A great feature of ROAD:BeanBox is that, in addition to the JDK, it works with some GUI-based IDEs as well. I had pretty good results using it with Visual Café. To install ROAD:BeanBox through Visual Café, follow these steps:

The Application Wizard: Your Key to Quick Results
At this point I'd like to strongly recommend the installation and use of the Application Wizard. ROAD:BeanBox seems to work best through the wizard. To install this Wizard when working with JDK1.1.x, take the following steps:

Installation of the Application Wizard through Visual Café is much the same as it is with the JDK:

At this point it's necessary to create a link to an ODBC data source with a DSN name pointing to that source. The method used here will vary depending on the database you're working with. To keep things simple, I'll run through the sample supplied with my copy of ROAD:BeanBox. It-s a Microsoft Access file named "admin.mdb." The sample is a good way to get a feel for this product. To run the sample take the following steps:

The Application Wizard is initiated with JDK or Visual CafŽ with the same command: java TableAppWizard.TableAppWizard.

If all goes well, this will bring up the welcome screen to the Application Wizard. Clicking "Next," you will then come to the login screen. Here you must specify the data source name you created during ODBC setup. In our example, the information entered is:
DataSource= Sample
SubProtocol=odbc
UserName=prasad
Password=doll1102

Clicking the "Next" button establishes the connection to the database. The "Customized Info" screen will now display. Entering "Employee" as Application Name will change the directory path to c:\employee.java. For Application Format select the radio button named "Single Row - Vertical." Clicking the "Next" button takes you to the "Table-Column Information" screen. Select the table "PRASAD.DEMO_EMPLOYEE." This will automatically change the index name to the appropriate SQL number. The Columns List box will be filled with the columns in the PRASAD.DEMO_EMPLOYEE table. Click the ">>" button to select all the columns for display in the generated application. When you press the "Next" button you should get a pop-up box confirming the launch of the Visual Designer. The Visual Designer is used to preview and/or modify the layout of the screen before the code is generated. The fields can be resized by clicking and dragging to suit your needs. Pressing "OK" will generate the code generation confirmation box. Then press "OK."

Now it's time to compile the code you-ve generated. In JDK this is done with the command javac c:\Employee.java. This class file runs with java c:\Employee.

If you-re using Visual Café, import the generated code into the project. Set the main class parameter of the "Project" tab to "Employee." You will now find the "Project" tab in the "Project Options" box. Build and execute the application according to the documentation supplied with Visual Café.

As you can see, it's possible to create a single table maintenance screen in a matter of minutes. It's also possible to create "multiple row" single-table applications as well as "master detail relationship" applications using ROAD:BeanBox. Although these are a little more involved, they come much easier and quicker than with most other methods. This benefits the user because it's not necessary to take the time to learn how to write complicated programs to access and manipulate data from a server. It also allows a significant reduction in testing and configuration time. Since the amount of code is less, the amount of time testing and adjusting the code is significantly reduced. The ability to perform database tasks with less code provides other benefits as well:

ROAD:BeanBox is one of the neatest development tools I've seen. Although it has a full arsenal of powerful database access tools, you need only a very basic knowledge of the Java programming language to use it effectively. That alone makes it worth its weight in gold.