Two plug-ins rev up Eclipse
M7 NitroX 2.0 and MyEclipse Enterprise Workbench
3.8.3 smooth Java and JSP development
Summary
MyEclipse offers a broad collection of proprietary and open source Java tools for Eclipse that
will save you the trouble of dealing with the inconsistencies and sometimes spotty production
values of the open source community. NitroX is a polished, sophisticated tool for speeding
development of Java Web applications and includes AppXRay, a powerful tool for compiling all of
the facets of a JavaServer Pages or Struts Web application. The tool parses both the Java and the
XML configuration files to offer great code completion and debugging. (1,400 words; February 7,
2005)
Anyone who wonders whether there is any middle ground between the rough-and-ready
approach of open source and the staid polish of proprietary software should examine the
MyEclipse and NitroX development environments. Both are commercial collections of plug-ins
and tools that add a number of useful features for developing server-side applications to the free
Eclipse open source IDE.
The two environments come from companies with different approaches. M7's NitroX is
focused on creating Web applications. It comes in three different versions at three different price
points, but the core of all three is AppXRay, a deep introspection technology that integrates the
name spaces of the Java and XML configuration code. The simplest of the three versions offers
help debugging JSP (JavaServer Pages) code for a $299 yearly subscription; the middle version
adds support for Struts applications for an additional $200; and the high-end version includes tools
for creating and debugging JSF (JavaServer Faces) for another $200 annually. There are some
discounts for multiple licenses.
MyEclipse Enterprise Workbench from Genuitec offers a broader range of slightly weaker
tools for a yearly subscription of only $29.95. Some of the tools are open source plug-ins created
by others, but Genuitec polishes them up and adds some generally good documentation before
releasing them in one big package.
MyEclipse comes with plug-ins that automate some of the work for producing a Web
application with Struts, but the collection also includes tools for tasks such as configuring
database connections with the Hibernate framework. There's even an SQL browser.
Both of these projects are working to replace many of the features for creating Enterprise
JavaBeans components and JSP pages that IBM originally included in its flagship IDE,
WebSphere Studio Application Developer. IBM stripped these out and released the core as
Eclipse, no doubt choosing the name as a not-so-subtle jab at Java's nominal owner, Sun. Eclipse
has flourished, attracting a number of developers who create their own plug-ins. Many of these
plug-ins are open source, but some are proprietary. The result is a nice mix of common code
shared by all and proprietary code owned by someone with an incentive to make it as slick as
possible.