EGL Web Developer Tools version 0.8 is available...

... and with it, a proposed motto: "Ease of coding, ease of thought."

Here are some highlights of what's newly available:

• The service-access mechanism is more uniform. When you develop a Rich UI application, you invoke an EGL dedicated service by fulfilling a two-step process that is characteristic of the language:
  
  
  1. Define a binding variable; for example:
        myBindingVar HttpProxy;
  2. Embed the variable in an action statement; for example:
        call MyServiceType.myFunction("abc")
             using myBindingVar
             returning to myResponseHandler
             onException myExceptionHandler;
  
  The two-step process is in effect not only for service access, but for database access, too. 

• When you run the EGL deployer to prepare a service for Apache Tomcat, EGL configures the database JNDI detail for you, hiding the complexity.  

• The IDE has more function:
  
  • You can use a wizard to write back-end logic for maintaining a database. Your investment? A few keystrokes, a few clicks.
  • You can use a wizard to create an external type. In this way, you can more easily reuse Java code in your application. And you can still use a manual process to create an external type from Java or JavaScript code.

• You can configure the call statement to invoke code synchronously. Here's an example:

   result int;
   myString String = "abc";
   conn IBMiConnection? = 
         SysLib.getResource("binding:someEntry");
      try
         call MyHostProcedure(myString) 
            using conn
            returns (result);
      onException(exception AnyException)
         //handle exception
      end  

For now, the synchronous call statement is available only to invoke an IBM i program from EGL code that is generated to Java.

• Did I mention support for IBM i?  We even provide a way to access an IBM i program from a Rich UI application.

• Rich UI itself is improving:
  
  • To provide better download performance, we've reduced the size of the downloaded code and are switching to Asynchronous Module Definition, which is a standard technology for loading code on the web.
  • Support for Dojo is based on Dojo toolkit version 1.7.
  • Arbitrary data of any type can be stored and accessed by a Rich UI widget, for a more logical pattern of data assignment and use.

The technology is gaining value, whether you need to write spiffy web apps, access enterprise data, or do both. Why not take a closer look?

• See what's new and noteworthy
• Download the EGL Web Development Tools
• Review and contribute to the EDT project wiki