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.
Text report functions
needLines()

Overview
Getting started
Installing
Upgrading and migrating
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.
- 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 Rational® Business Developer Information Center.
  - 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 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
      - EGL library ruiLib
        This topic describes the system functions in the ruiLib library.
      - 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
        clearErrorMessages()
        column()
        finishReport()
        getLineNumber()
        getPageNumber()
        isNativeOutput()
        needLines()
        outputToReport()
        popErrorMessage()
        printFile()
        println()
        printText()
        printTextFixedWidth()
        pushErrorMessage()
        setFirstHeaderLines()
        setHeaderLines()
        setNativeOutput()
        setReportDriver()
        setTrailerLines()
        skipLines()
        skipToTop()
        spaces()
        startReport()
        terminateReport()
        wordWrapPrint()
        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.
  - Rational® 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 RBD
  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.
Samples
Troubleshooting and support
Reference
Glossary
Using the help
Notices for IBM Rational Business Developer documentation

needLines()

Use the textReport.needLines() function to ensure that you have enough space to print a number of consecutive lines without a page break. If the specified number of lines is not available, the report skips to the top of the next page.

Syntax

  textReport.needLines(
     numLines INT in)

textReport: The name of a variable that is based on the TextReport external type.
numLines: The number of uninterrupted lines that the report element requires.

Example

In the following example, if there are not at least 7 lines available (not counting the footer and margins) on the current page, the subsequent report content will print on the next page of the report:

myReport TextReport = new TextReport();
...
myReport.needLines(7);