Defining Web browsers and device emulators

You can display your project in a Web browser or in a device emulator. Device emulators are programs that mimic devices, such as cell phones or PDA devices.

On Windows®, Rational® Developer provides a Web browser as part of the workbench. You can also use an external Web browser on Windows systems. On Linux™, an external Web browser is always used. In addition, you can define a device emulator to be used to display the output of your project on either type of system.

To define a Web browser or device emulator:

  1. Select Window > Preferences > Internet > Web Browser.
  2. To use the internal Web browser (Windows only), select Internal Web Browser . To use an external Web browser or a device emulator, follow these steps:
    1. Select Add.
    2. Provide a name for the Web browser or device emulator.
    3. Provide the location of the executable program for the Web browser or device emulator.
    4. Provide any parameters that you want to pass to the Web browser or device emulator. For instance, the variable %URL% will be used to pass the URL of the portal server.
    5. Select OK.
    6. Select the Web browser or device emulator that you want to use from the list of Installed Web Browsers.
    7. Select OK to save your choice and exit the Preferences page.
Note: In some configurations using WebSphere® Portal v5.0, changes made to a portal or portlet project do not show up automatically in the browser when you run or debug the project on a remote server. If you experience this problem, try one of the following solutions:
  • Use the steps above to set an external Web browser. Then, before each time you select Run on Server or Debug on Server, you need to close the external browser.
  • Explicitly log out of WebSphere Portal using the browser and log back in. After the login, the changes will be shown. This step needs to be performed every time an updated portal project is published.
Related tasks
Testing portals on local servers
Testing portals on remote servers
Testing portlets on local servers
Testing portlets on remote servers

(C) Copyright IBM Corporation 2002, 2005. All Rights Reserved.