Ajax simplifies browsing

Source: Australian IT

Summary:
A NEW technology is quickly gaining acceptance worldwide as it simplifies internet browsing, making it easier for users to shop, work, plan, correspond and navigate.
Ajax, short for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, combines several browser technologies, including JavaScript, CSS, DOM, HTTP and XML, to create user experiences that integrate seamlessly with web pages.
The concept allows browser-based tasks to be completed on desktops rather than having to travel back to a central server to be updated. The open client technology can be incrementally adopted into existing applications and websites as needed.
Users of Ajax-based applications typically do not have to refresh a web browser because information is automatically updated.
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To accelerate the adoption of Ajax, IBM is supporting the Eclipse Ajax Toolkit Framework.
The proposed Eclipse Ajax toolkit framework is the first approach that supports multiple Ajax runtime toolkits.
The runtimes currently supported are from Dojo, an Open Source JavaScript library, OpenRico and Zimbra.

Genuitec adapts NetBeans UI to eclipse

Source: Computer Business Review

Summary:
One of the earliest members of Eclipse is about to borrow what is arguably the most popular feature of the rival NetBeans.

Genuitec LLC, known for its MyEclipse integrated development environment, is about to demonstrate NetBeans' Matisse user interface on an Eclipse tool at the EclipseCon conference next week.

"Matisse is light years ahead of VI [Eclipse Visual Interface]," said Genuitec president Maher Masri, explaining the move.

Sun Microsystems began NetBeans as an open source framework to develop Java tooling. Shortly thereafter, IBM spun off Eclipse from its Java tooling efforts as an open source project. To date, Eclipse has drawn far more third-party support than NetBeans.

To get an idea of how Genuitec mixed and matched features, it helps to understand that the main differentiation between Eclipse and NetBeans Java tools frameworks is that each supports different sets of visual screen controls. While NetBeans supports Swing, Eclipse is bound to the AWT visual controls.

Genuitec decoupled the Matisse UI from Swing so it could generate AWT. It would accomplish this by using the JSR 198 standard for Java IDE plug-ins, which is awaiting final approval by the Java Community Process.

Approval is a foregone conclusion, as the JSR-198 expert group includes all the major Java household names from Borland to BEA, IBM, Oracle, SAP, and Sun. Even the Apache foundation is involved.

In effect, Matisse won't become part of MyEclipse, which itself is an IDE plug-in to the Eclipse framework. Instead, it would become a separate plug-in to Eclipse, and thereby interoperate with other Eclipse plug-ins (including, obviously, MyEclipse)

New Developer Tools Coming at EclipseCon

Source: eWeek

Summary:
With the Eclipse open-source integrated development environment platform emerging as a strong contender to be the IDE of choice for developers, vendors are gearing up for the EclipseCon conference March 20-23 in Santa Clara, Calif.

Genuitec, a founding member of the Eclipse Foundation, will be previewing its upcoming release of MyEclipse 5.0 at EclipseCon.

Among the MyEclipse 5.0 features that will be previewed is project Matisse4MyEclipse, an Eclipse integration of the popular Matisse Swing user-interface designer from the Sun NetBeans project, said Maher Masri, president of Genuitec. Matisse4MyEclipse provides simple and intuitive visual layout of UIs within Eclipse, so developers can design UIs without having to understand the complexities of Swing layout managers, widget customization, alignment or spacing, Masri said.

MyEclipse Enterprise Workbench is an Eclipse-based enterprise-class tool suite for Java Enterprise Edition, AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) or Web 2.0 applications, Masri said.

"Incorporation of Matisse exemplifies MyEclipse's leadership in innovative uses of Eclipse technology to tear down universally perceived technology barriers in order to provide MyEclipse users the best-of-breed productivity tools for designing, developing and delivering complex JEE, Web/AJAX, and now Swing desktop applications," Masri said in a statement.

Microsoft, Eclipse lead IDE popularity

Source: Computer Business Review

Summary:
In a recent survey of 700 developers, respondents may have rated Microsoft Visual Studio as the most popular, but they ranked other integrated development environments higher when it comes to features.

Admittedly, that's not surprising, as Microsoft dominates the .NET IDE market, whereas numerous vendors carve up the Java segment. In Java, Eclipse was by far the top IDE, according to the Evans Data survey.

