What is RAD?
In addition to a market title, RAD can also be used to describe applications designed and developed within 60 to 90 days. James Martin puts this concept during the mid-1980s in the middle of Dupont. It is where he and the Scott Shultz use a methodology that it is called a fast interactive production prototype, and a system that develops an application, this prototype uses a flowchart to design a program and an application.
Martin is considered to be the father of computer-aided design, and his initial results have grown, increased and extended for our current design guidelines RAD. After years of development, RAD has grown to include a lot of basic principles used to define the RAD project.
First, the RAD project uses the prototype to portray the characteristics. RAD prototype helps us quickly enter the design process and demonstrate the look of the application and reduce the time to collect demand from the user to determine characteristics and functions.
The concept of RAD is that developers can usually build a prototype in a studio environment by a set of basic needs from users, and users can interact with this prototype and suggested, and this prototype is a joint demand. Design (JRD, JOINT Requirements Planning) or JRD, JRD, Joint Application Development process part. So any development tool or development platform that is touted as a RAD tool should be conveniently collecting user needs from a JRD studio and should quickly create an application prototype that can be viewed and modified in the JAD studio.
A good RAD tool should also provide developers with tools that use components-based architecture to quickly add and delete features, and add and delete features to be completed without having to rewrite the code. In addition to changing user requirements in the process of the RAD project, most items are "time-limited", which sets a time period for the project. Any feature or function that cannot be delivered within this time period should be deleted or postponed to future release.
The second feature to create an application using the RAD method is that there are many developers working on the same application, and these developers can play a lot of characters in their team. For example, there may be a developer that has created a schema for the application being discussed, and designs the user interface and the background code. The same resource may be also used to develop into test programs for testing applications, writing documents, and final training users. These roles can be assigned in a variety of resources in a more formal project. In a RAD project, time and resource limits usually mean that these (or more) roles must usually be held by a single developer. For IDEs supporting this aspect, it must adapt to different roles; instead, developers must support one of these characters.
In addition to the different roles in the support team, the RAD tool must also support the use of third-party components to deliver user needs. In the debate of building and purchasing, developers must be able to purchase them without time to build or do not tend to build components. For example, if a developer is coding and interface design, he must be able to integrate components that can reduce time required for each task (such as code base, UI components, etc.).
Finally, it is also the most important thing is that the last test of applications created using the RAD method is to see if these applications meet specific commercial purposes. In the general phase of the application, SDLC, Software Development LifeCyle creates a general phase of the application, there are many Deliverable products that can be delivered, including formal interviews, detailed design documents, with Semantic mapping, process documentation, etc. in existing system review.
In a RAD project, the primary problem is when the project is ended is "Is this app conforming to the business process it created?" If the answer is yes, then the project is known to be success. For this purpose, the RAD tool should provide the following capabilities to quickly create applications that solve the upcoming business problems. Although there are some SDLC elements including in the RAD project, this is not a primary problem. For example, for a real RAD tool, the ability to generate a flow chart or database scheme is not as important as the functionality required to deliver a business process. Test for five RAD tools
When viewing different development tools and development platforms, we analyze the typical RAD project elements, including fast and simple data entry form, and a simple database table that is bound to the background. According to RAD methodology, we use each tool to construct prototype, which places a tool to provide efficiency, which is to be improved. We also analyzed the Ide of the characteristics and functionality of the RAD design principles and the desired task adaptability.
Microsoft Visual Studio.net 2003
Visual Studio.net 2003 can be used to create web and windows applications for .NET Framework, which supports languages include C #, VB.NET, C , J # and other languages that support CLR compatibility, can be seen from Figure 1 Out. As a unique advantage of RAD, Visual Studio is multi-language support, which enables developers to build applications with components written in different languages, enabling organizations to effectively utilize existing skills within the organization.
For rapid creating prototypes, Visual Studio's performance is also quite prominent because it provides a lot of tools and components that can be used to quickly create data-driven applications. The tight integration with SQL Server is also a highlight, although developers who need to access information saved in other platforms may find that they are more troublesome to connect their underlying data.
Many database vendors have provided tools embedded to Visual Studio, including Oracle and DB2, which makes database integration no longer trouble. In addition to database support, the development of third-party components for Visual Studio is also very rapid, so that developers can purchase their required functional components, thereby saving time, and no need to grasp the skills to build this function.
A major disadvantage to seeing Visual Studio as a RAD tool is that Microsoft is not satisfactory for the tools provided by the developer team working on a project. For version and source control, most Visual Studio developers use Microsoft's Source Safe, which is difficult to use across multiple locations or workplaces. In addition, Visual Studio does not provide a lot of support for other developers (architects, testers, etc.), so you need to use Microsoft's other tools or third-party tools to meet these roles unique needs.
Microsoft recently announced that it will bundle a lot of new tools in the release of Visual Studio 2005, which is primarily provided to architecture, unit testing, and team development, but it is clear that this version and RAD project lack of these tools, you may have no time to go Wait a new version.
Figure 1: Microsoft Visual Studio.net
Sun Java Studio Creator
Sun recently released the first version of Java Studio Creator. Java Studio Creator can be used to create a JSP web application. As shown in Figure 2, this IDE itself organizes very well, but it does not have a long time in the market.
Creating prototypes using Java Studio Creator is a hassle process, even if you change the simple properties such as font names or font size, it may be difficult. SUN is a better place to develop multi-page applications, in Java Studio Creator, you can drag and drop in the page, which makes it easy to create a link between the page. Fortunately, although Java Studio Creator is lacking on the creation of prototypes, it performs well in other respects, providing the various things needed to develop and deploy Java applications, including a SQL database server, an application server , As well as Java SDK. For developers seeking to start Java development projects and using Java language, this package can make the project quickly expand.
