Q. Does VA Assist support IBM's new WebSphere Studio
Development Environments (Eclipse)?
Yes. VA Assist Enterprise/J 3.0 currently supports interoperability between
VisualAge for Java and the new WebSphere Studio Development Environments (Eclipse, WSAD,
etc). To learn more about this capability, read our Strategy,
Roadmap & Products document.
Q. Are there any issue involved in upgrading to VA Java 3.5.3
or 4.0?
Yes. Do not attempt to load or use VA Assist 2.0.7 or
earlier with VA Java 4.0. VA Assist 2.0.7 is
designed for use with VA Java 3.0/3.02/3.5/3.5.3. VA Assist 2.0.8 and above are designed
for use with VA Java 3.0/3.02/3.5/3.5.3 and 4.0.
Do not attempt to load or use VA Assist 2.0.4 or earlier
with VA Java 3.5.3. VA Assist 2.0.4 is designed for
use with VA Java 3.0/3.02/3.5. VA Assist 2.0.5 and higher are designed for use with VA
Java 3.0/3.02/3.5 and
3.5.3.
Also, do not install VA Java 3.5.3 or 4.0 on top of your existing
VA Java 3.0/3.02/3.5 installation without first deleting/un-installing all of the
existing VA Assist and jFactor files (e.g., all VA Assist IC directories - \ide\ics\com-instantiations*). See the VA Assist installation
instructions for further details.
Q. Why don't I see any VA Assist Enterprise v2.0 or v3.0 features?
VA Assist Enterprise/J v2.0 required a new serial number in order to unlock the v2.0
features. VA Assist Enterprise/J v3.0 uses the same serial numbers as v2.0, so a new
serial number is not required. Customers who have purchased the earlier, 1.5.x version can
use VA Assist with a v1.5.x serial number but will not be able to use any of the new v2.0
or v3.0 features. A modest upgrade fee is required in order to access the new features.
Customers who have purchased VA Assist within the last 90 days or who have a valid support
contract can receive this upgrade for free. Please contact the Instantiations sales
department at sales@instantiations.com or
800-808-3737 for details or to purchase the upgrade.
Q. Can I use VA Assist/J Preview with VisualAge for Java
Enterprise Edition?
No. VA Assist/J Preview can be used freely with VisualAge for Java
Professional Edition or Entry Edition. If you load VA Assist/J Preview into VisualAge for
Java Enterprise Edition, the product will install itself as a 30-day
evaluation of VA Assist Enterprise/J. It is our experience that most customers who use
VisualAge for Java Enterprise Edition, require the additional functionality provided by VA
Assist Enterprise/J (i.e., user management, super user and super group
modes, management query enhancements, etc.).
Q. What are the main differences between VA Assist/J
Preview and VA Assist Enterprise/J?
VA Assist/J Preview is strictly a marketing tool intended to give VisualAge for Java,
Professional and Entry users they ability to "preview" key features and
functionality contained in the full VA Assist Enterprise/J product. The documentation home page of the VA Assist product family has a small
IBM VisualAge icon (
) next
to each feature that specifically applies to VisualAge for Java Enterprise Edition. There
are many differences and most are very significant. Many of the non-Enterprise specific
features are also enhanced in the Enterprise context.
Q. What are the main differences between VA Assist Enterprise/J
and VA Assist Enterprise/G?
VA Assist Enterprise/J is a subset of VA Assist Enterprise/G. VA Assist Enterprise/G
also includes VA Assist Enterprise/S (the Smalltalk/Generator version of VA Assist). Since
IBM’s VisualAge Generator v4.0 provides both Smalltalk and Java based tools, our VA
Assist Enterprise/G product supports both of them as well.
Q. On which operating systems do the VA Assist products run?
The VA Assist products run on the Microsoft Windows family of operating systems. We have no plans to support
Linux or OS/2 (now that IBM has discontinued plans for VA Java support
under those operating systems). See the System
Requirements page for full details.
Q. I have purchased VA Assist product, but all of its features
seem to be missing or disabled. What can I do?
Start by making sure that the product is enabled and that your serial number/unlock
code is entered into the main options page of your VA Assist product as described on the Unlocking a Purchased Product page. If a valid serial number has not
been entered, your VA Assist product will remain in evaluation mode and automatically
expire at the end of 30 days. Entering a valid serial number and re-enabling the product
should make it functional.
Q. I just started evaluating my VA Assist product last
week and it appears as if my evaluation has expired. What happened?
