Overview
IBM Software Configuration and Library Manager (SCLM) is a popular industry-standard software configuration management (SCM) tool that is provided as part of the ISPF element of z/OS. SCLM consists of two functional components, a library manager and a configuration manager, and is used to control, maintain, and track all of the software components of an application. It is widely used in the development of z/OS-based applications that employ traditional languages such as COBOL and PL/I. As a part of ISPF, SCLM provides a conventional 3270 interface, as well as a batch interface.
The Developer Toolkit is an Eclipse-based tool that extends the functionality and accessibility of SCLM by providing an Eclipse-based integrated development environment (IDE) interface. With its integrated support for storing into SCLM files with long names, such as Java program files, HTML files, graphics files, and other workstation files, Developer Toolkit lets Java/Java EE™ developers code and test their applications in an Eclipse based IDE and then use Developer Toolkit to store their source code in SCLM. Developers can then use Developer Toolkit to build and deploy their applications within the z/OS environment using SCLM, much like COBOL developers do (Developer Toolkit supports deployment of Java and Java EE objects to WebSphere Applications Server running on z/OS).
Using Developer Toolkit in today's application development environment
Because Developer Toolkit supports long name file storage, it means that SCLM can be used to store all sorts of application components. Today’s application development projects exploit a variety of technologies and platforms. So, centralizing the software configuration management activities of these development projects can avoid or lessen many of the difficulties associated with managing such complex projects. For application developers with little or no prior exposure to the z/OS development environment, learning how to develop z/OS applications can take a long time and a tool that reduces that learning period can significantly improve developer productivity. By removing the reliance on 3270 system access, users can concentrate development activities on the rapidly expanding set of Eclipse IDE-based tools and only need to use a single development environment. The transparent way in which SCLM services can be invoked from the Eclipse IDE means that SCLM can be used as the SCM for application development projects, further shortening developers’ learning curves.
Integration into Eclipse
The SCLM services are provided in Developer Toolkit using the Eclipse standard team-based actions. Current Eclipse SCM users only need to learn some of the nuances associated with SCLM to effectively drive the SCM services for their development projects. Features and services such as "check in" and "check out" are universal SCM functions. Developer Toolkit delivers these, and all other SCLM services, including a large number of SCM services such as project synchronization, file comparison, and version control, in an Eclipse SCM consistent manner. This means that developers can exploit the IDE services that currently exist for their Eclipse projects whilst using SCLM for source management.
Accessing existing SCLM projects
While Developer Toolkit provides Java/Java EE developers with a transparent IDE-based interface to SCLM, it also provides access to other SCLM projects from the Eclipse IDE by means of the SCLM Explorer/Developer View. This view provides a remote portal to SCLM that developers can use to access SCLM artifacts and services from the Eclipse IDE. This consolidation of access and services around a single platform enhances the usability of SCLM for a wide range of developers and languages.
Flexibility and extendibility
Developer Toolkit allows application developers to store source code in almost any language in SCLM. Consequently, the Developer Toolkit architecture is able to extend the level of language support that SCLM can provide through the addition of SCLM build translators. As Eclipse tools are added to the development environment Developer Toolkit may move to support those features. Consolidation around these open-source tools using the power of a proven (and developing) mainframe application environment realizes a powerful development scenario. For example, the build services provided with Developer Toolkit use Ant, the Java based Make tool, as the principal build tool. Using Ant provides a high level of customizability of the build process. Developers can either generate build scripts or they can modify "skeleton" scripts to drive the appropriate build behaviors for the SCLM projects.
SUPPORTS MULTIPLE PROJECTS: With the SCLM View in SCLM Developer Toolkit V3.1, you can display and work with multiple projects that can reside on different z/OS systems in the SCLM view.
POPULATES THE SCLM VIEW WITH AN IDENTICAL FILTER: When you run the populate action multiple times with all options exactly the same, the SCLM view refreshes the existing view instead of adding a duplicate branch to the tree.
MANAGES THE SIZE OF THE OPERATIONS LOG: You can now specify the maximum size of the operations log folder or the maximum length of time to retain operations logs.
SUPPORTS SQLJ PROJECTS: SCLM Developer Toolkit now supports the SQLJ language type to allow SQLJ projects to be stored and built in SCLM.
INCLUDES VSAM RECORD LEVEL SHARING (RLS) support for shortname/longname table: System administrators can set the ZVSAMRLS ISPF variable to enable record level sharing when the shortname/longnamefile is shared across multiple systems.
STORES SEPARATE JOB CARDS PER GROUP: SCLM Developer Toolkit stores separate job cards for each group that is used as a build target, promote source, or deployment source.
INCLUDES J2EE BUILD PERFORMANCE ENHANCEMENTS: The J2EE build process will provide faster build performance especially noticeable on project builds of greater than 1000 files.
INCLUDES LOGGING AND MESSAGE ENHANCEMENTS: Logging and messaging for batch build processing are improved to give clearer error message reporting, making it easier to debug build errors.
INCLUDES USABILITY ENHANCEMENTS:
- Batch output is now displayed in an editor allowing you to use editor commands to easily locate data within the batch job.
- Operations logs are now color coded to help you find relevant information, automatically scroll to the first highlighted message, and double clicking in the tree node opens the log in the default editor.
- Several new options are added to the SCLM Developer Toolkit Preferences page to help you customize your user preferences.
INCLUDES LPEX EMULATION OF ISPF COMMANDS: The SCLM Developer Toolkit LPX editor enables you to use the key primary Interactive System Productivity Facility (ISPF) commands in addition to those provided by the LPEX editor.
