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November
2007
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EDITORIAL
by Philippe Magne, CEO |
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ANT
scripting language...
In
this new edition of our newsletter,
I will focus on the ANT
scripting language. You may not know
ANT yet, unless you are a Java
programmer, or you have Java
programmers on your team. Since
its inception in 2000, ANT
has become a de facto standard
in the Java community. To give
you some perspective, one may
say that ANT
is to Windows, UNIX and Linux, what CL
is to System i. It is used to
automate sequences of creating
executable code, as well as
transfers of components between
environments.
The
ARCAD solutions are built on
the use of this language for
all test automation and moves
to production in a multi-platform context.
This approach gives ARCAD solutions a remarkable
ability to adapt to all of our customers’ technical
contexts, as it is true that their characteristics
are numerous, given the multiplicity of new
technologies.
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ARCAD Software decided
to be an integral part
of the ANT user community
by offering in its
new version the basic
functions essential
in the management of
software components.
These functions relate
to the actions of copy
and deletion of components.
Indeed, ANT does not
offer traceability
(who did what? when?
where?) nor any element
of security (no "undo" by
default).
These are the gaps that the ARCAD functions
will fill. They are a way to acquaint this
large community of developers with the value
of ARCAD technology, and also to bring
a concrete and pragmatic response to managing
increasing
heterogeneous information systems. We thus
bring to our System i customers our expertise
in multi-platform development.
I invite you to discover more detail from our
technical director on all aspects of this language
and the added value in brings in your context.
Do not miss lingering on our rich events news.
You can see that ARCAD is progressing rapidly
at this time, to our and your great satisfaction.
Sincerely,
Philippe
MAGNE
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ANT… by Michel
MOUCHON, Technical Director. |
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ANT…
APACHE ANT is
an Open Source tool
that automates tasks involved in the construction
and deployment of Web applications.
It is a modern evolution of the "make
files" concept created in C development
tools a few years ago. ANT is a Java-based
build tool. In theory, it is kind of
like Make, without Make's wrinkles
and with the full portability of pure
Java code.
James Duncan Davidson, the father of TOMCAT, created
ANT (“Another Neat Tool”) for TOMCAT. ANT
was separated from TOMCAT and gained its independence
in January 2000, with the initial version released
on July 19, 2000 (V 1.1). The current version is V
1.7, released on December 19, 2006.
Different
characteristics make it platform
independent:
- It
is written in Java,
- It is based on XML syntax,
syntax independent of the platform,
- One of the major entities of
ANT is the task, also independent
of the platform used.
- Platform independence means
it is available in the UNIX/Linux
and Windows worlds, and also
on System i.
Other
sophisticated and modern features
include the following:
- XML
is used to provide simplified
syntax checks (DTD),
- XML
allows the use of user-friendly
editing tools (without imposing
them),
- XML is very readable.
It
is based on a set of core "tasks" that
launch logic dependant on those tasks.
The tasks allow actions such as copy/archiving,
construction/compilation, and documentation
generation (JAVADOC) up until Web
applications are packaged for deployment.
ANT
is an Open Source project, and
its association with TOMCAT initially
facilitated its adoption by the
Java community. In addition, it
is easily extensible in
JAVA (as
opposed to tools based on "shell" operating
systems that immediately create
platform dependencies). A large
developer community has therefore
developed a significant number
of complementary libraries to offer
a substantial panel of tasks on
various technologies such as APACHE/TOMCAT
application server, IBM
Websphere application server or JBOSS, and
also .Net, to name only some examples.
It has today become
the standard in its field
and is available in all IDEs, such as Eclipse
for example. Coupled with the ARCAD
Execution agent, ANT can now be integrated
into any change process on any system.
This gives organizations much more
power and control over their environments.
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ANT,
the ARCAD choice… by Michel
MOUCHON, Technical Director. |
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ANT,
the ARCAD Choice...
At ARCAD, we have worked for many years to automate
all the tasks needed to streamline the application
lifecycle and information systems in general. Therefore,
very early on, we developed a technical building block
called Macro-Maker to address this need for automation
and flexibility.
For a number of years now, the diversity of information
systems has increased the complexity of application
maintenance. We chose ANT as a complementary building
block to Macro-Maker, for its multiple advantages:
- Multi-platform capability
- Recognized by the Java community
- Easily expandable
- Integrated with Eclipse/IBM
RAD-WDSc
How
are ARCAD Macro-maker and Apache
ANT integrated?
Macro-maker drives
processes, among
them ANT scripts
that can be run
on Windows/UNIX/Linux.
Other platform
tasks that meet
ARCAD needs,
and that run
with the same
level of functionality
as other operations
in ARCAD, need
to be launched
by ANT.
