Borland JBuilder X has been touted as Borland’s most significant release in these two years. Building on the stable foundation of the previous releases, Borland JBuilder X Enterprise Edition introduces support for newer application servers, along with enhanced performances and better overall user experience. This review discusses the features in JBuilder X, and if it is worth the upgrade.

Features Discussed

- Personalities: Have what you want showing
- Preferences: Updated options
- Search: updated search options
- Refactoring: New refactoring menus
- Sync Edit Mode: Change method names throughout
- Error Edit Mode: Shows you when you may have made errors (e.g. calling a method on an object that doesn't exist? probably a typo)
- Scope Insight: View code nesting details
- Unused code element
- Build System: Ant 1.5.4
- Optimization: OptimizeIt integration
- Modeling
- Report Processing and Rendering
- Collaboration: CVS + StarTeam
- Server Integration: JBoss 3.x, Borland Enterprise Server, Tomcat 3.x and 4.x, WebLogic, WebSphere and iPlanet 6.x.

Conclusion

"Upgrading from JBuilder 9 is not necessary, in my opinion. A lot of the features mentioned in the review are included with version 9 of the IDE and forking out money for the upgrade is just not fully justified. Upgrading from all other versions of JBuilder is highly recommended. The vast array of new features that you will be exposed to means increased productivity and smoother workflow. Bundle in support for all major application servers, basic UML modeling and ease when it comes to programming web services."

Read the full JBuilder X review.

This is the feature matrix for JBuilder:

http://www.borland.com/jbuilder/pdf/jbx_feamatrix.pdf

You can download a free trial at:

http://www.borland.com/products/downloads/download_jbuilder.html

I have been using JBuilder X Enterprise for a month and I feel that it is big improvement over the 9 version. It has several new features, but the outstanding ones (for me) are :-

- Visual Designer for Struts
- JSP Editor enhancements and Tag Library handling enhancements
- User Interface Customization
- Performance Improvements and better integration with Optimizit
- Improved Refactoring
- Code Folding

I would recommend an upgrade (even for JBuilder 9 users), if you want to increase your productivity in the Web Development area.

Arjuna Chala> I would recommend an upgrade (even for JBuilder 9 users), if you want to increase your productivity in the Web Development area.

How do you say that it is a good enhancement for web developer? It does not even have anything for as basic as developing a custom tag library.

Jbuilder X is great on its own. But going from 9 to X is pointless, imho. There is no worthwhile feature added it seems. Wait for Jbuilder 11.

Guys, Check this...

http://bdn.borland.com/article/0,1410,32375,00.html

As far as I know, JBuilder is the only IDE that lets you change your target platform at any time, converting all the deployment descriptors (INCLUDING the infamous CMP descriptors) from, say, JBoss to WebLogic, or from WebSphere to WebLogic etc.

So you can work with a great EJB visual designer (and it is integrated with Together - *it only gets better and better*) and you are still able to change your platform at any time (no vendor lock-in like in WSAD). It is VERY important for those who have heterogeneous environments or need *really* portable applications (even when using CMP persistence) but have no patience to use XDoclet.

The good news:

  . JBuilderX works directly with the EJB descriptors (no more .ejbgrpx files);
  . The JBoss integration got very solid (MUCH better than free plugin we had);
  . The struts integration is very cool;
  . The Together integration is **exceptional** - huh? You're still trying to use Rational Rose? Where have you been?

I mainly used to develop struts application. No EJB.

I used JBuilder 8 long and happy due to good performance although it don't allow modify server xml for built-in servers.

Switching to JBuilder X twice is unhappy experience.
- My JBuilder X cursor and display is problematic. Delete the letter in front of the cursor will actually delete other letter. Also, need to scroll down and cursor off in order to see the correct words sometimes.
- Struts IDE is good, but I don't find easy ways to do validator and tiles through GUI. Now I configured JBuilder 8 to use Struts 1.1 and Validate/Tiles instead and do XML by self.
- Supporting JBoss 3 without opentools is great. However, I find that the server start having problem with some JAR exception in Common-Collection.
And not solved although there are similar posts in forum.


Other comment on JBuilder Together.