Other IDEs with large followings included Macromedia (now Adobe) Studio MX, which is used largely for painting web clients; Oracle 9i Developer Suite (which includes the Java-based JDeveloper); and Borland JBuilder.

But the study revealed a few surprises. Top ranked in features were IBM's Rational Application Developer, followed in order by Borland JBuilder and Sun Java Studio. Conversely, the study claims Oracle has neglected its tools and said BEA, whose WebLogic Studio remains an immature product, was ranked bottom.

Metatomix Provides Free Semantic Toolkit for Eclipse Developers Worldwide

Source: MarketWire

Summary:
Metatomix, Inc., the leader in semantic composite applications, today announced the availability of its Semantic Toolkit free to Eclipse developers worldwide, enabling them to create and modify semantically enabled software solutions quickly, easily and reliably. The toolkit, developed and in current use at Metatomix, enables developers to take full advantage of the most advanced semantic technology standards approved by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

McCabe Releases Significant Upgrade to SCM Solution

Source: PRWeb

Summary:
McCabe Software Inc. announces the release of McCabe CM 3.2, separating itself from the pack with drag-and-drop change migration, dynamic workspace management, and enhanced Eclipse support that includes seamless refactoring. This latest version of McCabe CM promises to save development teams weeks with every release cycle.

“McCabe CM 3.2 reveals the real power of change based version control, and makes complex release management as easy as drag and drop,” says Barbara Dumas, McCabe’s Director of SCM Solutions.

McCabe CM’s renowned Selective Migration has taken another step forward by providing even faster and easier methods for sharing change across parallel development streams. McCabe CM’s Stream View now allows you to drag a change from one release stream and drop it into another. This functionality allows a user to apply change across different versions in seconds as opposed to the hours or days it would take with other SCM tools.

McCabe’s enhanced Eclipse support features seamless refactoring, which allows the renaming of files without the standard loss of change history and auditability. “Seamless refactoring is an essential capability if an organization has any hope of complying with federal, state or internal software audits like Sarbanes-Oxley,” says Dumas.

IBM Unveils New Open Source Development Software for Web Developers

Source: IT News Online

Summary:
IBM has introduced enhanced open source development software for Web developers to use popular browser tools to build, test and run new voice applications.

The new speech application programming interface (API) software has been recently developed as part of the Eclipse Foundation's Voice Tools Project to speed the adoption of VoiceXML applications for phones, handheld devices, cars and the Web. VoiceXML is a leading language for developing voice recognition applications. The project ultimately aims to connect Eclipse developers and VoiceXML developers, allowing for common tools and architectures to spur innovation.

Developed as part of the Voice Tools Project by IBM, Tellme and other participating companies, the API creates a common developer framework that can work with any VoiceXML platform. By using this framework, an Eclipse-based tool can interoperate with a compatible VoiceXML platform.

"This project reinforces IBM's commitment to open source technologies that grow the voice industry," said Brent Metz, Voice Tools Project Lead, IBM. "Now every developer, big or small, can build speech applications. The Voice Tools Project is designed to remove the cost barrier of entry so that developers can add speech to a wide variety of applications."

Workbench extends Eclipse capabilities: News from Genuitec

Source: EletronicsTalk

Summary:
Genuitec has announced availability of the MyEclipse Enterprise Workbench 4.1. Backed by world-class support, MyEclipse is the comprehensive J2EE- and web-development tool suite designed for enterprise developers and consultants looking for top value in a commercial-grade integrated development environment (IDE). MyEclipse 4.1 is the first Eclipse-based platform to support AJAX development, offer an integrated image editor and include new web 2.0 development capabilities.

'MyEclipse has significantly changed our workflow, allowing us to easily code, deploy, test and debug in a cycle that went from minutes to seconds', said Wayne Townsend-Merino of the San Diego Supercomputer Centre.

'The value of MyEclipse far exceeds the price, justified by countless hours saved by just the hot-deploy feature alone'.

MyEclipse is based on and significantly extends Eclipse 3.1 to include support for UML, XML, HTML, Struts, JSF, JSPT, JavaScript, CSS, EJB, Tapestry, Hibernate, Spring and database/SQL/ERD technologies.

Sybase launches larger-scale version of RFID stack

Source: Computer Business Review

Summary:
Sybase Inc today will launch a new version of its RFID Enterprise software stack that is geared toward large-scale RFID deployments.

RFID Enterprise 2.0 includes an Eclipse tooling environment, which enables companies to create composite applications, as well as on-disc encryption to improve security.

