Reviews : AccelTree Fulcrum 1.2 :

Review: AccelTree Fulcrum 1.2

By: Drew Falkman

Summary:
Fulcrum is a productivity tool geared towards Java and J2EE developers. The overall objective of this Windows-based software tool is a noble one -- to enable Java developers to maximize code reuse and simplify the programming process.

Optimal Users:
Fulcrum would be of best use in companies with small development teams (or a solo developer) that develop numerous J2EE applications, all of which share similarities. The quintessential Fulcrum user would be a development shop that develops numerous database access applications. Such a shop could significantly decrease the time involved by utilizing this template-based productivity tool to eliminate redundant coding and employ less-skilled programmers to create those aspects of an application that can be generated by this application and its wizard-based tools.

Introduction to Fulcrum

As a developer the one thing I hate doing more than any other is re-writing code. Try as I might, it seems that I always end up re-coding something I've already written in just about every application. Always on the lookout for a good way to avoid this problem, I ran into AccelTree's Fulcrum. Fulcrum is a productivity tool for Java developers aimed at streamlining development by eliminating redundant coding. It does this primarily through a template system. Allowing developers to create templates with business logic that can be used again and again in any application. Sounds simple enough -- but it's actually quite deep, and what really caught my eye about this product was the fact that it doesn't just auto-generate code from these templates, but actually encourages you to customize the code that is generated. This allows for shorter development cycles while at the same time maintaining control of code output.

Fulcrum isn't just a template engine, however. Fulcrum also has built in database mapping and query creation tools, UI assembly tools, a business rule editor, a testing JSP generator and a documentation creator. Despite all these features, Fulcrum is not an Integrated Development Environment. You can write code within it, but it is not set up for debugging and compiling the code. The current version will integrate with Borland JBuilder, though I did not test this feature.

Using Templates for Development

The first step in adapting to Fulcrum is to learn how to use the template system. You can use templates to create JavaServer Pages, Java class files or Enterprise JavaBeans. There are a number of default templates you can start with, but you can also create your own templates. It is through the numerous wizards that you can create new classes for your Java project in Fulcrum. You can move back and forth freely between your editor and Fulcrum to edit classes and modify templates.

The templates have a syntax you can use to define "macros" and programming constructs that will be reused in future applications, including variables, methods and more. The process of creating templates seems fairly intuitive, using Java comments to enter statements that signal what elements should be inserted and where in the template.

UI Development Tools

In addition to assembling Java classes, Fulcrum helps to set up the presentation layer. This includes creating test JSP pages (to test methods in generated classes) and also eXtensible Markup Language documents and eXtensible Stylesheets Language stylesheets (Fulcrum will not generate HTML pages. You will need to create these yourself).

Fulcrum uses what are called 'presentation beans' to stand between the business logic and presentation layer. These beans are simple Java classes that essentially act as a mediator to call on EJB or JavaBeans components. Presentation beans are stored in memory in case a method call should crash. Ultimately, these presentation beans will translate returned Java data into XML with an embedded XSL stylesheet attached.

Additionally, Fulcrum contains a wizard that will help with the development of client-side validation for your forms. This wizard will autogenerate JavaScript to apply data rules that make HTML fields required or specify the data type and format that a user should enter.

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