This topic outlines the capabilities that are new in version
8.5.
For details on the capabilities that were made after the initial
release, see the following page:
Here are details on version 8.5:
Increased security for EGL REST-RPC
services
Version 8.5 introduces a new Java runtime property:
egl.service.rest.exception.debug. The property specifies whether the
exceptions returned by EGL REST-RPC services include the greatest
possible level of detail.
In the development environment, the
default value is true, and the previous runtime behavior is
unaffected.
In a deployed application, the default value is
false,
which results in the following change in runtime behavior: an exception
will return only a timestamp, a message ID, and a reference to the
application server log. The following statements apply:
- The change is present in new applications and in applications
that migrate to the new version of the EGL runtime code.
- Consider setting the property value to true if the details
that might be returned are free of security violations, especially
if your processing is dependent on the content of error messages.
For details on the application server log, see the entry
for egl.service.rest.exception.debug in Description of Java runtime properties.
EGL support for other technologies
Version
8.5 introduces support for
- WebSphere® Application Server version
8.0 and 8.5.
- Apache Tomcat version 7.x.
- JavaServer Faces (JSF) version 1.1, in the following situation:
your JSF applications are running with the JSF 1.1 or 1.2 jar files
on Tomcat 6 or greater.
- 64-bit Linux platform.
- 64-bit Windows platform.
The product is tolerant of platforms that were upgraded
to the Java™ Runtime Environment
version 1.7. The product also coexists with IBM® Rational Team Concert™ version
4.0.
In addition, Rich UI support for Dojo is now based on
Dojo toolkit version 1.7.
Rich UI
By default, the following
Rich UI system projects are in use:
- For EGL widgets that are not based on Dojo: com.ibm.egl.rui_4.1.0
- For EGL Dojo widgets: com.ibm.egl.rui.dojo.widgets_2.1.1
- For EGL Dojo samples: com.ibm.egl.rui.dojo.samples_2.1.1
- For the local Dojo runtime access: com.ibm.egl.rui.dojo.runtime.local_1.7.2
The following projects support use of Content Delivery
Network (CDN):
Setup details are available:
- For instructions on importing the Rich UI system projects, see Importing product-supplied projects.
- If you are upgrading to a new Dojo runtime project from one of
your existing Rich UI projects, you must upgrade the EGL build path
in your project. For details, see the section named "Outline of widget-upgrade
tasks" here: Overview of EGL Rich UI.
When you are adding a widget to grid layout, you can use
the heightHint and widthHint fields
of a gridLayoutData record to propose a
cell size. For details, see Rich UI GridLayout.
Please
note that version 8.5 does not support Rich UI development on a 64-bit Linux platform. Restrictions in
external software prevent that support, for now.
Changes to build descriptor options
EGL
now includes the following build descriptor options:
- For Java code, the validateBlankDateFields option
tells whether to identify an error in the following case: the dateFormat property
is in effect for a field in a text form, but the user set the field
to blank. For details, see validateBlankDateFields.
- For Java code, the byteArrayOperationsForStructuredRecords option
provides a performance benefit in some cases, by defining how generated Java code handles fields in structured
records. For details, see byteArrayOperationsForStructuredRecords.
- For Java and COBOL code,
the v60NumWithDateBehavior build descriptor
option specifies whether the behavior of assignments from Num fields
to Date fields fulfills the behavior that was in effect in EGL version
6. For details, see v60NumWithDateBehavior.
- For COBOL code, the leftAlign, fillWithNulls,
and setFormItemFull options now affect data
in text form fields, as was the case in VisualAge® Generator. Previously in EGL,
the options affected only print form fields. For details on the options,
see fillWithNulls, leftAlign,
and setFormItemFull.
If
you have reason to regenerate your text forms and want to retain the
field characteristics that were in effect previously in EGL, set
the following symbolic parameters to NO: ALLOWTUILEFTALIGN, ALLOWTUISETFORMITEMFULL,
and ALLOWTUIFILLWITHNULLS. For details, see Predefined symbolic parameters that can be set by the user.
- For COBOL code, the v71AddBehavior option
states whether, in a specific case, the effect of the plus (+) sign
is determined by the type of variable to which an expression is assigned.
The purpose is to maintain code that was written for EGL versions
after 6.0 and through 7.1. For details, see v71AddBehavior.
Also, you can set existing build descriptor options with
new values if you are using a newly supported version of
WebSphere Application Server or
Apache Tomcat:
- The serverType build descriptor option
identifies the type of web application server in which your output
will be deployed. For details, see serverType.
- For Java code, the j2eeLevel build
descriptor option specifies the level of Java Enterprise
Edition in the application server to which an EGL web service is deployed.
For details, see j2eeLevel.
COBOL processing
The new DUALMODE
symbolic parameter lets you generate an EGL program once and create
a prepared load module that runs on z/OS® batch
and CICS®. For details, see Generating once for z/OS batch and CICS.
Potential change to a linkage properties
file
Consider this section if you own a generated Java application
for which a callLink element (in a linkage options part) includes
the following property setting: remoteBind=runtime.
You
might need to check whether the entries in an existing linkage properties
file are related to the value of a
linkageKey property and
not to the name of the program being called. The situation arises
in the following case:
- A call statement includes the linkageKey property;
- You are using a linkage properties file to specify the linkage
details for that statement; and
- You upgrade to the latest version of the EGL runtime code.
For details, see the entry-specific details in
Linkage properties file;
specifically, the details for
programName and
wildProgramName.