This article, the first in a series, focuses on the installation and integration of IBM ® Rational® ClearCase® products with IBM WebSphere® Studio V5. Other articles in this series will describe unified change management (UCM) principles using Rational ClearCase, and best practices for team development of J2EE applications.
IBM offers various application development environments for different audiences, all of which extend the open-source initiative known as Eclipse. These products include WebSphere Studio Site Developer, WebSphere Studio Application Developer, WebSphere Studio Application Developer Integration Edition, and WebSphere Studio Enterprise Developer. For more information on which product is most suitable for you, see Resources below. From here on, this article will use WebSphere Studio to refer to the full WebSphere Studio family of products. Regardless of which WebSphere Studio product or products you are using, completing a large software project requires a closely coordinated team effort. Therefore, using a software configuration management (SCM) product such as Rational's ClearCase or ClearCase LT is essential for effective change management and successful project delivery.
For information on installation and use of Rational ClearCase within WebSphere Studio V5.0, see the excellent article by Reginaldo W. Barosa, Integrating Rational ClearCase LT and WebSphere Studio Application Developer V5. While that article goes into detail about installation and basic ClearCase operations, this article focuses on additional installation issues and use of the tools in the UCM context.
Improved team programming support in Eclipse 2.0
The WebSphere Studio V5 family of products extends Eclipse V2, whereas the WebSphere Studio V4 products extended Eclipse V1. Extending or contributing to Eclipse involves providing one or more related plug-ins that together comprise a feature.
Support for team development improved significantly in Eclipse V2, providing more stability and flexibility. By leveraging this new version of Eclipse, WebSphere Studio V5 can now support multiple repository vendors concurrently. Therefore you can have one project in a WebSphere Studio workspace managed by ClearCase, and another project managed by Concurrent Version System (CVS). Consequently, multiple repository client implementations (features and plug-ins) can be installed and can co-exist. In WebSphere Studio V4, you had to make a one-time decision during installation on which repository you wanted to use, and you were bound by that decision. A further improvement is that in WebSphere Studio V5, you can install repository clients from third-party vendors after the WebSphere Studio installation is complete. Therefore, organizations do not have to commit to a single team repository vendor when developing different applications with WebSphere Studio.
The improved flexibility of the team support in Eclipse V2 does not stop at multiple repository vendor support. It also supports multiple client implementations for the same repository. For example, a repository vendor may provide two different client implementations for the same repository -- one for novice users and one for advanced users. With ClearCase, IBM Rational provides one client implementation for both versions of its ClearCase servers: ClearCase LT, and the enterprise-scalable ClearCase. Furthermore, you can have two separate client implementations based on the repository in use. Another scenario for using multiple client implementations for the same repository derives from the open-source nature of Eclipse technology. That is, a poorly integrated client implementation for a particular vendor's repository could soon face competition from client implementations provided by ISVs. Therefore, not only do repository vendors face competition in providing the best repository server, they may also face competition in providing a client implementation that integrates well with Eclipse-based products, most notably WebSphere Studio.
Team programming generally requires at least two main components, the server (sometimes referred to as the repository), and a client. The client resides on developers' machines and lets them carry out two key operations -- sending changes to the shared repository, and retrieving changes made by other developers into their private workspaces. These two operations are collectively referred to as synchronization.
WebSphere Studio ships with both the client and server components for Rational ClearCase LT. The client component has two logical subcomponents. The plug-ins and features that integrate into WebSphere Studio (hereafter referred to as the ClearCase client SCM Adapter), and a separate client program that performs the actual communication with the server. The client program shipped with WebSphere Studio is compatible with Rational ClearCase LT only. If you are using the full ClearCase server, you must install the client program that Rational ships with the full ClearCase server. However, the SCM Adapter shipped with WebSphere Studio is compatible with the client program for both ClearCase LT and the full ClearCase. For information on the functional differences between ClearCase LT and the full ClearCase server, see Resources below.
The ClearCase LT Server, unlike the ClearCase client and SCM Adapter, can be installed on a single dedicated machine and does not need to be installed on every developer's workstation. A single ClearCase server (LT or the full Server) can be used to manage the repositories of many different projects. Managing projects, project milestones, and SCM policies from the ClearCase Server can become a full-time job within the team. Whoever fills this role should note that the ClearCase LT server that ships with WebSphere Studio obtains its licensing information automatically from the WebSphere Studio installation. Therefore, WebSphere Studio should be installed on the server machine as a ClearCase LT server. Naturally, if you are using the full ClearCase server, you will have a license key directly from Rational and will not need to install WebSphere Studio on the same machine as the full ClearCase server.
