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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