Environment for developing a widget

A simple environment is required for developing a widget.

Widgets are chunks of HTML code that can be used within mashups. Widgets can be developed using any Web authoring tools and can be written in a variety of Web technologies from HTML and JavaScript to Flex. The tools from the Rational family of products and the tools from WebSphere Integration Developer, provide an authoring environment (editors) for working with HTML and JavaScript files directly and for packaging that Web content into a Web archive for deployment.

In this section, we discuss the key parts of the widget development environment: the editor, the browser, and the testing and deployment environment and tools. We also discuss the expected background of someone who wants to develop his own widget using this documentation.

Editor

The editor you work with is a matter of preference. Any text editor, for example, Notepad, will do. However, since you are working with either XML or JavaScript, an editor or editors that are designed for XML or JavaScript code will make your coding easier in terms of checking the code and handling the formatting.

Since widgets will run on servers for IBM's Rational and WebSphere families, you may wish to use the tools in the integrated development environments (IDEs) that are associated with these families such as Rational Application Developer and WebSphere Integration Developer.

Browser

As with the editor, your browser is a matter of preference. Firefox and Internet Explorer are popular browsers used for widget development.

Do not forget that the integrated development environments for the Rational and WebSphere family of products, such as Rational Application Developer or WebSphere Integration Developer, also have the capability of launching browsers such as FireFox or Internet Explorer. In fact, they contain everything you need: an editor, the ability to launch a browser and a runtime environment that supports Business Space widgets.

Deploying, registering and testing

Once you have developed your widgets, you need to deploy them, which means packaging them by creating an Enterprise Archive (EAR) file and a Web Archive (WAR) file and deploying them to a server. You will also need to register your widgets with the server. Then you should test your widgets; that is, start up your server, create a business space and a new page, and work with them like a user would.

Since WebSphere Application Server and WebSphere Process Server support Business Space widgets and these servers are a included in the integrated development environments from Rational Application Developer or WebSphere Integration Developer, you may wish to use these integrated development environments for packaging your widgets, deploying them and testing them.

For client-side testing, the following Firefox add ons are useful:

Widget developer background

If you want to develop your own widget following this widget development guide, you should have a working knowledge of the following areas:

  • Dojo 1.0.2 (for Business Space 6.2 and 6.2.0.1) or Dojo 1.0.3 (for Business Space 6.2.0.3)
  • Extensible Markup Language (XML).
  • HyperText Markup Language (HTML)
  • iWidgets
  • Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE).
  • JavaScript.
  • Representational State Transfer (REST)
  • Web services.

Now that you know about the development environment, it's time to develop your own widgets as discussed in Creating widgets.