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 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.
Accessing data with EGL code
Working with bidirectional data
Creating a bidirectional conversion table
You can use an EGL wizard to create a bidirectional conversion table (BCT).

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.
    - Introduction
      These topics explain the fundamentals of using EGL in the Eclipse IDE, as well as changes to the EGL language and IDE in this version.
    - Contents of an EGL application
      EGL applications contain projects, packages, folders, and files.
    - Properties
      Properties set specific options for parts. In general, you specify the properties when you create the part and then the properties are static. In certain circumstances, however, it is possible to change a property dynamically.
    - Annotating EGL Applications
      EGL developers can annotate their applications to indicate the version, authors as well as a general description.
    - Import and use statements
      Use the EGL import and use statements to expand the visibility of code elements.
    - Working with EGL code
    - Accessing data with EGL code
      - Common data access tasks
        You can use EGL to perform common data processing tasks such as reading and writing to files, without having to deal with implementation details.
      - SQL data
        SQL (pronounced as three separate letters) is a language that communicates with a relational database management system (DBMS), which in turn controls a database that maintains business information in interconnected tables.
      - DL/I data
      - Message Queues and Topics
      - iSeries® objects
        EGL provides a library and Record definitions to communicate with data queues and data areas on the iSeries®.
      - Working with bidirectional data
        Creating a bidirectional runtime file
        You can use an EGL wizard to create a bidirectional runtime file.
        Creating a bidirectional conversion table
        You can use an EGL wizard to create a bidirectional conversion table (BCT).
    - Transfer of control across programs
    - Developing segmented programs in EGL
      Different runtime environments have different considerations for developing segmented programs.
    - Developing EGL programs for the IMS™ environment
    - Developing EGL programs for the CICS® environment
      There are specific design and development considerations when creating EGL programs for CICS® for z/OS® and CICS for VSE.
    - Developing EGL programs for the VSE environment
      IBM Business Developer provides a Generation for VSE feature that you can use to generate EGL as COBOL source for the z/VSE® environment.
    - Developing programs for iSeriesC
      You can deploy EGL-generated COBOL programs targeted for the IBM® i environment.
    - Overview of EGL Logging for Java Application
    - Overview of EGL Rich UI
    - Services: a top-level overview
      The topics in this section describe service-oriented architecture (SOA) and related technologies, EGL support for SOA, and service-related procedures, with an emphasis on service access. For details about deployment, see “Introduction to EGL generation and deployment” and “Add web-service deployment entries in the EGL deployment descriptor.”
    - 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.
    - Building EGL Text User Interface applications
      A Text UI application presents a text-based user interface similar to that of a 5250 or 3270 terminal.
    - Creating reports with EGL
      EGL offers different ways to create reports, using external engines to generate the report contents.
    - Working with web transaction applications in EGL
    - Debugging EGL applications
    - EGL Unit Testing
    - z/OS Connect
  - 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.
  - 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

Creating a bidirectional conversion table

You can use an EGL wizard to create a bidirectional conversion table (BCT).

To use the wizard, follow these steps:

Click File > New > Other. The New window opens.
Click to expand Bidi Conversion Table Wizard, then click Bidi Conversion Table.
Click Next. The New Bidi Conversion Table window opens.
Under Enter or select the parent folder, enter the name folder where you want to create the table. The directory must be in the classpath for the application that uses it.
For File name, enter a name for the Bidi Conversion table. The name of a bidi conversion table used with EGL programs must have four characters or less, and must have the .bct extension.
Click Next. The Client System settings page opens.

In the Code page list, select the encoding for the type of application you are generating. You can specify any valid code page for client and server, including UTF-8. The following table shows some examples:

Table 1. Encoding for bidi conversion tables
Use	Language	Client encoding for bidi conversion table	Server encoding for bidi conversion table
COBOL generation	Arabic	Cp1256	Cp864
COBOL generation	Hebrew	Cp1255	Cp1255
Java™ program that calls a remote COBOL program or EGL service	Arabic	Cp1256	Cp420
Java™ program that calls a remote COBOL program or EGL service	Hebrew	Cp1255	Cp424
Java™ program that uses text or print forms	Arabic	Cp1256	Cp1256
Java™ program that uses text or print forms	Hebrew	Cp1255	Cp1255

Change any Client System properties necessary. Note that for Java™ generation, the conversion table client code page must be the same as the java.lang.System.file.encoding set for the Java™ Virtual Machine when the program runs.
Change any or Client Text attributes necessary. For the Ordering Scheme of server attributes, the following considerations apply:
- For Java™ generation, the ordering scheme should be set to Implicit, while encoding should be the same as your local system encoding.
- For COBOL generation, you should usually set the ordering scheme to Visual and set the server code page to Cp420 for Arabic or Cp424 for Hebrew. The client format will depend on the client that you use.
Click Next. The Server System settings page opens.
Change the Server System properties and Server Text attributes if necessary.
Click Next. The Conversion Options page opens.
Change the Arabic Conversion Options and General Conversion Options if necessary.
Click Finish.