So we worked
on two fronts:
1. First,
our Multi-Platform
Execution Agent
allows the execution
of scripts or
ANT file scripts
(with back-up
of logs on the
associated platform).
2. Second,
an ARCAD-specific
library of ANT
tasks was developed
to introduce
the same level
of security and
traceability
as provided standard
with ARCAD Macro-Maker.
Thus, tasks equivalent
to the existing
list manager
features were
created, and
the basic ANT “copy” was
upgraded to offer
traceability
/ security equivalent
to the basic
ARCAD copy command
(TFROBJ). From
this foundation
we can now offer
rollback and
transaction functions
(ARCAD STRTFRCTL.
and ENDTFRCTL
commands), among
others.
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Users
Forum 2007 and ARCAD’s 15th
Anniversary |
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Users
Forum 2007 and ARCAD’s 15th
Anniversary...
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This
year, the ninth ARCAD
Software Users Forum,
which took place in Annecy,
France, on September
21, was followed by a
gala evening in honor
of our 15th anniversary.
We welcomed more than
sixty participants from
around the world, reflecting
ARCAD’s international
presence.
To
download the presentations click
here
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Chairman
Philippe Magne began the day with
an outline
of sales prospects as well as growth
promoters for the System i market.
He also presented ARCAD’s medium-
to long-term positioning strategies
vis-à-vis these major market
trends.
Philippe then spoke about the ARCAD
evolution project, for which we received
the support of OSEO Anvar and the “Innovative
Enterprise” label. This project
introduces a new face of ARCAD products
based on the changing structure of
information systems and our strategic
orientation towards integration management.
Modernization paths, as well as the
principles of an SOA approach were
at the heart of the discussion.
In a presentation
entitled, “Application
Development Strategy for System i,” special
guest speaker Alison Butterill,
Worldwide System i Application Development
Offering Manager at IBM, gave attendees
a very informative overview of the
System i Developer Road Atlas, which
has service-oriented architecture
as its ultimate destination.
After
lunch, Marc Dallas, ARCAD R&D
Director, introduced new functions
of our products lying
within the scope of the ARCAD evolution
project:
- integration
management corresponding to multiplatform
deployment,
- functional non-regression
tests in relation to the new version
of ARCAD-Verifier, and
- ARCAD-Extract
for coherent management of test
data sets.
Michel
Mouchon,
ARCAD Technical Director, then illustrated
these principals with a technical
product demonstration, assisted by
Ray Bernardi Senior Presales Consultant
(USA).
To
wrap up the educational portion
of the day, Trevor Perry,
CTO of KMR Systems Corporation, spoke
brilliantly on “Practical” Application
Modernization. Trevor presented 10
principal tips, and, with a good
amount of humor, addressed the questions “What
is modernization?”, “Why
should I modernize?”, and others.
The group then enjoyed a cruise on
Lake Annecy, followed by a sumptuous
dinner and musical entertainment
to celebrate our 15th anniversary.
Here, in no particular
order, are what attendees said they
appreciated most about the day: the
opportunity to meet other ARCAD users,
the ambiance, the discussions, the
warm and welcoming environment, the
mixture of cultures (France - USA),
the ARCAD strategy and the team spirit,
and of course, cruising on the lake
and our festive evening.
The entire ARCAD
team thanks our customers, who made
this day a great success. We hope
to see you next year at the User
Forum!
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Rich
events news for ARCAD...
- 22-24
October, 2007: Interaction
2007 -
Melbourne, Australia
- 22-25
October, 2007: ITSO
Forum & Briefing de IBM System i, Acapulco,
Mexico
- 30-31
October,
2007: The
System
i
Rochester
Roadshow
2007– Brighton,
UK
- 5-9
November, 2007: Fall
IBM Technical Conference – Orlando,
Florida
- 6
November 2007: COMMON
SUISSE "Rochester
et Toronto Road Show" -
Warwick Hotel, Geneva
- 8
November 2007: Application
Modernization seminar
-
IBM Forum Paris,
France
- 28
November 2007: ITIL
Seminar -
IBM Switzerland,
Geneva
See
Us at IBM Technical Conference
If
you are attending
IBM Technical
Conference
in Orlando,
Florida,
next week,
please stop
by to say
hello. We’ll
be exhibiting
in the Solution
Center from
November
5 to 7, and
we would
enjoy meeting
you face
to face.
It’s
a great opportunity
to check
out some
of the new
features
in our latest
release,
which are
particularly
interesting
if you are
involved
in application
modernization
projects.
See you in
Florida!
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Feel
free to request more information from
our Sales Department.
Email:
