In this section: |
Developer Studio is used to develop and manage WebFOCUS applications, as well as to administer Managed Reporting environments. It is normally assumed, but not required, that WebFOCUS is installed, or will be installed, somewhere in your enterprise. In addition, Developer Studio architecture and functionality are based on the architecture of WebFOCUS.
There are two pieces involved when developing or administering with Developer Studio.
The graphical and code generation tools do not actually process reports and access data. Instead, they connect to a WebFOCUS environment.
Note: For all other editions, including installations of the Network editions, you configure Developer Studio to access a WebFOCUS environment you installed separately. This step is performed from within Developer Studio.
In a WebFOCUS environment, WebFOCUS connects a web server or application server to your data. End users then access WebFOCUS applications through a web browser. Your enterprise may have multiple WebFOCUS environments each containing the following components:
Apache Tomcat™ is provided along with Developer Studio and WebFOCUS for Windows, so no separate web or application server is required to get started. Apache Tomcat is a servlet container that Developer Studio can use as a web server and application server.
Note: Web servers handle traditional web content like static HTML and GIF files. Application servers generally handle Java and other processes, but many application servers can also handle the traditional web content. If your application server can handle traditional web content, then a web server is not required. The term application server is used to refer to either an application server or servlet container in WebFOCUS documentation. A servlet container generally handles a subset of what an application server can handle.
A scaled-down WebFOCUS Client is installed with Developer Studio. The functionality available is based on the Developer Studio edition for which you are licensed.
WebFOCUS employs a distributed architecture. This means that the WebFOCUS Client and its WebFOCUS Reporting Servers can either be on the same machine and operating system or distributed across multiple machines running different operating systems. You can easily connect an Apache web server running on UNIX to Microsoft SQL Server data on Windows and DB2 data on z/OS.
For more information on WebFOCUS components and configuration options, refer to the installation and configuration documentation for your platform.
Note: To ensure proper communication, WebFOCUS components should be the same release number as each other and Developer Studio.
The following steps accompany the figure below and describe how WebFOCUS or Developer Studio processes requests:
Developer Studio processes requests the same way that WebFOCUS does. Developer Studio makes calls to a web or application server that is configured to accept a WebFOCUS servlet request. The servlet then connects to the WebFOCUS Reporting Server to process the report request.
The web or application server can be located on the same machine as Developer Studio or located elsewhere in your enterprise.
You can also use a combination of local and remote processing.
Developer Studio provides flexibility in how you develop and maintain your WebFOCUS applications and reports. There are several ways to develop with Developer Studio.
You can test and run your projects either from within Developer Studio or through a web browser. When an application is ready for production, Developer Studio provides tools to transfer and deploy project files to machines running production WebFOCUS environments.
There are two types of Project-based development:
Note: Third-party source management client software must be installed on the Developer Studio machine to use source management tools.
With Stand-alone Project-based development, a web and/or application server is required on the machine where you run Developer Studio.
It is recommended for Remote Project-based development that all WebFOCUS components in the remote environment reside on the same machine as each other.
For more information about Developer Studio configurations and development environments, see the Developer Studio Application Development Getting Started manual.
Normally, Developer Studio is installed on the desktop of each developer. However, a networked Developer Studio installation option is available as well.
In a networked configuration, Developer Studio is installed on a single shared machine, rather than each desktop. Developers then launch Developer Studio on their desktops by executing files that have been installed on the shared machine. This simplifies administration, installation, and upgrading and it allows all developers to use a common preconfigured environment.
A network installation of Developer Studio includes only the GUI tools to develop, organize, maintain, and deploy applications and procedures. After installing the networked Developer Studio option, you must set up a connection to a WebFOCUS environment somewhere on your network. Developer Studio then uses the web server configuration, application server configuration, WebFOCUS Client connectivity, and WebFOCUS Reporting Server of that WebFOCUS environment.
Network installations are discussed in Configuring a Network Installation.
Developer Studio and WebFOCUS can be installed on the same machine provided WebFOCUS is installed first. The Developer Studio installation program will detect that WebFOCUS is already installed and by default, use the existing WebFOCUS environment and components. Developer Studio then runs using the existing WebFOCUS Client configuration, application root directories (APPROOT), web server aliases (virtual folders), and WebFOCUS Reporting Server. All products can co-exist and use the same WebFOCUS environment through Developer Studio or a browser.
Developer Studio can also be configured to have an independent configuration from WebFOCUS.
WebFOCUS |