However, for RAD projects that need a development team work together, Java Studio Creator is not very suitable - you'd better use Sun's Java Studio Enterprise products, which is a integrated kit for large development teams. But for a small development team that requires rapid access to the development status, Java Studio Creator may be suitable.
Speaking of third-party components, although there are currently many Java components, only few have fewer integration with Java Studio Creator IDE. With the maturity of this tool, you may see more support for integration tools, but in the first release version, it is difficult to more mature with other more mature tools.
Figure 2: Sun Java Studio Creator
BEA Web Logic Workshop 8.1
WebLogic Workshop 8.1 is a weapon into the RAD tool position, which can be used to create web applications, web services, JSPs, portals, EJBs, and process workflows. When you open WebLogic Workshop for the first time, you will notice that its viewing feelings are similar to other RAD tools, but WebLogic Workshop provides a lot of tools that make the originality of the web application easier.
First, data integration is compact, allowing you to quickly create data-driven web pages and sites, which provide a lot of pre-configured controls, using these controls to easily bind to data sources, as well as display, editing, and updating data. This tool also includes some controls that can be used to control duplicates and pages, and in other tools you have to manually write code to implement this feature. You can also use the page stream in WebLogic Workshop to separate the performance, business logic implementation, and navigation controls, as shown in Figure 3.
There is also a thrive group that is a third-party component provider group that they provide to extend the BEA WebLogic platform. Although the components available by the BEA WebLogic Workshop are now there are so many components available for Visual Studio, but several primary third-party tools (user interfaces, charts, graphics, additional features, reports, etc.) have appeared.
The user interface in WebLogic Workshop IDE is also very intuitive, even if you are a new hand developed by a BEA tool and Java. In addition, build (Build) and test applications are quite fast and simple in this IDE. This means that you can switch between multiple versions of an application, no wait for the generation process.
For developers developed for JSP development, Bea WebLogic Workshop provides the easiest way to develop JSP applications. Developers do not need to understand any underlying framework to enter the development state. For older Java developers, this IDE provides developers with a lot of advanced features that will make them feel comfortable and control the underlying components. As for interoperability, you can create a web service that can be consumed by other platforms or languages (including .NET) using BEA WebLogic Workshop, without having to interfere or modify the web service itself.
Figure 3: BEA WebLogic Workshop
Borland C # builder
Borland's C # Builder is a product for .NET development, C # Builder provides an alternative to creating a .NET Framework application. Borland has a lot of experience in creating IDE for different languages and platforms, and these experiences flashed rays in C # Builder, as shown in Figure 4.
First, create a prototype using C # Builder is a very easy process, neat and consistent IDE makes it easy to quickly create and typeset page elements. The user interface itself is similar to the UI in Visual Studio, and the developer is familiar with that environment, so it will not encounter any trouble using C # Builder. For compatibility between tools, the items created with C # Builder can be guided in the Visual Studio-compatible project.
In addition to the appearance of Visual Studio IDE, C # Builder can also use many third-party components and tools for Visual Studio, even if they are not written for C # Builder (need to confirm with third-party component suppliers before deep development process, To ensure that these components are supported in C # Builder).
For builds-driven applications, C # Builder compared to other RAD's ace is that the Object Request Broker's interoperability is provided by Janeva and Borland's object request agent (Object Request Broker) and the J2EE application, the object request agent is a targeting .NET Framework's Visibroker implementation. With Janeva, you can use the existing J2EE applications in your organization, which potentially saves the time of the RAD project.
C # Builder provides a good support for team-oriented development because it supports source code control and version control. Many tools and technologies from other Borland products make C # Builder to become an universal tool that uses it to model and build applications, and C # Builder also supports various development roles (architects, construction models, developers).
Figure 4: Borland C # Builder
IBM WebSphere Studio Application Developer
5.1.2
IBM enters the RAD tool market with its own IBM WebSphere Studio, IBM WebSphere Studio is a tool based on technology from the Eclipse project. As shown in Figure 5, WebSphere Studio is best suited for experienced development teams, which offer many advanced features, but do not doubt these advanced features will mess with Java development newcomers.
IBM's trade-shek is that WebSphere Studio can be seen as a "powerful tool" developed by RAD. When you create a web application prototype, you can quickly use the Web Site Navigations tool to lay out the entire site map for your application, then fill in other time. In addition, WebSphere Studio also comes with tools that support JavaServer Faces components. If you have Faces experience, it can increase your development speed. For the development of large teams, WebSphere Studio also uses Rational ClearCase LT to version control, using an integrated UML tool to work with architects working in this project. IBM is also very good at integrating Rational's technology into its development tools, which is an unexpected surprise for developers who seek a single supplier (or even a single product) solution.
Figure 5: IBM WebSphere Studio Application Developer
to sum up
It is important to choose a tool that satisfies all RAD principles from this set of tools. Each tool has its unique strengths and a place suitable for specific situations. For example, if considering a developer team with different CLR experiences quickly creates prototype, Visual Studio is a tool that best suits this environment.
On the other hand, if you need to build an application that integrates .NET and J2EE components, and you want to standardize it to a single language, C # Builder may be the tool that best suits this requirement. And a large number of third-party components and plugins means you can purchase common components without having to build them personally.
As for Java, the two horses and hard-driven are presented. The biggest advantage of IBM is that it integrates the Rational tool into its own product - in large development environments, this can increase development speed and reduce the time of prototype interaction.
Therefore, which tool to choose which tool to see your hand developer resources and their skills, there is also the platform you prefer and the features you need. Although no IDE seems to provide a complete RAD solution, they all offer enough RAD support enough to make them a competitor in your next RAD project.
