B.1 Overview of the WebSphere Studio Device DeveloperThe IBM WSDD is an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) based on the open source Eclipse platform. Eclipse is a highly regarded IDE framework for advanced Java developers. It has strong support for code-centric tasks such as smart editing, dynamic code completion, refactoring, and collaborative development. Eclipse tightly integrates with the popular open source tools, such as ANT, for custom builds, CVS for versioning control, and JUNIT for unit testing.In addition to those core IDE features, Eclipse is highly extensible. It features an open architecture for plugins. Through plugins, vendors can add proprietary features to the IDE and sell the enhanced IDE for profits. In fact, this is exactly what IBM did. The IBM WSDD extends the Eclipse IDE with proprietary plugins that handle J2ME-related tasks (see Figure B.1). Figure B.1. The WebSphere Studio Device Developer v5.5 IDE.![]() The WSDD supports wizards and project management tools for J2ME projects. WSDD allows developers to create and test J2ME applications on a desktop computer using WME/WCE for Windows and Linux. Once deployed on the device, the WSDD also supports on-device debugging. You can download the WSDD installer for Windows and Linux from IBM PvC Web site (http://www.ibm.com/software/wireless/wsdd/). The WSDD itself is also extensible. From the Install/Update perspective of the Eclipse workbench, we can select to install a wide variety of runtime libraries, device emulators, wizards, and other add-on tools. NoteWe can use the WSDD to develop standard MIDP and Personal Profile applications. The output binary applications can be deployed to any J2ME-compatible devices, such as MIDP smart phones and Sharp Zaurus PDAs. That makes WSDD a generic J2ME IDE not specifically tied to the IBM runtimes.In the next two sections, we discuss how to manually install the WebSphere Micro Environment (WME) runtimes on to PocketPC devices. For Palm OS devices that do not have WME preinstalled, the process is similar: Just replace the PocketPC ActiveSync engine with Palm's HotSync engine.NoteThe WME binary packages and deployment licenses are also available from reseller Handango. Please visit Web site http://www.handango.com/ and do a search on WebSphere to find out more. |