Introduction to Rational Application Developer

You can use IBM® Rational® Application Developer for WebSphere® Software to design, develop, analyze, test, profile, and deploy high-quality web, service-oriented architecture (SOA), Java™, Java EE, Web 2.0, mobile, OSGi, and portal applications.

Rational Application Developer is part of the Rational Software Delivery Platform family of products. Built on Eclipse, it is an extensible and customizable platform for constructing and integrating software development tools. Each product in the Rational desktop family uses the same integrated development environment (IDE). The differences among these products reflect the optional features that are available and installed in each configuration.

With Rational Application Developer open, click Help > Welcome to access an overview of features, descriptions of new tools, links to tutorials and samples, links to get started, and links to web resources.

The following table lists and describes some of the features that are available in Rational Application Developer:

Feature	Description
Web developer tools	Graphical tools for building powerful server-side web applications that are based on JavaServer Faces, JavaServer Pages, Portals, and Portlets Tools for HTML 5, CSS 3, JavaScript, and jQuery (jQuery Core 1.9.1, jQuery Mobile 1.3.1) Rich Page Editor, a WYSIWYG and source editor Simulation and testing tools to see how your application looks and test on fixed and mobile devices
Enterprise developer tools	Editors, validators, quick fixes, and many other tools that simplify the development process with complex programming models and help you focus on automating your business Support for Java EE, from the web (JSF, JSP) to the middle tier (EJB) and beyond (JPA, JCA) Support for frameworks for building modular, service oriented software (OSGi)
Rapid development and testing	WebSphere Application Server Liberty profile, a developer-friendly application server that starts in seconds Test tools for JSPs, JSFs, REST services, web services, EJBs, and more Server and specification migration wizards Broad, rich integration between Rational Application Developer and several versions of WebSphere Application Server and WebSphere Portal Server
Collaboration, quality, and build	Team collaboration with the Rational Team Concert™ client A multi-language debugger that can transfer debug sessions in real time, or across time zones Code quality tools that are tied into the editing, check-in, and build phases of the development cycle Static and dynamic analysis tools for finding anti-patterns, performance problems, memory leaks, and misbehaving threads Integration with Apache Maven
Cloud computing	Direct integration between Rational Application Developer and IBM SmartCloud® that offloads your WebSphere Application Server from the desktop to the public cloud. See Cloud Foundry.

What's new in Version 9.7

Node-RED support to create "Internet of Things" applications
- Integration of Node-RED runtime
- Integration of Node-RED editor
- Node-RED Explorer
EGit Extension Tools
- Improved merge tool to resolve merge conflicts
- Cross repository tool to deliver changes to multiple repositories or branches
- Stash search tool
Java EE 8 support with limitations
- Java™ EE 8 provides a number of new or enhanced features supported by this release. Rational Application Developer now supports the Java™ Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE) 8.
- The new and enhanced features of this platform include support for Bean Validation 2.0, CDI 2.0, Servlet 4.0, JAX-RS v2.1, and the Enterprise Application EAR v8.0.
- See Java EE 8 in Liberty, which works with Rational Application Developer, for details.
- There are limitations for this support as outlined in the following document: Java EE 8 and JPA Tools Limitations for RAD 9.7.

To see what is new in this version 9.7, see Rational Application Developer for WebSphere Software, Version 9.7 new features and enhancements

Supported servers

Rational Application Developer supports the following versions of WebSphere Application Server:

WebSphere Application Server Version 8.5
WebSphere Application Server Version 9.0
WebSphere Application Server Version 8.5.5 or later Liberty Profile
WebSphere Application Server Version 8.5.5 or later Next Beta Liberty Profile
WebSphere Application Server Version 8.5.5 or later Liberty Core

Getting help

Use the Rational Application Developer documentation to access detailed information for completing your tasks and for samples, tutorials, and web resources.

Type of information	How to access
Browse the high-level overview topics and find quick links to useful tutorials, samples, and web resources.	Click Help > Welcome.
Read the detailed help for completing your tasks. You can search, browse, or use the master index.	Click Help > Help Contents.
View a library of tutorials, which includes movies, tours, and text-based lessons.	Click Help > Help Contents > Tutorials.
Access a collection of samples, including full-scale applications and simple code examples in various technologies.	Click Help > Help Contents > Samples.

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