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 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.
Overview of the EGL deployment descriptor editor
The EGL deployment descriptor editor updates the EGL deployment descriptor file. For a description of how that XML file is used, see Introduction to EGL generation and deployment. For a description of how to create such a file, see Creating an EGL deployment descriptor.
Sharable protocols
A sharable protocol is an XML-based definition in the EGL deployment descriptor. The purpose of a sharable protocol is to specify the communication details that are necessary to access certain kinds of services and to deploy other kinds.

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.
- 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 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.
    - Introduction to EGL generation and deployment
      After you write and test EGL source code, you generate Java™, JavaScript™, or COBOL code for a target platform.
    - Generation using the Eclipse workbench
    - Generation using the EGL software development kit (SDK)
    - Generating from the workbench batch interface
      The workbench batch interface is a feature that lets you generate and deploy EGL output from a batch environment that can access the workbench.
    - Generating with an Ant script
      You might create an Ant script that cleans a workspace and causes an automatic build and generation. To help you save processing time, the product provides a Java™ VM argument to include in the Ant script.
    - Creating headless EGL build
      You can have multiple Ant tasks for a headless build. With headless builds, EGL builds can be managed more efficiently and EGL can support Agile programming better.
    - Ant tasks for headless build
      Ant tasks are required to create an Ant script that is to be used in a headless EGL build. Besides the Ant tasks defined by Eclipse, Rational® Application Developer, and the ant-contrib library, Rational Business Developer also provide several Ant tasks for your use.
    - EGL Generation Results view
    - Writing Java™ code to capture details of code generation
      You can now write Java™ code to produce a report or otherwise respond to events at generation time.
    - Creating and maintaining a build file
    - Build Descriptor part
      A build file (.eglbld extension) can contain multiple Build Descriptor parts. Each Build Descriptor part controls the generation process for a particular set of circumstances.
    - Overview of build descriptor options
    - Overview of linkage options part
    - Resource associations part
    - Overview of .ir files
    - Overview of the EGL deployment descriptor editor
      The EGL deployment descriptor editor updates the EGL deployment descriptor file. For a description of how that XML file is used, see Introduction to EGL generation and deployment. For a description of how to create such a file, see Creating an EGL deployment descriptor.
      - Overview of service bindings
        A service binding is a definition that gives details about how a requester accesses a service. The type of binding depends on how the requested service is deployed.
      - Sharable protocols
        A sharable protocol is an XML-based definition in the EGL deployment descriptor. The purpose of a sharable protocol is to specify the communication details that are necessary to access certain kinds of services and to deploy other kinds.
        Options for sharable protocols
        This topic lists the protocol options that are available when you code an EGL service binding or native service binding or when you deploy a web service to CICS® or IBM® i. In the case of deployment, you are specifying details for accessing a COBOL program from the web service.
      - Specifying a target in the deployment descriptor
        You can specify a target in the EGL deployment descriptor. For background information, see Introduction to EGL generation and deployment.
      - Specifying the Java™ runtime code for SOAP services and requesters
        You can specify whether to use JAX-WS or JAX-RPC for the SOAP services and requesters that are being deployed to the target platform. For background information, see EGL support for JAX-WS and JAX-RPC.
      - Adding a SOAP service binding to the deployment descriptor
        A SOAP service binding gives details necessary to access a SOAP service.
      - Adding a REST binding to the deployment descriptor
        A REST service binding gives details necessary to access a REST or EGL REST-RPC service.
      - Adding an EGL binding to the deployment descriptor
        An EGL service binding gives the details necessary to access an EGL service.
      - Adding a native binding to the deployment descriptor
        A native service binding gives the details necessary to access an IBM® i service program directly.
      - Creating and using a sharable protocol
        A sharable protocol is an XML-based definition in the EGL deployment descriptor. The purpose of a sharable protocol is to configure the communications details that are necessary to access or deploy some kinds of services at run time. For background information, see “Sharable protocols.”
      - Adding web-service deployment entries in the EGL deployment descriptor
        You can update the EGL deployment descriptor with details that are needed to deploy SOAP and EGL REST-RPC services.
      - Adding Rich UI deployment entries in the EGL deployment descriptor
        You can update the EGL deployment descriptor with details that are needed to deploy Rich UI applications.
      - Importing deployment descriptors
        You can specify the deployment descriptors that are referenced from the deployment descriptor being defined. The content in those files is made available when you generate or deploy the deployment descriptor.
      - Updating resources in the deployment descriptor
        You can select files or groups of files that are to be included in or omitted from a deployment. By default, files in the project itself are accessible, as are files in every project in the EGL build path. The deployable files are in JavaSource and WebContent folders.
    - VSAM support
    - Data conversion
    - Generation output
      This topic outlines the output generated by EGL, including the control files that affect preparation or external deployment.
    - Name aliasing
    - Build plan
    - Build scripts
    - Build server
    - Deploying EGL projects on CICS® Liberty Profile
      You can deploy EGL web projects on a CICS® Liberty profile.
    - Generating and deploying a web service on CICS®
      This topic describes how to generate and deploy a web service on z/OS® CICS®. Aside from setting up the relevant EGL build parts, you must set the following CICS definitions: TRANSACTION, TCPIPSERVICE, and PIPELINE.
    - Deploying a web service requester to CICS®
      You can generate and deploy a logic part that runs on z/OS® CICS® and accesses a web service.
    - Special considerations for generating EGL or SOAP services for z/OS® CICS®
    - Special considerations for accessing SOAP services from IBM® i COBOL programs
      Special considerations apply to accessing SOAP services from EGL-generated COBOL programs on IBM® i. For an overview of the runtime architecture, see Overview of EGL support for SOA.
    - Special considerations for generating EGL or REST services for z/OS® CICS®
    - Special considerations for deploying COBOL SOAP services on IBM® i
      Deploying COBOL SOAP services on IBM® i requires that you generate outputs for both Java™ and COBOL. For an overview of the generated output and the runtime architecture, see Overview of EGL support for SOA.
    - Generating web transactions
      Use EGL web transactions to migrate VisualAge® Generator web transactions to EGL.
    - Overview of Java™ generation
    - Build descriptor options used with JavaScript™
      This topic lists the build descriptor options used with JavaScript™, which is the generated language for EGL Rich UI.
    - Overview of COBOL generation
    - Build descriptor options
    - Linkage options part
  - 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.
  - 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
EGL runtime error messages
Reference
Glossary
Using the help
Notices for IBM Rational Business Developer documentation