Essentially, the latest version has been geared for companies that are moving beyond pilot-stage RFID projects to more in-field operations, said Dan Auker, Sybase's product line manager of its Information Technology Solutions group.

RFID Enterprise 2.0 features three key components, including network and device management. The new device management capabilities have been extended to also include periphery devices, such as secondary light sensors that confirm when an RFID tag has actually been read. Other new features include being able to provision devices on a group level as opposed to individually.

Sybase upgrades RFID software

Source: InfoWorld Nederland

Summary:

Sybase Inc. on Monday introduced software aimed at helping enterprises analyze and integrate data collected using RFID (radio frequency identification).

Sybase's RFID Enterprise 2.0 offers device and network management capabilities and can also help users integrate RFID data into an existing data architecture. The software supports an Eclipse-based integrated development environment and a core runtime engine for event routing, business activity monitoring and message transformation.

Some companies are beginning to use the tiny RFID chips, embedding them into product packaging, because the chips can store more data than barcodes and because they can be read from several feet away.

Sybase said that it offers the components needed to get the most out of an RFID deployment, including tools for deploying and managing the network, middleware to integrate the RFID data with existing systems, and a database for collecting and analyzing the data.

Some companies in the U.S. are employing RFID because their customers are demanding it. For example, the retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is requiring its largest suppliers to deploy RFID programs if they want to continue doing business with Wal-Mart. While some organizations may be employing RFID because of such mandates, Sybase notes that those companies can leverage the investment by investing in the tools that allow them to analyze and use the data they are already collecting.

Developing Web Services "Eclipse Web Tools Project"

Source: SYS-CON ITALIA

Summary:

Today's trend is to integrate existing systems in a standard way to make disparate implementations interoperate. Web Services and XML came along with the ability to provide a standard communication interface between these systems, as well as the standard description language - WSDL - the Web Services Description Language that lets those systems define the structure of the services they're providing. Web Services are built using three classic components:

• SOAP - Simple Object Access Protocol - the XML-based communication protocol for sending data using Web Services.
• WSDL - Web Services Description Language - the XML-based language that describes the Web Service that's provided by a particular system and how to access it.
• UDDI - Universal Description Discovery Integration - a directory that helps to identify dynamically where particular Web Services are and how to find them, as well as a means of publishing services for those who want to provide them.

GUI Builder for Eclipse 3.1 and UltraLightClient Released

Source: PRWeb

Summary:
ULC Visual Editor 5.0 for Eclipse 3.1 is now available for download from the Canoo website (http://www.canoo.com/ulc/downloads/visualeditor50.html). This new release is the first version that runs with Eclipse 3.1 and the Eclipse Visual Editor 1.1. Porting to Eclipse 3.1 has greatly improved the overall performance and stability of the tool. Use this editor to visually compose Rich Internet Applications (RIA).

Justsystems Announces xfy Collaboration with IBM Workplace for XML Data Processing

Source: JapanCorp.net

Summary:
Justsystems, Inc. , a leading document processing software provider, announced today that it will work with IBM Workplace software to run joint research for XML data processing on rich client system.

IBM Workplace Client Technology is an integrated client platform which supports strong collaboration features. It provides a runtime environment and brings high productivity to employees by running office applications such as e-mail, instant messaging, document processing, presentation charts and spreadsheets. Furthermore, many business applications will be prepared by development partners. Workplace Client Technology is based on the Eclipse framework, and many application developers can utilize the Eclipse open source framework for system integration.

IBM's Sabbah touts Rational offerings

Source: InfoWorld

Summary:
Daniel Sabbah is general manger of IBM Rational Software, within the IBM Software Group. Prior to that, he was vice president of software development, strategy, and architecture for the group. Having begun his IBM career in 1974, Sabbah is experienced in both product development and software research, according to the company. InfoWorld Editor at Large Paul Krill met with Sabbah in San Francisco last week to discuss IBM's application lifecycle management efforts and talk about other subjects such as open source.

InfoWorld: Is Borland's selling off its Java and Windows tools simply an indication that it couldn't compete with Microsoft and open source?

Sabbah: Yes. I think that that's an accurate statement. Borland is getting into this space around lifecycle management, or trying to. And they've decided that the value that comes out of individual tools for isolated capabilities, like J2EE or something like that, is not something that they feel they can compete with in light of a lot of the open source efforts around Eclipse.

