WebSphere® Application Server supports assembly tools that you can use to develop, assemble, and deploy Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE) modules.
The IBM® Rational® Application Developer for WebSphere Software product and the IBM Assembly and Deploy Tools for WebSphere Administration product are supported assembly tools. Although this information center refers to the products as the assembly tools, you can use the products to do more than assemble modules.
The Rational Application Developer product provides an integrated development environment to design, develop, analyze, test, profile, and deploy web, service-oriented architecture (SOA), Java, and Java EE applications. It contains tools for software developers, including many simple wizards and visual editors, that support the Java EE programming model.
A subset of the capability in the Rational Application Developer product is available in Assembly and Deploy Tools for WebSphere Administration, which is available with WebSphere Application Server. With these tools, you can assemble and deploy applications to a WebSphere Application Server server or cluster.
For documentation on the tools, see "Rational Application Developer documentation." Topics on application assembly in this information center supplement that documentation.
The assembly tools are available in the WebSphere Application Server disc package with two licenses. The license for IBM Assembly and Deploy Tools for WebSphere Administration does not expire. The license for IBM Rational Application Developer for WebSphere Software is available on a Trial basis and is only available for a limited time.
The Trial download for Rational Application Developer is available at http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/downloads/r/rad/.