Check to see what "Activation Date" is shown in the main options page of your
VA Assist product. The activation date is the date the first user connected to your
VisualAge product repository. An individual's (defined as a single user name in the
repository) evaluation period is limited to 30 days and an organization's
overall evaluation period is limited to 60 days from first activation. If
you need additional time to evaluate the product, please contact our sales group at sales@instantiations.com or 800-808-3737 for
assistance.
Q. I can't seem to unload my VA Assist product. What can I do?
In almost all cases, a corrupted workspace file is the cause that can prevent your VA
Assist product from unloading properly. When one of these is encountered, it causes
VisualAge for Java to hold onto some dead processes and instances of various windows
(including, as a side effect, instances of our classes). The unloading mechanism built
into VisualAge for Java won't unload an IC unless there are no instances of its classes
present. The only recourse in this case is to start with a clean workspace file (IDE.ICX).
A clean IDE.ICX file can be found in a zip file in the backup directory on your IBM
VisualAge for Java installation CD or from the this
page.
Q. When I try to load VA Assist product, I get an Error
33/37. What can I do?
That error indicates that your workspace is either incorrect for the version of
VisualAge you are using or that it is bound to an earlier version of a VA Assist product
(as would be the case if you are installing a new version of VA Assist into a workspace
that already has an earlier version of the product installed). Before installing a new
version your VA Assist product, make sure that you have fully unloaded any prior version
as described on the Uninstalling and Reinstalling page. If
your installed VA Assist product version is prior to 1.0.10, you must also unload the VA
Assist debug utilities before loading a newer version.
Do not install VA Java 3.5.3 or 4.0 on top of your existing VA Java 3.0/3.02/3.5
installation without first deleting/un-installing any existing VA Assist files. Versions of VA Assist prior to 2.0.5 should not be used with VA
Java 3.5.3 and versions prior to 2.0.8 should not be used with 4.0.
Make sure that you save your workspace or exit VisualAge for Java using the normal
"Exit VisualAge" command (which will also save your workspace) before installing
a new version of VA Assist. The VisualAge for Java workspace file records which version of
VA Assist is loaded, so if you exit without saving the workspace (or you switch to another
workspace that has a different version of VA Assist loaded), VisualAge for Java will think
that the older version of VA Assist is still loaded and will fail with an Error 33/37 when
you install the new version of VA Assist and re-start the product
If after attempting to unload VA Assist (including the debug utilities), the above
error still appears, this means that your workspace file is corrupt (see the prior FAQ entry for details) and that VA Assist was not actually
able to unload itself and the workspace file is still bound to the old version (see the Installation page for further details). You may confirm this by
re-installing the prior version of VA Assist (the one you are trying to unload) and seeing
whether the workspace launches or not (if it launches OK, that means that it was still
bound to the old version). The only recourse in this case is to start with a clean
workspace file (IDE.ICX). A clean IDE.ICX file can be found in a zip file in
the backup directory on your IBM VisualAge for Java installation CD or from the this page.
Q. My VisualAge IDE seems to get very slow with the VA Assist
product installed. What can I do?
If your system slows down, this indicates that you are either using a remote repository
or have a slow connection to a local repository and have specific VA Assist product
features turned on that are not compatible with that environment. The most likely cause is
that you have either the "unreleased" or "not in library" color
options turned on. As explained on the Color
Highlighting page, both of those options are turned off by default and both require a
fast connection to the repository as they rely on various repository requests. If you turn
them on and your system slows down, you have a slow repository connection and you should
turn them off. With those two color options off, you should not experience any slowness in
the IDE.
Another possible cause is the whole-class-editing-mode
feature. The whole-class-editing-mode feature has to retrieve the class definition and all
of its method definitions each time the class is clicked on. A slow repository connection
coupled with a large class definition may make this unreasonably slow. Your VA Assist
product provides several options on the Coding options
page to control this. You can set the whole class edit mode to only invoke when the Alt
key is held down or specify a maximum number of methods cutoff point above which the
feature will be suppressed.
If you are experiencing any slowness
in accessing any of the workspace menus or the "Manage" menu in particular, you
should also consider turning off the "Show
workspace solutions menus" and "Show
user manage menus" option on the Layout options
page.
Q. Where are my VA Assist product settings stored and how can
I transfer them from one machine to another?
