Java Vendors Announce New Tools (Continued)

Oak Grove Systems
Oak Grove Systems announced its release of Reactor 5 Source Code PLUS, which offers developers a Java-based, platform-neutral way to process-enable applications. Developers can take advantage of Oak Grove's Reactor 5 Source Code PLUS Managed Source licensing model that provides benefits such as full support, ongoing development, embedding services, open source, and royalty-free distribution.

According to Charles Ames, president and CEO of Oak Grove Systems, the company strives to deliver the best of both commercial and open-source worlds by occupying a middle ground that gives software vendors the commercial-level service and support they desire with the access and control of code that their developers want. "We position ourselves between open source and support of licensed software bundling implementation services," said Ames. Reactor 5 Source Code PLUS combines the benefits of Oak Grove Systems' Reactor 5 Process Execution Framework components. The Reactor 5 Process Execution framework includes Reactor 5 Studio, a graphical modeling environment; Reactor 5 Server, a J2EE-based process engine; and Reactor 5 Portal Framework, a JSP/Servlet framework.
www.oakgrovesystems.com

Tira Wireless
Tira Wireless announced the launch of its Tira JUMP Mobile Application Porting Service, which addresses fragmentation and application-compatibility issues by allowing developers and publishers to port J2ME applications to a variety of devices without having to rewrite code.

"Every phone sold out there is a Java phone," said Tony Davis, CEO of Tira Wireless, "and the biggest issue is fragmentation." J2ME's tremendous acceptance in the marketplace as a standard for games and applications on more than 100 Java-enabled devices creates a significant challenge for developers, publishers, brand owners, and operators. The JUMP Mobile Application Porting Service generates multiple versions of J2ME applications to solve the fragmentation problem.

The goal, according to Davis, is to take the different versions of applications for different devices, open it up to publishers and operators, and give them a service they can use. Developers and publishers can register online for the JUMP service and ensure that an application created for a Tira-identified reference devicestandard devices with available off-the-shelf emulatorscan be ported. The JUMP process occurs over two stages. The first stage validates the application's readiness for porting by verifying automatically against Tira's porting guidelines. The second stage generates multiple versions of the application for each device.
www.tirawireless.com

New Atlanta Communications
With BlueDragon 3.0 Server, New Atlanta Communications is the only company whose product allows ColdFusion Web developers to keep their native code base and deploy it on J2EE or .NET platforms. This is advantageous for companies with substantial time and fiscal investments in ColdFusion applications and whose partners and customers need J2EE or .NET implementations, or both. Rather than rewrite their code, IT shops can use BlueDragon for J2EE or .NET to redeploy their code. BlueDragon 3.0 is free for development and deployment purposes.
www.newatlanta.com

Macromedia "Royale"
Macromedia gave JavaOne attendees a sneak-peek at "Royale," its internal code name for a new initiative that addresses the requirements of enterprise programmers who want to develop rich client applications. Royale aims to deliver a standards-based, JSP-style programming methodology and workflow along with runtime services for developing and deploying the presentation tier of applications that combine the responsiveness and richness of desktop software with the broad reach of Web applications.

Development teams that create strategic applications for large enterprises need a way to deliver the ROI of rich clients in a way that matches their preferred programming methodologies, development workflows, and infrastructure and integration requirements. Royale solves this problem by allowing application developers to describe an application's user-interface layout, UI controls, and data binding using a familiar, standards-based programming model. Royale does not replace existing tools, application servers, or databases; it complements them. Macromedia did not announce the Royale release date or pricing information at the show.
www.macromedia.com/special/royale/