I found JBuilder 7.0 met most of my criteria. What follows is a summary of the results of my evaluation.

Product Description
JBuilder is one of the leading IDEs for Java development, and the Enterprise version is used to build distributed J2EE-based applications. In addition, version 7 includes the option to download a Web services pack for developing Web services from your Java components.

Installation and Setup
Installation took 10 minutes. JBuilder's installation is based on Zero G Software and was very smooth. Since I wasn't running short of disk space, as is my standard policy, I selected the full install. However, starting the IDE cost me another 15 minutes since I had to go on the Internet to register my license. This was a minor annoyance, as I wasn't connected to the Internet when I installed the product.

Setting up the project was fairly easy (see Figure 1). I also found that there's a lot of flexibility in configuring the source directories, including libraries and setting up test directories. One of the most useful features is the ability to work on two different projects simultaneously. JBuilder lets you open multiple IDE browsers, one for each project (see Figure 2).

Menus
JBuilder has a plethora of useful tabbed menus, and describing each one in detail is beyond the scope of this review. However, I will highlight some of the features that I found useful. Figure 2 shows the tabs with an expanded Tools menu in one project and an expanded Wizards menu in another. The navigation through the menus is very intuitive. Besides the tabs, the coding area and the Object Explorer bring up the appropriate menus when you right-click. The window on the bottom left gives a granular view of the class being coded and also continuously refreshes with errors as you type. The following are some of the useful and distinguishing capabilities of JBuilder 7:

Figure 3 shows the Object Gallery for Enterprise components, the app server configuration window, and the EJB Test Client generator wizard.

The Code Editor
The code editor is the meat of the IDE. Besides code completion, parenthesis matching, smart indentation, and other neat editing gimmicks (which are very useful), I found JBuilder's editing capabilities far superior to most other IDEs in the market today. A right-click in the main editing window allows you to set up and configure the editor to your heart's content. As shown in Figure 2, I set up the colors to my favorite theme. Shortcuts and meta keys can be completely reconfigured in a manner that Emacs users would be proud of. Other useful features I found included the ability to set up bookmarks, code insight options, and coding style.

At the bottom of the main editing window is a set of tabs that made development so much easier. In a class design window, the tabs Source, Design, Bean, UML, Doc, and History are available (see Figure 2). This enables you to switch from writing code for designer wizards to writing code for Javadocs, UML-style class diagrams, or your source control system ­ while in the same window. The UML-based feature was most useful in documenting code and understanding existing code. The diagrams are linked via clickable references that allow you to navigate between classes. The shortcomings of the UML features are that there's no way to get the overall class diagram (you can only view one class at a time) and the diagrams can only be saved in .png format.

Refactoring
JBuilder 7 provides good support for refactoring, including finding references and definitions; optimizing imports; moving, renaming, and repackaging classes; surrounding existing code with try-catch blocks (very useful!); and extracting methods from existing code. These options are available through the right-click menu. The relevant ones can also be accessed via right-clicks in the Object Explorer window. I've used each of these features at some point in the development cycle. The refactoring support makes redesign and coding much easier.

I could go on and on about the neat features that JBuilder provides. I've probably used about 20% of the functionality in its arsenal (remember the 80-20 rule). However, such details are beyond the scope of this review. In a nutshell, JBuilder is a great IDE for Java enterprise development that saved me a lot of development and debugging time in my projects while allowing me to manage the entire life cycle of my application.

Borland JBuilder 7.0 Snapshot
Target Audience: Enterprise Java developers
Level: Medium to expert
Pros:

Cons:

Borland
100 Enterprise Way
Scotts Valley, CA 95066-3249
Phone: 831 431-1000
E-mail: customer_service@borland.com
Web: www.Borland.com

Specifications
Platforms: Windows 2000/NT/XP, Linux and Solaris, Mac OS X

Test Environment
Computer: Sony Vaio Laptop
Processors: 1GHz Intel
Memory: 512MB RAM
Platform: Windows 2000, SP 2