Welcome
Developing
Developing EGL applications
Enterprise Generation Language (EGL) is a programming language that you can use to focus on business problems instead of software technologies. Within the Rational® development environment, you can use EGL wizards and other tools to write complex applications with minimal effort.
EGL Language Reference
The EGL Language Reference covers the fundamental use of the language, including its concepts, syntax, and keywords. This volume is intended for a developer writing EGL applications with some experience in procedural programming.
Applications with user interfaces
EGL reports
EGL text reports
EGL text reports offer a simplified alternative to more complex reporting tools.
The text report driver
The text report driver acts as an intermediary between the text report and the program.

Overview
Getting started
Installing
Upgrading and migrating
EGL Code Accelerator for IBD
Developing
- Model driven development of EGL code
- Generating source code from UML models
  You can use transformations to create source code from a UML model. First you must create a transformation parameters file and then apply those parameters to a model.
- Generating the EGL Dependency Graph from EGL projects
- Generating Source Code from OpenAPI Documents
- Developing EGL applications
  Enterprise Generation Language (EGL) is a programming language that you can use to focus on business problems instead of software technologies. Within the Rational® development environment, you can use EGL wizards and other tools to write complex applications with minimal effort.
  - How to use this documentation
  - Additional information about EGL
    The most recent EGL documentation is in the IBM Business Developer documentation.
  - EGL Programmer's Guide
    The EGL Programmer's Guide covers using EGL within the Eclipse Integrated Development Environment (IDE), as well as some of the common programming tasks that EGL developers perform.
  - EGL Generation Guide
    The EGL Generation Guide covers the process of converting EGL code to Java™ or COBOL source code, including the processes and the files involved. This section is intended for a developer who will generate or deploy EGL applications.
  - EGL Language Reference
    The EGL Language Reference covers the fundamental use of the language, including its concepts, syntax, and keywords. This volume is intended for a developer writing EGL applications with some experience in procedural programming.
    - General syntax
    - System data parts
    - User-defined data parts
    - Logic parts
    - Correspondence between a JSON string and an EGL variable
      This topic describes the EGL record that corresponds to a JavaScript™ Object Notation (JSON) string. Other topics describe the functions (serviceLib.convertFromJSON() and serviceLib.convertToJSON()) that are used by a Rich UI developer to convert JSON data to or from a variable, as may be necessary to access a third-party REST service. A failure in either function causes a RuntimeException.
    - Correspondence between a JSON string and an EGL variable for zOS and IBM i
      This topic describes the EGL record that corresponds to a JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) string. This topic describes the functions—serviceLib.convertFromJSON() and serviceLib.convertToJSON()—that are used by an EGL developer to convert JSON data to or from a variable either for zOS or IBM i systems. A failure in either function causes a RuntimeException.
    - Special considerations for JSON support on IBM i:
    - Correspondence between an XML string and an EGL variable
      This topic describes the EGL record that corresponds to an Extensible Markup Language (XML) string. Other topics describe the functions (serviceLib.convertFromXML and serviceLib.convertToXML) that are used by a Rich UI developer to convert XML data to or from a variable, as may be necessary to access a third-party REST service.
    - EGL statements
    - EGL core system libraries and variables
    - Accessing data in EGL
      Whenever you access a data store in EGL, the data goes into a record.
    - Applications with user interfaces
      - Enumerations for user interface properties and fields
      - Common UI statements
      - Common UI properties
      - Validation properties
      - Handler part
        A handler typically includes both variables and functions. It is used for basic processing and for user interaction.
      - Rich UI programming model
      - DojoLib
        The DojoLib library includes constants and validation functions used by the EGL Dojo widgets. The library is not a system library, and its use has prerequisites.
      - DojoMobileLib
        The DojoMobileLib widget defines constants that are used by EGL Dojo mobile widgets.
      - Reference to widgets
      - EGL reports
        BIRT Reports
        Central to EGL's support for Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools (BIRT) is the external type called BIRTReport. This topic describes how to create a variable of that type and how to use it to create output.
        EGL text reports
        EGL text reports offer a simplified alternative to more complex reporting tools.
        Creating a TextReport variable
        EGL defines a TextReport external type to represent the engine behind text report generation. You create a variable based on this type to get access to the variables and functions in the native code.
        Text report variables
        The text report engine recognizes a specific set of events during report generation. Each event is represented by a variable in the engine.
        Text report functions
        The text report driver
        The text report driver acts as an intermediary between the text report and the program.
        Text report driver functions
      - Text UI
        A text UI application presents a text-based user interface similar to that of a 5250 or 3270 terminal.
      - Web transaction support in EGL
        Use EGL web transactions to migrate VisualAge® Generator web transactions to EGL.
    - VisualAge® Generator compatibility
    - Appendices
    - Importing product-supplied projects
      You can click a link to download the current version of Rich UI projects. The capability is useful if you deleted a project or want a clean version.
  - Rational® COBOL Runtime Guide for zSeries®
    This manual provides information about customizing and administering the IBM® Rational® COBOL Runtime.
  - IBM Business Developer EGL Server Guide for IBM® i
    This manual provides information about customizing and administering EGL Server for IBM® i on the host.
  - Generation for VSE Feature Reference
    This reference manual provides z/VSE-specific information about developing and generating EGL programs in the VSE environment.
- Source code analysis with code review
  With code review, you can create configurations of coding rules for EGL source code. You can then run the configurations to check the source code for consistency with the rules.
- Responsive Design Support in IBD
  What is Responsive Design? Responsive design is an approach for creation of web pages that automatically scales its content and elements to match the screen size on which it is viewed. So, instead of designing multiple websites for different devices with variable screen sizes, we can design just one website that scales up or down automatically, to match the device it’s being viewed on.
- Containerizing an EGL RUI Application
Samples
Troubleshooting and support
EGL runtime error messages
Reference
Glossary
Using the help
Notices for IBM Business Developer documentation

The text report driver

The text report driver acts as an intermediary between the text report and the program.

In most cases, you do not need to access the report driver that the text engine creates automatically. The following cases are exceptions:

In a web environment, multiple users can generate the same report at the same time. To prevent name conflicts, use a driver that is created from a unique scratch file.
If you want to interact with a report you have printed, you can review the report file and modify or reprint the contents by using a driver.
If you want to append your report to an existing file, the driver supports this action. By default, the report engine overwrites an existing file.

The report driver is an ExternalType part. You declare a variable that is based on the part, and then call functions that you qualify with the variable name. For a list of available functions, see Text report driver functions.

Remember:

COBOL generation does not support the TextReportDriver external type.