driven, fast-customizing application development environment.	Developers of any skill level Power Users with some development experience IBM Lotus Domino Developer	Forms and document-based application development Visual development, JavaScript, WEB development	Call Center Contact List Project Tracking Product Catalog Submit, review, approve a document Blog Departmental/Group Applications
IBM WebSphere Portlet Factory	Semi-automatic portlet Development Using a wizard-like tool called a builder.	WEB Developers Java EE Developer	Web Development WebSphere Portlet Designer Framework (for example, using builder)	To the front end of Lotus Domino, SAP, PeopleSoft, IBM DB2, Siebel, Web services, and other enterprise systems Bank teller Portlet Other custom applications
IBM Rational application Developer for WebSphere Software	A fully-EE integrated development environment for full custom development.	Java EE Developer Database developers	Java, EE, portlet Development, JDBC, design patterns	Order Item/Status component Inventory Tracking Components Other custom development

In general, when developing a new application/component for the IBM Workplace environment, use the first tool in the table above that meets the requirements of the application. For example, do not use Rational application Developer to build a contact List component (Portlet) because it is easier to do this in Workplace Designer. Also, do not use Workplace Designer to build distributed online shopping malls, because this task is more suitable for using Rational application Developer.