"No quotes this month."
--Joe Pluta

Welcome to my first article on the new WebSphere Version 5 products. I know I've been promising this information, and since the two main products--WebSphere Application Server (WAS) and WebSphere Development Studio client (WDSc)--have finally been made generally available, it's time to start spilling the beans. Unfortunately, for reasons that I shall divulge shortly, this column doesn't have all the information that I wanted it to have, but it will serve as a substantial introduction to both products.

So what will this column cover?

• WebSphere Express--what the versions are, who can get them and how, and what the differences are between Express and previous versions
• WebSphere Development Studio client for iSeries--what's in the new version

MC Mag Online has been providing its readers with a wealth of information on these topics. Sue Kelling's article provided a great starting point for WebSphere Express information and even touched on a little bit of which WDSc versions were available; I suggest reviewing it to get IBM's official position on a lot of these things. At the same time, you might also want to hear from the field. I've been involved in the beta programs for both WebSphere Express and WebSphere Development Studio client for iSeries, so I can give you some first-hand knowledge of the products.

First, WebSphere Express

The biggest problem here is that I can't talk specifically about the GA version. Why? Because it's not here yet. I called 1-800-IBM-CALL to try to get my copies of WebSphere Express and WebSphere Development Studio client, and I ran into some difficulties. First, I was told it would take two or three weeks to send me CDs for WebSphere Express. I was told that this is because "we don't carry these CDs on the shelf; we have to custom copy them for your individual machine." Interesting. They can package an entire iPTF order for download in about a half an hour, but it takes two or three weeks to cut and ship the WebSphere Express CD. Not particularly express, now is it?

Since I'm a member of the Early Entitlement Program, I was able to download the Windows/Linux version. Granted, it took a while--it's nearly 500 MB of download. Not for the faint of heart or for the dial-up connected (the time required is more than 35 hours at 28.8 Kbps).

The Versions

But let's talk about that, shall we? Because this is where things can get really confused. WebSphere Application Server is a huge beast now, with multiple versions that can run on multiple platforms, each with multiple editions. Let's assume for the moment that we're not concerned about WebSphere Versions 4.0 and prior (although I'll compare them to the current version later in this column). That will at least reduce our complexity one order of magnitude. So now we have at least reduced the issues to platform and edition.

Let's take edition first. WAS Express V5.0 is the entry-level server. It doesn't have any EJB support, so it's basically a JSP/servlet engine, running the latest Servlets 2.3 and JSP 1.2 versions. This is not bad; these JSP/servlet capabilities are enough to run many different Web architectures, including WebFaced applications. Pricing is very affordable, with either a flat fee option of $2,000 per processor or a user-based price of $25 per user in groups of 20 users. So, for a small shop, you could theoretically get by using WebSphere Express for $500.

The next step up, the "base edition" of WAS, simply known as WAS V5.0, is a more fully featured Web application server, with support for EJB and client-side applications (these are thick-client applications running on the workstation that communicate with an EJB server on the host). The annoying thing is that it's almost impossible to find the pricing information specific to the iSeries. The Web site has prices for the Windows/Linux and zSeries versions, priced identically at around $7,000 for a single-processor license.

The "network deployment" version, known as WAS 5.0 Network Deployment--which is supposed to allow coordination between multiple machines for things like workload management, application deployment, and failover--is priced at about $11,000 for the single-processor license. Its price is also available on the same page as the WAS base edition, but as I noted, that page doesn't have prices for the iSeries. Since, unlike the Express version, these two products do not have public iSeries pricing, I'm still unclear as to exactly how the iSeries pricing works.

One other interesting note: There is an enterprise edition for WAS that is not offered for the iSeries. This edition is designed to support multiple back-end servers, so perhaps the idea was that it only made sense in a PC server farm. I'll be interested to learn more about that particular offering, though, because the marketing material I've seen has a whole bunch of nifty buzzwords like "integrated workflow," "business rules," "provision and audit capabilities," "self-healing technologies," and "grid computing."

