Image of skyscrapers superimposed with a grid representing the World Wide Web.

Welcome! This tour will show you how to use Rational Application Developer to improve your software and Web development.



Dynamic Web portals are in high demand for business-to-employee (B2E), business-to-business (B2B), and business-to-consumer (B2C) activity. They are easy to create with fully integrated portal development tools.

Image of a business-to-consumer Web portal.
Image of the Portal Designer in Rational Application Developer.


The Portal Designer lets you create the look and feel of your portal by dragging objects from a palette.




You can customize the portal themes and skins to suit your needs, or create your own.

Image of the different portal skins and themes that can be selected when designing a portal.
Image of a wizard being used to creating Enterprise JavaBeans.

Rational Application Developer makes enterprise application development easy. For example, if you need Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB components) to control access to backend databases and serve as containers for business logic, just complete a wizard.

Image of code analyzer alerting developer to a problem within a Java file.

Code analyzers alert you to problems and as you work, and make sure you conform to J2EE best practices. Code review, Component Test Automation, and Run-time Analysis ensure your application is solid and efficient.

Image of a class file being visualized.


You can visualize your source code to create class views of your Enterprise JavaBeans (EJBs), Java classes, and database elements.

Image of a sequence diagram showing a Java method body.


In one step, you can create sequence diagrams that describe Java method bodies.

Image of a UML diagram showing data objects that are visualized in IE notation.



Or, you can visualize your database elements to create diagrams that show data objects in Information Engineering (IE) or Integration Definition for Information Modeling (IDEF1X) notation.

Image of a topic diagram.

You can create topic diagrams to help visualize a model. Topic diagrams are query based, and you can use them to automatically generate documentation in a Universal Markup Language (UML) model.



You can share and maintain reports by connecting them to the Crystal Enterprise Framework. Report data can be in virtually any format.

Image of a generated report on a Web page of an enterprise application.
Image of the Rational Process Browser being accessed from the Help menu.

The Rational Unified Process tools help you plan, organize, and track your team's development cycles.

Image of the web services tools


Powerful Web Services tools help you discover, create, and publish Web services. Web services can be created from Java beans, DADX files, Enterprise JavaBeans (EJBs), and URLs.

A web page being created in the Web perspective


Powerful Web development functionality includes Java Server Faces (JSF) and Web site design tools.




Other features include: a Web Diagram Editor, a Java Visual Editor, Enterprise Generation Language support, and XML tools.

Collage of images including visual editors and other tools.
Image of Rational ClearCase integration dialogs showing a delivery.


Full integration with Rational ClearCase lets you maintain the source of your projects.

Image showing how to switch between perspectives using the shortcuts in the upper right-hand section of the workspace.

Before you get started, here are a few layout basics. Multiple layouts, called perspectives, organize the information and tools you need based on the type of work you are doing.

Image of preferences being selected within the Capabilities window.

As you work, the workbench reveals new tools and perspectives. This approach helps reduce clutter by showing you only what you want or need. You can set your preferences at any time by clicking Window > Preferences > Workbench > Capabilities.

Image showing the Tutorials Gallery and Samples Gallery links from the Help menu, which open in new windows.

Rational Application Developer provides a variety of ways for you to get assistance. A Tutorials Gallery provides several types of learning experiences, and a Samples Gallery contains example source code and related resources.

Image showing the Cheat Sheets link in the Help menu, and that Cheat sheets open in an area on the right side of the workspace.

Cheat Sheets show you all the steps necessary to perform common tasks. You can access them from the main Help menu.

Image of the Help Menu topic in the workspace opening a new window containing the information center.

When you need detailed information about a topic, select Help Contents. This takes you to the online help.

Image of the links in the Help menu to Software Updates and the IBM Support Assistant.

Further assistance and product updates are available on the World Wide Web.

Image of skyscrapers superimposed with a grid representing the World Wide Web.


This concludes the tour! You are encouraged to look over the rest of the Welcome pages before beginning your work. The next page you see is the Overview.