BEA and Compuware have created a new alliance. The plan is to integrate Compuware's MDA tool OptimalJ with BEA's Workshop. The first phase will result in OptimalJ generating Workshop controls from their model. These controls can then be used inside Workshop as components in a workflow.

"Both of these products really are designed to promote productivity in the J2EE environment, and these two complementary methodologies or approaches -- the visual approach versus the model-driven, pattern-based approach -- they allow the customer who has developers of different skill levels and requirements to use both paradigms," said Paul Styles, strategic alliance manager at Compuware.

"By allowing components generated from OptimalJ to be easily brought into Workshop, [it] really gives users the best of both worlds, where you have two products, one that promotes the next generation of a leading, model-driven approach for an enterprise application, combined then with Workshop's service-oriented model and framework," said Dave Cotter, director of developer marketing at BEA.

BEA, Compuware partner on Java development

Press Release: Compuware and BEA Expand Alliance to Accelerate J2EE Application Development

Also, view more information on OptimalJ/MDA via the
The Middleware Company Productivity Study using MDA

I think integrating Workshop with a affordable tool such as Poseidon for UML or ArgoUML will be of much more value for all developers. Nothing against OptimaJ -- I am sure it is a worthy product -- but Poseidon can reduce my development costs a lot more.

Poseidon wrapped inside Workshop would rock... I agree with you 100%. Also nice to see that Crystal Reports has been integrated into Workshop in SP2.

In the meantime though - perhaps BEA can fix the software they are already packaging with their platform. Specifically - they can fix the Autonomy search engine's inability to index the CMS implementation that ships with platform.

Markus

Hi Manish:
If you are the Manish from Cheyenne Software, please contact me ASAP!
Joe Niver
joeniver@hotmail.com

It is easy enough to do a template that generates Workshop code from UML models in OptimalJ, but I will be interested in seeing the overall value.

At the same time, check out the press release regarding Intelliun's VE 4.0. It's available for free download, and is the first truely Executable UML platform I've seen. They also have a couple of white papers comparing their product to BEA Workshop and IBM WSAD.

At the same time, check out the press release regarding Intelliun's VE 4.0. It's available for free download, and is the first truely Executable UML platform I've seen.

I watched in awe as the auto-piloted demo constructed and deployed in minutes a working 3 tier application specified primarily as structural and behavioral diagrams. Does OptimalJ pamper the developer as much as Virtual Enterprise does? Does OptimalJ emit a working application?

Brian, based on the demos I have seen (JUG meeting) - yes it emits a working j2ee application - jsp, ejb, sql to create the tables, etc.

The default templates in OptimalJ use struts and j2ee standard patterns. The best part of OptimalJ, IMO, is the fact that you can round-trip - add code to the results and not lose it with the next iteration.

You can also set-up your own templates - so if you want to create a .net app with it, it's doable.

Optimal-J is definitely a very worthy product, which might not have been extensively used by the developer community. It adheres to the OMG MDA approach for development and I think Weblogic integration would definitely make both products better for the overall design/development of a project.

They really adopt different approaches. VE delivers 100% development at the model and technology-independent rules (formulas) level, while OptimalJ goes with the 70-30 rule (their claim). There are inherent problems with the 70-30 rule that resulted in failure in all previous attempts:
- problem with matching target audience: information architects/analysts can do part of the work, but cannot finish/validate the work because of the 30% code. However, hard-core developers hate generated code (the 70%) and only do the 30% code under management pressure...makes for a very hard grassroots organic adoption model.
- the 30% work takes several times the effort of the 70%, which significantly reduces the overall productivity gains.
- you're still forced into the multi-member/multi-skill sets team configuration which has its well documented productivity constraints.

Having a platform where you can develop 100% of your application without code totally changes the nature of the game, the focus, the players, and the rules.

The other major difference is code-generation vs. model-execution VM. While developing an application, making a single change would require code-generation step, compilation, deployment, and startup before you can see or test the effect of the change. On the other hand, with a model-execution VM, you're doing the development in a live runtime environment where a change takes effect immediately and can be tested with a click of a button. The difference in productivity and programming style is far greater than even in C++ compared to Smalltalk.

There are a lot more ramifications to the difference in approach, but I don't want to take up everybody's time. If you are really interested, download the two technologies and compare for yourself. Do a very simple example in both platforms, maybe what is in the online demo (about 20 minutes or so), then compare. I'm sure a few hours investment will tell the story.

The true power of OptimalJ comes from MDA. OptimalJ is a implementation of MDA. Therefore, it can do a lot more than just java. Using the template language you can generate code for other languages, even Oracle PL/SQL script for procs & functions. I agree with you on how core developers don't like generated code. However, OptimalJ gives you total control of what you can do with your model. I strongly suggest Architect's edition instead of Professional edition. I don't want to give my personal opion over which is better because these two products takes very very different approaches to development. Some may like one over the other.

Scott

It is easy enough to do a template that generates Workshop code from UML models in OptimalJ, but I will be interested in seeing the overall value.

At the same time, check out the press release regarding Intelliun's VE 4.0. It's available for free download. It is the first truely Executable UML platform I'm aware of--although I'm a little bais:-). The web site also has a couple of white papers comparing the product to BEA Workshop and IBM WSAD.