Chapter 1. Introduction to Red Hat CodeReady Studio

1.1. About Red Hat CodeReady Studio

CodeReady Studio is a set of Eclipse-based development tools. It contains plug-ins that integrate with Eclipse to extend the existing functionality of the integrated development environment (IDE).

CodeReady Studio is designed to increase your productivity when developing applications. You can focus on building, testing, and deploying your applications because JBoss application development tools are integrated in one IDE. CodeReady Studio can also assist your application development with its unique features in the following ways:

  • Develop new applications using the wizards and project examples of Red Hat Central
  • Add powerful functionality to applications with minimal effort using Forge Tools
  • Build web interfaces with ease using the visual editing and drag-and-drop utilities of Visual Web Tools and Mobile Web Tools
  • Incorporate Hibernate, CDI, JAX-RS, JSF, and other popular APIs into applications with simplicity using the tool-driven interface
  • Deploy applications to JBoss runtime servers and the cloud using JBoss Server Tools and OpenShift Tools

CodeReady Studio is built around Eclipse and packaged with all the necessary dependencies and third-party plug-ins for simplified installing. For developers already running Eclipse, CodeReady Studio can also be installed through Eclipse Marketplace. Installing CodeReady Studio in an existing Eclipse installation is referred to as BYOE (Bring Your Own Eclipse).

1.2. Use Cases of CodeReady Studio

CodeReady Studio assists Java EE developers by integrating JBoss technology and APIs in a single development environment. Here are a few ways that CodeReady Studio helps make development easier:

1.2.1. Web Applications

Red Hat Central provides wizards that generate skeletons and sample projects, enabling you to focus on developing the functionality of your applications. The wizards create web applications based on different APIs and technologies, showing the usage and advantages of each. CodeReady Studio also offers project file templates in a range of popular programming languages, including HTML, XHTML, and JSF.

Palettes in CodeReady Studio give access to the core elements of the JSF and RichFaces APIs, for use in developing the user interfaces of your applications. Elements of these APIs can be dragged and dropped directly into your project so that you can create richer user interfaces quickly. Visual Web Tools offers graphical and source viewing of files and defaults to dedicated editors for different file types. CodeReady Studio supports the Java EE specification and provides tools for JAX-RS, Hibernate, and CDI APIs so you can develop the server-side components of your applications effortlessly.

LiveReload Tools automatically refreshes browsers of local or deployed applications as you modify project resources to avoid needing to manually refresh. You can experience automatic refreshing when viewing applications in browsers on external and mobile devices, with application web addresses easy to navigate to with QR codes.

1.2.2. Web Applications Optimized for Mobile Devices

Mobile Web Tools provides support for HTML5 and jQuery Mobile to enable you to create web applications optimized across desktop and mobile clients. The HTML5 Project wizard in Red Hat Central generates a sample application using HTML5 and jQuery Mobile technologies and, together with HTML5 and jQuery Mobile project file templates, helps you to get up and running with these APIs and technologies quickly. HTML5 and jQuery Mobile widgets can be dragged from the jQuery Mobile palette into your project files and, in conjunction with the widget wizards, enable you to effortlessly develop customized user interfaces for your mobile web applications.

1.2.3. Applications for Cloud Deployment

OpenShift Tools deploys your applications directly to the cloud on the Red Hat OpenShift platform. You can create and manage your OpenShift account and manage the deployment of applications to OpenShift within the IDE. In addition to using the OpenShift Application wizard to create and deploy new OpenShift applications, OpenShift Tools can import applications already deployed on OpenShift so that you can further develop them and manage their deployment from the comfort of the IDE.

1.3. About this Release

Red Hat CodeReady Studio 12.13 is an update of Red Hat CodeReady Studio 12.12 and it has the following features:

  • It includes Eclipse SimRel 2019-06 GA.
  • It requires a minimum of Java 8 to run.
  • It introduces new features, which are outlined in the Release Notes section.
  • It contains new features for the existing tools.

For more information about operating systems, chip architectures, and Java Development Kits supported by this release, see the Supported Configurations and Components page on the Red Hat Customer Portal.

1.4. Eclipse Automated Reporting Interface (AERI)

To contribute to JBoss Tools, we recommend you to enable the Eclipse Automated Reporting Interface (AERI) in JBoss Tools. To read about configuring error reporting in JBoss Tools, see: http://tools.jboss.org/usage/#error-reporting.