I've used Together standalone for long. After purchased by Borland, there is no any useful improvement at all. The integration with JBuilder is simply as project/source import. If JBuilder Together do not support MDA well, together can be phased out (although having been a great tool in times in the past).

Supporting JBoss 3 without opentools is great. However, I find that the server start having problem with some JAR exception in Common-Collection.

R- This kind of problems have very simple workaround, :) see the forums (borland.public.jbuilder.ide) , its just a simple problem with a VM parameter.

I've used Together standalone for long. After purchased by Borland, there is no any useful improvement at all. The integration with JBuilder is simply as project/source import. If JBuilder Together do not support MDA well, together can be phased out (although having been a great tool in times in the past

R - For really good integration you have to use Together Jbuilder Edition

This release of jbuilderx is a greater disappoint for me
I expected it like a robust one like .net and a fully functional simple to use like intellij

  Other than support to lot of servers i dont find any significant changes

All it supports is a well established frameworks,It too late to give a struts designer


What i expected in this release

   1.UI better than intelli Idea
   2.Robust like VS.NET
   3.Support for all servers in a diifferent way
     like take weblogic 6.1 support in JB6 the same ide
     iam not able to use for WL8.1 to sit for a different folder structure
     This has to avoided .It has to suppert all servers and all version
     of server using a commion mechanism--> like support for pramati
   4. Common code generation skeletons like singleton,
      J2ee framework classes(Architecture bases),
      Java pattrens classes has to there
   5.Memory consumption has to greatly reduced
   6.Code profilers has to be included like intellij idea
   7.There must be a mode called editor mode where
    this must be functioning as a plain java editor like editplus
   8.Some wizards like gzip transmission data,base 64 encoding of data
     ssl has to present
   9.UI has to be enhanced for building a installable
     Installj kind of stuff
   10.------lot more features have to be added if they wish to with stand
     against eclipse (workbench),Intellijidea
Thanks
Sezhian.gk

Please download JBuilder X update 003 which fixes problems with JBoss 3.2.3 support.

When will JBuilderX officially support j2sdk1.5 , tomcat5.0, jboss 4?
anxiously waiting ...

anxiously waiting ...

This is realy a silly question. J2SDK 1.5 will be out in six months or so. There is even no beta. Tomcat 5 (and J2EE 1.4) has been released only a week or so ago, AFTER JBuilder X release. JBoss 4 is not yet released too.

The question could be is JBuilder's 6 months release schedule (approximately every June and December) a wise one. Maybe better would be to relase a major version of JBuilder along (or a motnh or so after) with the major relase of J2SE or J2EE.

Btw. JBuilder X is realy great, although there are some bugs.

I am report builder , excited to know that Crystal Reports are in the JbuilderX
Downloaded Trial , But not found Crystal Report Anywhere
Where r They

Downloaded Trial , But not found Crystal Report Anywhere

They should be on the CD when you buy JBuilder. JBuilder Enterprise Trial only includes core JBuilder Enterprise and OptimizeIt suite and is without thirt-party add-ons, like Crystal Reports, support for Oracle and Sybase app servers, etc.
All of these third-party addons are on CDs that ship with JBuilder.

Mileta

Any url to download ctystal reports

I jumped off the JBuilder wagon a few years ago. Why? Because Borland's primary interest is not in giving their customers value but in charging them for "upgrades" every time a few new features are added. JBuilder just got to be a cash cow for Borland (no one wants their appserver or database) and they seem to be milking it with everything they got. It's gotten too expensive. Just give Eclipse time, whatever JBuilder has now Eclipse will soon have if it doesn't already.

-michael

Anyone know how to make the OC4J included in previous jbuilder to work in Jbuilder X ?
or have any url to download newer plugin ?

Just a small point - though JBuilder X itself seems pretty good so far, the single most irritating issue we've come across is its integration with MS Visual SourceSafe. Source control options are missing from some views, for example you can check things in and out from the Project explorer but not the Model Navigator. There is now way of showing who's got what checked out. The status browser lets you see what you've got checked out, but not do anything with these files (i.e. you have to open the browser, rmembe rwhat files are checked out, close the browser and go find those files in the project explorer to check them in)! And by far the biggest hassle we had configuring our project in JBuilder was adding configuring the connection to the VSS database - which just did not go smoothly. All very annoying when the (free) eclipse VSS plugin works so well.