The client program for both ClearCase LT and the SCM Adapter are installable from the WebSphere Studio CDs. For the SCM Adapter to be successfully installed, you must explicitly select the Rational ClearCase Team Adapter during the installation of WebSphere Studio, as shown below:
Figure 1. Installing Rational ClearCase SCM Team Adapter
If you've already installed WebSphere Studio without selecting this option, you can install the SCM Adapter from the CD.
The client program for ClearCase LT with which the ClearCase SCM Adapter communicates can also be installed from the WebSphere Studio CDs. The installation program is separate from WebSphere Studio, and is the same one used to install the ClearCase LT Server. When the installation begins, you are prompted to choose the desired component to install the client or the server, as shown in Figures 2 and 3:
Figure 2. Installing Rational ClearCase LT client
Figure 3. Installing Rational ClearCase LT client
In Figure 3, despite the green checkmark, you may see a warning dialog after you clicking Next. You can ignore this warning. The client installation will also prompt you to provide the hostname for the server installation:
Figure 4. Specifying ClearCase Server hostname
Both the ClearCase client program and the server can communicate successfully only when running under users that are part of a network domain and when both are installed on Windows®.
ClearCase UCM vs. base ClearCase
Rational's UCM methodology involves tools as well as processes. Rational provides ClearQuest and ClearCase for those who want to take full advantage of UCM for project development. ClearQuest is not required, but is strongly recommended to fully exploit the UCM methodology. ClearCase is a general-purpose SCM tool that manages various types of applications in many different environments. Its strength lies in its rich functionality and flexibility. This general-purpose flexibility of ClearCase is often referred to as base ClearCase. After extensive observations of customer usage, Rational observed that most users follow a common usage pattern, and UCM refers to this pattern with the addition of key #x201cbest practices#x201d and tools support (ClearCase UCM). For more information on the Rational UCM methodology see Resources below.
Base ClearCase gives you with most if not all of the function that SCM tools provide for change management. ClearCase UCM recognizes that changes to artifacts normally occur in the context of certain project-related activities, where an activity is an object that records the set of files (the change set) that a developer creates or modifies to complete a development task such as a bug fix or the implementation of a feature. The completion of a project activity may affect one or more project components. Thus, ClearCase UCM is essentially founded upon two basic concepts: activity-based change management, and component management. In addition, the UCM process identifies key team roles, including project manager, developer, and integrator.
Figure 5. Project manager, developer, and integrator work flows
Figure 5 illustrates the key roles involved in the UCM process and the various tasks required by these roles. The project manager's role involves assigning components to teams, and assigning activities to various components. The other project manager responsibility is to create the actual ClearCase projects for work to be delivered to and to set policies for these projects on how change is to be managed. The role of the developer is to complete and deliver work activities, which involves making changes to files and directories under source control, and unit testing those changes. The integrator's primary responsibility is to accept delivered activities from developers, create new baselines for the various components to which activities have been delivered, build components against the new baseline, assign testing of the new baseline, and then promote the new baseline once testing is complete.
In addition to ClearCase, the other main UCM tool provided by Rational, ClearQuest, contributes to the UCM process through its ability to manage and track activity progress. However, it is not required for the developer role. For more information on ClearQuest and on the roles involved in the UCM process, see Resources below.
Among the key assets that ClearCase integration provides to WebSphere Studio, particularly in V5, are the UCM methodology and tools. The ClearCase client is divided into two pieces -- the actual client that communicates directly with the server, and the client adapter that integrates into WebSphere Studio as an Eclipse feature. Part 2 will focus on the role of the developer in the UCM process.
The authors wish to thank Dan England, Senior Technical Engineer, IBM Rational Software, for reviewing this article.
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Eclipse home page
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Integrating Rational ClearCase LT and
WebSphere Studio Application Developer V5
Ali Manji works with the WebSphere Studio Application Developer Service Team at the IBM Toronto Lab. You can reach Ali at amanji@ca.ibm.com.
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