Course Description

This course thoroughly covers a choice of either WebSphere Studio Application Developer (WSAD), or Rational Application Developer (RAD). It is focused on the tool rather than on general J2EE development concept such as the servlet life cycle, and assumes the student has experience with servlet and JSP development.

This course thoroughly covers Struts development using WSAD/RAD for the WebSphere environment. After an overview of the key development features in WSAD/RAD, the course covers advanced servlet and Java Server Page (JSP) development.

After introducing custom tag libraries, we illustrate the best practice application of the MVC patterns in servlet and JSP development effectively using the Command pattern. From this foundation we detail the Struts framework and its custom tags.

This course emphasizes a hands-on approach. Short lectures introduce each major topic and then extensive laboratory exercises are used to give the student practical experience with the various WSAD/RAD perspectives. The exercises and the labs build on each other and produce a complete working project by the end of the course. A few small independent exercises are also used to illustrate particular points not easily brought out in the cumulative class project.

Since this course is focused on development and not deployment, the WebSphere Application Server (WAS) per se is not covered, however, the integrated WebSphere Test Environment, which is based on WAS, is covered in detail.

Differences in the configuration of the development environment under NT and the deployment environment under UNIX will be covered. Particular attention will be paid to file packaging (EAR file) and exporting.

By the end of the course, students will feel comfortable using WSAD/RAD for day-to-day development.

(Note: the course focuses on WSAD/RAD, and although mention will be made of the underlying Eclipse technology and how plug-ins are used to extend WSAD/RAD, the course will not cover Eclipse or Plug-in development in any detail).

Course Objectives

Upon completion of the course, participants will be able to:

• Understand the foundations of WSAD/RAD and its open framework
• · Import Java code into the WSAD/RAD tool
• Use the WSAD/RAD Web perspective to develop, edit and debug servlet and Java programs
• Use WSAD/RAD to manage versions of Java code
• Understand how to create custom JSP tag libraries.
• Understand the foundations of WSAD/RAD and its open framework
• Understand how to use the WSAD/RAD for Java Editor, Debugger and other features.
• Understand Servlet and JSP development and testing with WSAD/RAD.
• Understand J2EE Design Patterns and how to use them.
• Feel comfortable using WSAD/RAD as their primary development tool
• Be able to edit, test and debug java code, servlets and JSPs in WSAD/RAD
• Understand how to set up WSAD/RAD to work in their environment
• Know how to use the CLASS_PATH variable and all build path options
• Understand custom tag libraries and how to create a simple custom tag library
• Understand XML and its uses in J2EE.
• Understand the Struts tags and framework
• Be able to edit, test and debug Struts applications in WSAD/RAD
• Understand custom tag libraries and how to create a simple custom tag library
• Struts develop best practices – requirements, screen flows, action mappings, JSP and business logic development
• Struts and internationalization support
• Struts-based form validation
• Application error-handling
• Page development with Tiles and Tile templates
• Tiles with WSAD
• Struts and Tiles
• Struts and XML/XSLT

Contact us for a detailed course outline