Most of VA Assist product settings are stored in the IDE.INI file along with VisualAge
for Java's own settings. Moving your IDE.INI file to the second machine will transfer most
settings. Some settings (primarily complex ones that don't lend themselves to INI files)
are store in the repository in the user record. These settings may be transferred by exporting your user record from one repository
to another. Menu key sets may be easily transferred between users. If you go to the Menu Keys option page and click on the "Load"
button, you will be able to load any menu key profile from any other user. You could, for
example, create a standard menu key profile as Administrator and then load that into each
user's workspace. You may also export menu key profiles to files and then import them back
in again. Other complex VA Assist settings that may be exported to files include Bookmarks, Exception
Sets, Working Sets, etc.
Q. When I change a method in whole-class-edit-mode, it
updates all of the methods in the class. Why does this happen?
As described on the whole-class-editing-mode
page, only elements that have actually been changed are saved. Methods may be changed
either because they were edited or because they were reformatted (which would be the case
if you turned on the "use export format settings" option). Once the initial
reformatting has taken place and all the methods have been re-saved, you should not see
any further changes appear to any methods (unless you edit them or you change your export
format settings).
Q. I get a system exception in my log window, and I think it
is related to my VA Assist product. What should I do?
VisualAge for Java generates many system exceptions by itself. If you suspect a problem
with your VA Assist product, see if you have a file called VA-DEBUG.LOG in your VA Java
\IDE\PROGRAM subdirectory. If you have one, review our support
procedures and then send it to us at (vaa-support@instantiations.com)
so that we may analyze it. The information in the log file should be sufficient for us to
determine whether it is a problem related to your VA Assist product or a VisualAge for
Java problem.
Q. If I load an older method edition, the newly loaded
method is not marked modified. Why?
That is by design. The colorization works by
comparing the timestamp of the method edition with the timestamp
of the class edition. The method will show as modified only if it has been changed on or
after the time the class edition was created. Likewise, if a method has a time stamp later
than the current edition, it will be blue even if it was released into the prior version
(you can get this case if you set your clock ahead and create methods with future time
stamps).
Q. I have export order set to import order and my inner
classes all float to the top. Why?
VisualAge for Java automatically combines any inner class definitions with the main
class definition. If you look at the export options
provided with your VA Assist product, they only apply to the order of exported methods.
We do not have control over the order of export of inner classes (since VisualAge for Java
treats them as a single entity combined with the main class definition). If improvements
are made in future versions of VisualAge for Java, we may be able to control the order of
inner classes as well.
Q. Why does a "Newer" query against types in the
Management Query window take so long?
The "Newer" query is very
"expensive" in terms of repository access. Depending on how you have qualified
it, it can take a very long time. A "Newer" query for projects or packages
shouldn't take that long since the number of entities that must be checked is reasonably
low (even for a workspace-scoped query). A "Newer" query for types, however,
could take several minutes to complete if you have the scope set to the entire workspace.
If you want to do a Newer Types query, you should first limit the scope to a specific
working set. Alternatively, you are given the option to run the query as a background
process when starting it.
Q. What is the difference between "Super User"
mode and "Super Group mode?"
Super Group mode gives you Super User access scoped
at the level of a package. A Super User has the ability
to version, release and manipulate any code in any package
regardless of ownership. A group member of a package with Super Group assigned to it can
version, release or manipulate only the code within that package (again, regardless of
ownership). We have many clients with multiple project teams working on the same
repository. They want each team to be freely able to work on any code within a specific
package. They don't want members of other teams given the ability to freely manipulate
code that does not belong to them. Super Group mode is perfect for this situation. Super
User mode is best reserved for your senior developers, team leaders and the Administrator.
Q. Super User mode stays on even when I change users. Is
this correct?
Yes. This is working as designed (based on customer feedback). It allows someone who
has Super User privileges to invoke and use them while
still having the ability to change workspace owner (as is sometimes necessary in VisualAge
for Java). If you don't want Super User mode to be on, you need to turn it off (either
before or after switching users).
Q. I have Super User mode turned on, but the system will not
let me do something because I am not the owner of the item. Why?
Super User mode is not a
global setting and must be applied individually (in our product design) to each and every
function it enhances. It currently applies to many common functions used to manipulate
Projects, Packages and Types, but not to all of them. We plan to extend Super User mode to
encompass more features with future updates to the product. If you have specific features
that you would like to see enhanced, please let us know at vaa-support@instantiations.com.
Q. When I use the version renaming feature, my JavaDoc
@version tags and version fields/methods are not updated. Why?
Renaming versions only effects the library
version name of the selected items. It does not affect JavaDoc
@version tags or version fields/methods since
changing source code for an existing version is not permitted. In order to change any of
the source code for a class or one of its methods, a new edition must be obtained.
Q. Many of the VA Assist dialogs are too
large for my display. What can I do?