Sharable protocols

A sharable protocol is an XML-based definition in the EGL deployment descriptor. The purpose of a sharable protocol is to specify the communication details that are necessary to access certain kinds of services and to deploy other kinds.

You define a sharable protocol for the following purposes:

In some cases, you intend to reference the sharable-protocol definition in one or more service bindings in the EGL deployment descriptor. Each of those bindings identifies how a requester accesses a service.
In the context of service bindings, you can reference the sharable protocols for the following purposes:
- To access a remote EGL service on any platform
- To access an IBM® i service program by way of a native binding
Currently, Rich UI applications can access neither of those kinds of services directly.
Alternatively, you can reference the sharable-protocol definition when you create a services-deployment entry in the EGL deployment descriptor.
In the context of service deployment, you can use the sharable-protocol definition for the following purposes:
- To state the processing that is needed at run time to support an EGL-generated COBOL web service on z/OS® CICS®
- To state the processing that is needed at run time to support an EGL-generated COBOL web service on IBM® i
- To state the processing that is needed at run time, on IBM® i, to access called programs and service programs that were made available as follows: at development time, you coded an EGL external type (type HostProgram), and at generation time, the EGL generator created a web service from the external type. For details about this EGL capability, see Accessing IBM® i programs as web services: an overview.
In each of those cases, the following process occurs at run time:
- A requester uses HTTP to transmit text-based data and to receive the returned data.
- A different protocol is used to exchange data between (a) the endpoint that accepts and returns text-based data and (b) the business logic.
For additional details, see EGL support for SOA.

A sharable protocol is not used if communication is solely by way of HTTP.