Using the Development Center for the First Time

The first time you launch the Development Center, you will be greeted with the Development Center Launchpad. Click the Create Project button at the top-left corner of the window to begin (see Figure D.6).

Figure D.6. The Development Center Launchpadcreating a project.

To start developing database application objects, you must first create a new project. A project is a logical grouping of related database application objects. The set of all objects in a project, however, may only be a subset of all database application objects already existing on a system.

For example, a single database may be shared by two different applications called Application A and B. Each application has its own unique set of stored procedures and functions stored in the same database. You might, then, define a project that contains only objects for Application A, and a separate project that only contains objects for Application B. In this way, you can limit your workspace to include only those objects related to the immediate task at hand. It is also possible to open and work with multiple projects at the same time. Projects will be discussed in more detail later.

The second step of the launchpad helps you define a connection for the project. Click Add Connection (see Figure D.7).

Figure D.7. Defining an online connection for a project.

An online connection means that the database is accessible immediately. Generally, this is what you want to do. You would create an offline connection if the database is not currently available for connection. Click Next to continue.

DB2 then prompts you to select the database connection from the pull-down menu (see Figure D.8). The SAMPLE database is selected in this case. If you want to access a remote database but is not configured on your client, you can click the Add button.

Figure D.8. Select a database and provide connection information.

Before you can move to the next step, you must provide a user ID and password for connecting to the selected database. You may provide a user ID and password explicitly, or use your current network user ID and password. Remember that DB2 uses operating system authentication services. If you do not have a solid understanding of how DB2 implements security, we recommend that you use the following shown in Table D.1.

Table D.1. Default User IDs for DB2 UDB Linux, UNIX, and Windows
Platform	Platform Default SYSADM
Windows	`db2admin`
UNIX/Linux	`db2inst1`

Before continuing, verify that the connection works by clicking the Test Connection button.

Tip

After the first two steps, you can usually accept the remaining defaults and click Finish without viewing the remaining steps of the wizard.

The final step displays a summary of the connection (see Figure D.9). Click Finish to create the connection. This will return you to the Development Center Launchpad.

Figure D.9. The connection summary.

Now that you have a project (Project1) and a database connection object (to SAMPLE), the launchpad can help you create your first stored procedure. Click Create Object, and you will see the New Object dialog. Click OK to invoke the Create SQL Procedure Wizard (see Figure D.10.)

Figure D.10. Creating a sample stored procedure.

For the purposes of our example, however, you can directly click the Finish button to accept all defaults and create your first stored procedure (but feel free to step all the way through the wizard if you want). This will create a small sample procedure.

You can now close the launchpad to view the fruits of your labor in the Development Center interface.

Tip

The launchpad can be opened after the Development Center has started by selecting the Launchpad option from the Project menu.

The procedure created appears as PROCEDURE1 in the SAMPLE database's stored procedure folder. You can see in the Output view (bottom-left corner) that the build was successful (see Figure D.11).

Figure D.11. First look at the DB2 Development Center IDE.

The source code for an object can be retrieved by double-clicking its icon, pressing CTRL-E while highlighting the object, or by right-clicking it and selecting the Edit menu item. This will open the Editor View (see Figure D.12).