Micro Focus Enterprise Developer 2.3 for Eclipse > Welcome > Upgrading to Enterprise Developer for Eclipse > Upgrading from Mainframe Express to Enterprise Developer > What is Enterprise Developer

What is Enterprise Developer

Micro Focus Enterprise Developer is specifically designed to upgrade the Micro Focus Mainframe Express product and provides a contemporary development environment for zEnterprise that enables you to modernize mainframe applications for deployment back on the mainframe or any of the z/Enterprise partitions. It provides for mainframe integration, workflow management and supports development and unit test environments.

Enterprise Developer is a powerful integrated development environment (IDE) that provides the ability to move development mainframe activities off the mainframe, providing agility, flexibility and direct access to new technologies and trends. It offers both Windows-based Eclipse and Microsoft Visual Studio as standard IDEs, and in addition provides the development tools required to develop applications for deployment on platforms other than the mainframe.

Enterprise Developer supports COBOL, PL/I 1, IBM Assembler, CICS, IMS-TM, JCL, DB2, IMS-DB, z/OS file formats and the common batch utilities, including SORT. As a result of this compatibility, the day-to-day analysis, edit, compile, and debug tasks - necessary to maintain and improve core online and batch applications -can all be undertaken on a Windows workstation. You can use a dedicated workstation or laptop for development and unit testing which means development and testing can be moved away from the mainframe.

Enterprise Developer is part of the Micro Focus Enterprise product set - a complete solution to help organizations through the mainframe modernization journey. It includes Enterprise Analyzer, Enterprise Test Server and Enterprise Server in addition to Enterprise Developer. Applications developed or updated using Enterprise Developer can then be fully tested under Enterprise Test Server before being deployed back to the mainframe.

Alternatively, Micro Focus Enterprise Server can be used to redistribute application workload by providing an alternative production platform off the mainframe.

Micro Focus Enterprise Developer revolutionizes the way mainframe development is performed.

Different versions of Enterprise Developer

The following Enterprise Developer options are available for either Visual Studio or Eclipse:

Micro Focus Enterprise Developer Connect: Enterprise Developer Connect is for customers looking to use modern and productive Eclipse-based tooling to develop mainframe applications directly on the mainframe. Close integration to mainframe configuration management systems and the ability to easily customize the Eclipse-based IDE to include mainframe-based tools and processes means developers can take full advantage of modern development tools without having to learn new development processes.
Micro Focus Enterprise Developer: Enterprise Developer is for customers looking to develop and modernize mainframe applications in a productive and modern Windows-based development environment, targeted for deployment onto an alternate server platform. Developers have the choice of either the Visual Studio or the Eclipse-based IDE and development and test tools are provided for all target environments currently supported by Micro Focus.
Micro Focus Enterprise Developer for IBM zEnterprise: Enterprise Developer for IBM zEnterprise gives customers the choice to develop directly on the mainframe or under Windows. Mainframe applications can be developed, maintained and modernized regardless of where they will be deployed, either back onto the mainframe or onto an alternative server environment. Support is provided for both the Visual Studio and Eclipse-based IDEs and for all the development and test tools for every target environment currently supported by Micro Focus - including z/Linux, AIX and x86 environments. Enterprise Developer for IBM zEnterprise combines all the capabilities of Enterprise Developer Connect and Enterprise Developer.
Full mainframe integration and the Application Workflow Manager are only available in the Eclipse-based IDE.

Enterprise Developer Connect

Enables you to develop mainframe applications directly on the mainframe. Close integration to mainframe configuration management systems and the ability to easily customize the Eclipse-based IDE to include mainframe-based tools and processes means developers can take full advantage of modern development tools without having to learn new development processes.

Enterprise Developer

Enables you to modernize mainframe applications and move them to an alternative platform. This option again uses either the Visual Studio or Eclipse-based IDE and supports development, local and remote debugging, and testing across all major supported open platforms.

Enterprise Developer for zEnterprise

Enables you to modernize applications for deployment anywhere on zEnterprise. It uses the Visual Studio or Eclipse-based IDE, mainframe integration and workflow management, and supports development and testing on z/OS, z/Linux and AIX and x86 environments. Supports local and remote debugging, building and deploying applications across zEnterprise and includes the Application Workflow Modeling feature.

For more details about the product editions, see Product Editions at: https://www.microfocus.com/products/enterprise/enterprise-developer.aspx