I tried hard but could not find whether JBuilder even support the development of a custom tag library? Has anyone tried this before? I have to build a custom tag library and I am quite amazed to see that it does not have anything for this.

Have they gotten out with Tomcat 5 support yet???

Hi,

I am tring to include logging as specified by axis... The code compiles if if dont use logging... Jbuilder X Ant problem?


import org.apache.axis.components.logger.LogFactory;
import org.apache.commons.logging.Log;

public class TestService {
  public TestService() {
  }

  private static Log log = LogFactory.getLog(TestService.class.getName());

  public String sayHello(String name){
    log.debug("Entering sayHello()");
    log.debug("Exiting sayHello()");
    return "Hello " + name + "!" ;

  }
}

Build file...

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project default="JB_Default_Task">
    <taskdef name="java2wsdl" classname="org.apache.axis.tools.ant.wsdl.Java2WsdlAntTask"/>
    <taskdef name="wsdl2java" classname="org.apache.axis.tools.ant.wsdl.Wsdl2javaAntTask"/>
    <target name="JB_Default_Task">
        <java2wsdl bindingname="TestServiceSoapBinding"
            classname="TestService"
            extraclasses=""
            location="http://localhost:8080/WebServices/services/TestService"
            methods="sayHello"
            namespace="http://localhost"
            output="/jbproject/WebServices/TestService.wsdl"
            porttypename="TestService"
            serviceelementname="TestServiceService"
            serviceportname="TestService"
            stopclasses="javax.* java.* org.apache.axis.AxisFault "
            style="rpc" typemappingversion="1.1" use="encoded"
            useinheritedmethods="false" soapaction="DEFAULT">
            <mapping namespace="http://localhost" package=""/>
            <classpath>
                <pathelement path="C:\jbproject\WebServices\classes;C:\JBuilderX\thirdparty\junit3.8\junit.jar;C:\JBuilderX\lib\unittest.jar;C:\JBuilderX\thirdparty\jakarta-tomcat-4.1.27-LE-jdk14\common\lib\servlet.jar;C:\JBuilderX\lib\saaj.jar;C:\JBuilderX\lib\jaxrpc.jar;C:\JBuilderX\lib\axis.jar;C:\JBuilderX\lib\axis-ant.jar;C:\JBuilderX\lib\wsdl4j.jar;C:\JBuilderX\lib\log4j-1.2.8.jar;C:\JBuilderX\lib\commons-logging.jar;C:\JBuilderX\lib\commons-discovery.jar;C:\JBuilderX\lib\activation.jar;C:\JBuilderX\lib\mail.jar;C:\JBuilderX\jdk1.4\demo\jfc\Java2D\Java2Demo.jar;C:\JBuilderX\jdk1.4\demo\plugin\jfc\Java2D\Java2Demo.jar;C:\JBuilderX\jdk1.4\jre\javaws\javaws.jar;C:\JBuilderX\jdk1.4\jre\lib\charsets.jar;C:\JBuilderX\jdk1.4\jre\lib\ext\dnsns.jar;C:\JBuilderX\jdk1.4\jre\lib\ext\ldapsec.jar;C:\JBuilderX\jdk1.4\jre\lib\ext\localedata.jar;C:\JBuilderX\jdk1.4\jre\lib\ext\sunjce_provider.jar;C:\JBuilderX\jdk1.4\jre\lib\im\indicim.jar;C:\JBuilderX\jdk1.4\jre\lib\im\thaiim.jar;C:\JBuilderX\jdk1.4\jre\lib\jce.jar;C:\JBuilderX\jdk1.4\jre\lib\jsse.jar;C:\JBuilderX\jdk1.4\jre\lib\plugin.jar;C:\JBuilderX\jdk1.4\jre\lib\rt.jar;C:\JBuilderX\jdk1.4\jre\lib\sunrsasign.jar;C:\JBuilderX\jdk1.4\lib\dt.jar;C:\JBuilderX\jdk1.4\lib\htmlconverter.jar;C:\JBuilderX\jdk1.4\lib\tools.jar;"/>
            </classpath>
        </java2wsdl>
        <wsdl2java all="true" debug="false" helperGen="true"
            noimports="false"
            output="/jbproject/WebServices/src"
            serverside="false" skeletonDeploy="false" testcase="true"
            typeMappingVersion="1.1"
            url="file:////jbproject/WebServices/TestService.wsdl"
            verbose="false" noWrapped="false" overWriteTypes="false">
            <mapping namespace="http://localhost-impl" package="generated"/>
            <mapping namespace="http://localhost" package="generated"/>
            <mapping namespace="http://localhost-intf" package="generated"/>
        </wsdl2java>
    </target>
</project>


