Developing your WebFacing services with a Web diagram

Information for the Advanced edition of the product This function is available only in WebSphere Development Studio Client Advanced Edition for iSeries, V5.1.2 and later.

You can use Web diagrams to help you build WebFacing services using a visual development environment. Because the Struts Controller runtime is active by default during WebFacing conversion, you can extend the application to include Struts-based WebFacing services. You can then integrate these services with your WebFacing application using command key actions or field hyperlinks.

You can look at the following objects from the Navigator view:
  • WebFacing project/Web Diagrams/WF Runtime/WFController.gph - This read-only diagram illustrates the WebFacing Struts Controller design.
  • WebFacing project/Web Diagrams/WF Services - This folder holds WebFacing services available to your application.
  • WebFacing project/Web Diagrams/WF Services/IBM - This folder holds Web diagrams for IBM WebFacing services available to your application.
To create your first Web Diagram within your Struts-based WebFacing project:
  1. In the Navigator view, expand WebFacing project > Web Diagrams > WF Services.
  2. Right-click the WF Services folder and select New > Other > Web > Web Diagram.
  3. Click Next.
  4. Enter the name of the new diagram, for example, MyWFService.
  5. Click Finish to create the new Web diagram.
To add objects to the diagram:
  1. Right-click anywhere inside the diagram and select New > Web Parts > Web Page to create an icon that represents the new JSP.
  2. Name the Web Page node by providing a relative path from the WebContent folder of your project. To rename a node later, right-click the node and select Rename.
  3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 to add another Web page.
  4. Right-click the first Web Page node, select Connection, and then drag your cursor to the second Web Page node to make a visual connection between these two nodes.
  5. For both Web Page nodes, double-click the node to invoke a wizard.
  6. Walk through the wizard and click Finish to create, or realize, the node. Refer to Creating JavaServer Pages (JSP) files for more information on working with the Struts builder.

Now that you know the basics for Web Diagram development, you can begin to develop more of your application within the visual environment. To continue from where you left off, you can also develop Action Mappings, Form Beans, and so on.

After you develop services, JSPs, or other items in a Web diagram, you can configure command keys for your WebFacing application, that when clicked, invoke a particular item that you developed using the Web diagram. See the related tasks for more information.