Script Workbench For IBM WebSphere Product Center

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Update: August 8, 2008

What is the Script Workbench For IBM WebSphere Product Center?

The Script Workbench for IBM® WebSphere® Product Center is a stand-alone, Eclipse-based integrated development environment (IDE) that dramatically simplifies development, testing, and deployment of custom scripts for WebSphere Product Center. Since its introduction as an internal IBM tool in mid-2005, the Script Workbench has become the standard tool for IBM professional service (PS) staff engaged on WebSphere Product Center projects. The Script Workbench has already proven itself on PS engagements, delivering significant productivity benefits to end customers. Shorter customization and deployment times for WebSphere Product Center translate to lower implementation cost and earlier return on investment for the customer. Customers and business partners who have seen IBM staff using the Script Workbench on projects now want it for their own developers. With availability of the Script Workbench on alphaWorks, developers outside IBM can now use the tool themselves. Benefits of the Workbench include the following:

• Reduction of learning curve for writing WebSphere Product Center scripts
• Simplification of writing, editing, testing, and documenting of WebSphere Product Center scripts
• Improvement of script quality and help in catching errors in WebSphere Product Center scripts at time of editing
• Streamlining of deployment of script file to server.

How does it work?

The Script Workbench, delivered as a set of Eclipse plug-ins, provides the usability and productivity improvements of a full-featured Eclipse IDE. The Script Workbench simplifies and streamlines development of WebSphere Product Center script files and WebSphere Product Center Server Page files both before and after deployment.

Some of the features of the Workbench that assist in the creation of WebSphere Product Center scripts are as follows:

• A tailored script editor that provides a number of script preparation facilities, including content assistance on the script operations used in the script and on functions defined within the script.
• Automatic checking for errors and warnings in WebSphere Product Center scripts and WebSphere Product Center Server Page files.
• Provision of a Server Explorer capability that allows the user to work with the contents of document repositories (docstores) on remote WebSphere Product Center servers. A developer can copy, paste, and delete files between the server and the Eclipse workspace defined in the local file system.
• Script testing via a WebSphere Product Center Script launch facility, which runs scripts on remote WebSphere Product Center servers and returns information about the execution of the script.
• Support of integration with Version control tools such as CVS.
• Online Help and rich usability features of the Eclipse IDE.
• The Script Workbench can be used to develop scripts in disconnected mode -- that is, without connectivity to a WebSphere Product Center server. A WebSphere Product Center server connection is necessary for deploying and testing scripts to the server and for server-side explorer functions.

Version 1.1.9 of the Workbench includes support for Version 6 of the renamed product (IBM WebSphere Product Center has been changed to InfoSphere Master Data Management Server for Product Information Management). Support for some of the older versions has been removed; support is now limited to WebSphere Product Center 5.3, 5.3.1, and 5.3.2 and InfoSphere Master Data Management Server for Product Information Management 6.0. The Workbench now includes the latter product's help for the script operations.

Further information is available in the user's guide.