Buildfile: build_axis.xml
JB_Default_Task:
[java2wsdl] Java2WSDL net.cellc.webservices.evm.TestService
[java2wsdl] java.lang.ExceptionInInitializerError
[java2wsdl] at java.lang.Class.forName0(Native Method)
[java2wsdl] at java.lang.Class.forName(Class.java:219)
[java2wsdl] at org.apache.axis.utils.ClassUtils$2.run(ClassUtils.java:179)
[java2wsdl] at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
[java2wsdl] at org.apache.axis.utils.ClassUtils.loadClass(ClassUtils.java:171)
[java2wsdl] at org.apache.axis.utils.ClassUtils.forName(ClassUtils.java:112)
[java2wsdl] at org.apache.axis.wsdl.fromJava.Emitter.setCls(Emitter.java:1477)
[java2wsdl] at org.apache.axis.tools.ant.wsdl.Java2WsdlAntTask.execute(Java2WsdlAntTask.java:212)
[java2wsdl] at org.apache.tools.ant.Task.perform(Task.java:341)
[java2wsdl] at org.apache.tools.ant.Target.execute(Target.java:309)
[java2wsdl] at org.apache.tools.ant.Target.performTasks(Target.java:336)
[java2wsdl] at org.apache.tools.ant.Project.executeTarget(Project.java:1339)
[java2wsdl] at org.apache.tools.ant.Project.executeTargets(Project.java:1255)
[java2wsdl] at org.apache.tools.ant.Main.runBuild(Main.java:609)
[java2wsdl] at org.apache.tools.ant.Main.start(Main.java:196)
[java2wsdl] at org.apache.tools.ant.Main.main(Main.java:235)
[java2wsdl] Caused by: org.apache.commons.logging.LogConfigurationException: org.apache.commons.logging.LogConfigurationException: org.apache.commons.logging.LogConfigurationException: Class
    org.apache.commons.logging.impl.Log4JLogger does not implement Log
[java2wsdl] at org.apache.commons.logging.impl.LogFactoryImpl.newInstance(LogFactoryImpl.java:532)
[java2wsdl] at org.apache.commons.logging.impl.LogFactoryImpl.getInstance(LogFactoryImpl.java:272)
[java2wsdl] at org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory.getLog(LogFactory.java:414)
[java2wsdl] at org.apache.axis.components.logger.LogFactory.getLog(LogFactory.java:76)
[java2wsdl] at net.cellc.webservices.evm.TestService.<clinit>(TestService.java:14)
[java2wsdl] ... 16 more
[java2wsdl] Caused by: org.apache.commons.logging.LogConfigurationException: org.apache.commons.logging.LogConfigurationException: Class org.apache.commons.logging.impl.Log4JLogger does not
    implement Log
[java2wsdl] at org.apache.commons.logging.impl.LogFactoryImpl.getLogConstructor(LogFactoryImpl.java:416)
[java2wsdl] at org.apache.commons.logging.impl.LogFactoryImpl.newInstance(LogFactoryImpl.java:525)
[java2wsdl] ... 20 more
[java2wsdl] Caused by: org.apache.commons.logging.LogConfigurationException: Class org.apache.commons.logging.impl.Log4JLogger does not implement Log
[java2wsdl] at org.apache.commons.logging.impl.LogFactoryImpl.getLogConstructor(LogFactoryImpl.java:412)
[java2wsdl] ... 21 more

Hello all

i was wondering if jbuilder x a better option for java beans? i'm useing JB 9 for over an year and in creating java beans it does not provide property editors.

shd i go for JB 10? If anyone has used it , pls tell me .

thanks in advance.

Sujatha.