And, speaking of PCs, let's finally talk about platforms. As far as I can tell, there are three platform flavors: micro, midrange, and mainframe. Micro covers everything from Windows to Linux, with Solaris and AIX thrown in. The mainframe version is for Linux on the zSeries. And that leaves the midrange version, which is sort of the cousin nobody talks about. In some IBM literature, you'll see OS/400 or iSeries mentioned, on others you won't. For example, OS/400 is clearly mentioned here, but is nowhere to be found here. In this document, IBM mentions both WAS Express and Network Deployment for the iSeries, but not the base edition. Yet, if you check the price sheets here and here, you'll see that only WAS Express has a price for an iSeries version; the other two editions do not. It's as if IBM never quite figured out what it was selling on the iSeries. But word on the street is that you can get WAS Express, WAS Base Edition, and WAS Network Deployment all for the iSeries, with prices equivalent to the Windows/Linux version.

So Who Can Get What?

Well, that's a pretty big question. The short answer is anyone with V5R1 of OS/400 on a Model 270 or above with 300 CPW of power and at least 512 MB of RAM and about a gigabyte of available disk space. You also need at least Version 1.3 of the JVM (5722JV1 option 5) and QShell (5722SS1 option 30) installed, along with TCP/IP (5722TC1) and an HTTP server (5722DG1). All of those prerequisite products are no-cost products, but they need to be installed and all PTFs applied.
Realistically, you need at least about 1 GB of RAM to run reasonably well. And then you have to get the appropriate edition. How do you determine which edition you need? Well, unless you're using EJBs, I'd really stick with WebSphere Express. It's very cheap...and here's your bonus for the day: If you have WebSphere 3.5 Standard Edition, you can upgrade it to WebSphere Express free of charge. That's what I'm doing, though it turns out that it takes several weeks, as I noted at the beginning of this section.

How Does It Compare with Other Versions?

Well, that depends on which version you compare to. Remember that I'm not working with the GA version and, because of that, I really don't know everything available or planned just yet, so take what I tell you here with a tiny grain of salt. But for the most part, if you really liked WAS 4, you will be thrilled with WAS 5. Much of it is the same, with the basic J2EE deployment model of WAR and EAR files. The biggest change is the absolutely stellar browser-based control application. The infamous WebSphere Administration Client application (known and despised far and wide as adminclient) is gone, and now you can actually configure your iSeries without having to install software on a PC. Go figure!

On the other hand... you knew there'd be another hand, didn't you? If, like me, you really liked the flexibility and simplicity of WAS 3.5 and its common-sense classpath and directory setup, then you will be beside yourself trying to get used to WAS 5. The J2EE deployment model is followed. And the J2EE folks, rather than take the time to design a real deployment architecture, simply adopted the conventions that UNIX developers have been using for folder names (names like "lib" and "WEB-INF," case sensitive). And while the WAS designers could have given us the best of both worlds by allowing both a WAS 3.5 style of configurable applications and the UNIX-style predefined applications, they instead chose blind adherence to the J2EE standard. And that's unfortunate because even the standard itself says it is only a recommendation:

"This specification defines a hierarchical structure used for deployment and
packaging purposes that can exist in an open file system, in an archive file, or in
some other form. It is recommended, but not required, that servlet containers
support this structure as a runtime representation."

So, according to the specification itself, this structure is just a recommendation. The servlet container should support it, but it doesn't have to, and it certainly isn't required to be the only structure supported. Unfortunately, IBM began embracing the J2EE conventions in WAS 4 and evidently decided that this was the exclusive standard by the time WAS 5 was released. I won't go into great detail about how really bad this model is; suffice it to say that if you are deploying anything more complex than a single, isolated tool, chances are you're going to have some challenges with J2EE's very simple, singly rooted folder hierarchy. It's a little bit like having a library list with only one library in it.

To sum up, I'd say WAS 5 is better than WAS 4, especially in light of the browser-based configuration, but because of its unfortunate literal adherence to the J2EE servlet specification, it's not as flexible as WAS 3.5.

And Now, WDSC

But while I haven't gotten exactly the response I wanted for WebSphere Express, it's still better than my luck with WDSc. While WDSc is free to those of us who have software subscription to WDS, don't try to order it on Sunday. 1-800-IBM-CALL doesn't work on weekends or evenings. I don't understand the logic of allowing a software purchase line to be closed 65% of the time, but that's not my call.

