Setting up the development environment

To develop web applications to run in the Liberty JVM server, you must install the servlet and JSP feature that is supplied with the CICS Explorer® SDK, or use popular build toolchains such as Maven or Gradle.

About this task

If you use the CICS Explorer SDK:

With the developer tools for the Liberty profile, you can develop servlet and JSP applications that can run in an instance of a Liberty profile server. The Liberty profile is an instance of an application server that is supplied with WebSphere® Application Server to run simple web applications. It is quick to configure, deploy, and start.

You can also run servlets and JSP pages in a CICS® environment, by installing the web application in a Liberty JVM server. The CICS Explorer SDK provides the tools to develop and deploy Java™ applications for CICS. You can use these tools with the developer tools to deploy Java applications with a web interface to CICS.

Set the target platform to CICS TS V5.x Runtime with Liberty, or compilation errors might occur when you create examples in your workplace. See Creating the servlet examples for more information.

When you install the IBM® CICS SDK for Servlet and JSP support in CICS Explorer, installation includes a subset of the WebSphere Developer Tools, to support Liberty application development and enable export of OSGi application projects in EBA format.

Alternatively, you can use build toolchains such as Maven or Gradle in your IDE of choice. CICS provides a set of artifacts on Maven Central containing the JCICS, CICS annotation, CICS annotation processor libraries and a bill of material (BOM) for you to develop applications for CICS.

Procedure

To develop applications using the CICS Explorer SDK:
1. For details about installing the servlet and JSP feature that is supplied with CICS Explorer, see Downloading and installing CICS Explorer and Installing the CICS SDK for web and JSP in the CICS Explorer product documentation.
2. Restart your Eclipse IDE.
To use Maven or Gradle, your environment must fulfill either of the following prerequisites:
- If you want to use Maven or Gradle with the command line, you must install them on your machine. See Downloading and Installing Maven and Installing Gradle.
- Your IDE must support Maven or Gradle. Such IDEs include Eclipse, IntelliJ IDEA, and Visual Studio Code.

Results

You now have the environment to develop web applications to run in a Liberty JVM server.

What to do next

You can start developing web applications to run in the Liberty JVM server. If you're using the CICS Explorer SDK, you can use the examples that are provided with the CICS Explorer SDK to get started. For more information, see Getting started with the servlet examples.