I tried again on Monday and at least got through. After a little confusion, the nice lady on the other end of the line told me my order was complete. I asked when I would get my software, and she said she thought it would be 7-10 business days. So, in two weeks, I'll be getting software that, in my opinion, I should have been able to download. In any case, I'm unable to talk about the GA version. That will have to wait until my next column.

In this column, though, I can at least tell you what I see in the current version. So what do I see? I see several things:

1. The environment is becoming more stable. The Eclipse IDE is starting to take shape and settle down a bit. WDSc5 is built on Eclipse Version 2.0, which is considerably more stable than Eclipse 1.0. It's still not the fastest thing in the world; loading takes time, and switching perspectives can cause a long delay. But the look and feel of the tool is getting better with every new release. Version 2.1 of Eclipse just came out, and it's even better; I hope WDSc is upgraded to use the new version soon.

2. The LPEX editors advanced tremendously. The editors for RPG and COBOL are now quite usable for development. They're neither as fully featured nor as fast as the CODE/400 editors, but the LPEX editors can definitely be used. It's a good thing, though, that the CODE/400 editors are still included, especially since there's nothing in the LPEX editors to replace Code Designer. Creating screens is still a matter of entering source and then testing the results. Even SDA does a better job than this.

3. The Java Development Tooling (JDT) is the LPEX editor for Java, and it is really very nice. And since I've seen the enhancements in the JDT that are coming with Version 2.1 of Eclipse, I can only wait with anticipation for WDSc to support the newer release. But in this release, there are things like source reformatting and generation of getters and setters and refactoring that are simply light years ahead of the old version. At the same time, I don't think the JDT quite measures up to VisualAge for Java, but I'm finding it harder and harder to say why. I suspect that by next release I will be willing to give up my beloved VAJ.

4. The test environment is possibly the best thing I've ever worked with. Let's say you have a servlet that creates a bean, sets some values, and stores it in the HTTP session. The servlet then fires off a JavaServer Page (JSP) using the forward() method. The JSP in turn reads in the bean and displays its values. Well, you can set breakpoints in the servlet, in the JSP, and in the bean and then launch the servlet in any of five environments (including WebSphere 5 and WebSphere 5 Express), and the debugger will stop you at each appropriate point, putting the appropriate source member in an editor pane and positioning you to the line where the breakpoint occurred. I'll have a lot more to add when I do my full review of WDSc.

Versions?

This is the part I'm most worried about. I'm under the impression that there are now multiple flavors of WDSC (like everything else IBM puts out these days). In this case, there are standard and advanced versions of WDSC, and it's still a bit unclear as to what is in each version or what the pricing structure is for the two versions. I'll know more for sure in a later column, but for now the word on the street is as follows:

1. WDSc standard is the version we all get for free if we have 5722-WDS (up-to-date and on software subscription). Order product 5722-WDS, feature 5903. This is a free upgrade. It takes 7-10 business days to ship.

2. WDSc advanced contains more features, including some EJB support and some additional WebFacing features. This is product 5722-WDS, feature 5904, and is not a free upgrade. The cost is still unclear, but from what I have been able to determine, it's from $4,000 to $40,000, depending on processor group.

In Summary

WAS 5X and WDSc 5 are finally here, and we can finally talk about them! They're a little difficult to get, but if the early releases are any indication, the final products have lots of great features. I'll be showing you lots of screen shots in upcoming columns, so stay tuned.

This is not the land of Perfect; there are a few shortcomings, as can be expected in any release this ambitious, but for the first time in a long time, I'm actually looking forward to the next year of development. That's because for the first time in a long time, the release has more features to aid my productivity than marketing moves to stifle it. This release is not without its marketing spin, but the developers' work by far outweighs anything the sales and marketing types can do to break it.

Joe Pluta is the founder and chief architect of Pluta Brothers Design, Inc. He has been working in the field since the late 1970s and has made a career of extending the IBM midrange, starting back in the days of the IBM System/3. Joe has used WebSphere extensively, especially as the base for PSC/400, the only product that can move your legacy systems to the Web using simple green-screen commands. Joe is also the author of E-Deployment: The Fastest Path to the Web and the soon-to-be-released Eclipse: Step by Step. You can reach him at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..