Eclipse gets new member

Source: InfoWorld TechWatch | InfoWorld | By Paul Krill

Summary:
Munich, Germany-based MicroDoc has joined the Eclipse Foundation as an Add-in Provider member, according to a posting on the open source tools organization's Web site on Wednesday.

Specializing in object-oriented development technologies, MicroDoc will participate in the Eclipse Rich Client Platform (RCP) effort, lending expertise in custom graphics plug-in development, J2EE/mainframe integration and embedded RCP design and development.

"We are delighted to be joining the Eclipse Foundation and to be able to be able to support this strategic organization driving a unifying architectural approach for RCP deployment across both embedded and enterprise sectors," said Hendrik Hoefer, managing director at MicroDoc, in a prepared statement.

Zend & IBM Working On Eclipse PHP IDE

Source: SDA India Magazine

Summary:
Zend is working, together with IBM, on an Eclipse-based open source PHP development solution. According to the proposal, the PHP IDE project will deliver a PHP Integrated Development Environment framework for the Eclipse platform. This project will encompass the development components necessary to develop PHP-based Web Applications and will facilitate extensibility. It will leverage the existing Web Tools Project in providing developers with PHP capabilities.

Zend and IBM will be making an initial code contribution that will encompass the core functionality for the PHP project including:

• High-quality and proven PHP model infrastructure incl. editor, syntax highlighting, code completion, and PHP explorer
• PHP perspectives
• PHP debugging capabilities

The PHP IDE project will be built using several Eclipse Web Tools Platform (WTP) project components. The WTP provide generic, extensible and standards-based tools for Web-centric application development. It provides editors for various Web centric languages such as: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, WSDL, etc. In addition, WTP provides facilities for configuring and connecting to Web Servers.

AccuRev Endorses Eclipse ALF Project

Source: EFYTimes.com

Summary:
AccuRev is developing a set of well-defined software configuration management (SCM)-related use cases to expand the Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) requirements beyond basic SCM functionality.

Saturday, February 18, 2006: New Delhi: AccuRev has announced its support to Eclipse ALF Project. AccuRev will provide the necessary web services to offer full SCM functionality within Eclipse to align with today's SCM solutions, and is also developing a set of well-defined software configuration management (SCM)-related use cases to expand the Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) requirements beyond basic SCM functionality.

Getting Eclipse to output reports in PDF

Source: Network World

Summary:
It's possible that you installed BIRT 2.0, which was released in January. The print icon in BIRT was disabled just before the new release because of report-parameter handling problems that couldn't be addressed in time for the release.

Even though the print icon is gone, you can still generate PDF copies of the reports for printing by building your own report URL, similar to:

http://myserver:8080/birt-viewer/run?__report= somereport.rptdesign&__format= pdf

The best resource for good information on working with BIRT is the BIRT newsgroup. There have been several discussions lately about generating PDF reports using BIRT 2.0.

Oracle looks to take on Eclipse

Source: Techworld.com

Summary:

Oracle has just released a free JDeveloper Java development tool, in an attempt to compete with the open source community Eclipse.

The company also is shipping Application Server 10g Release 3, an upgrade to its application server, bundled with a rules engine and an ESB (enterprise service bus).

With the new version of JDeveloper, the company is vying with the Eclipse and IntelliJ IDEs for the hearts of developers, said Ted Farrell, Oracle chief architect and vice president.

JDeveloper boasts enhanced features such as a visual page flow support and a BPEL designer, Farrell said. Oracle, which is a member of the Eclipse Foundation, hopes to leverage the free developer tool to promote its commercial offerings.

JDeveloper has an advantage over the Eclipse IDE in building of web applications, said one Eclipse user.

"Eclipse is very good [for coding] our base application, but when you want to do Web applications, you use some kind of plug-in," said Eric Marcoux, a technical architect at Fujitsu Consulting. The plug-ins do not offer ideal integration, according to Marcoux.

Oracle cites Eclipse as competitor with new dev tool

Source: TMC.net

Summary:
Oracle, with the newly shipping version of its free JDeveloper Java development tool, is looking to compete with the Eclipse open source juggernaut. The company also is shipping an upgrade to its application server, bundled with a rules engine and an ESB (enterprise service bus).

Available are the standard version of Oracle Application Server 10g Release 3 and Oracle JDeveloper 10g Release 3. They are being positioned as components of the Oracle Fusion middleware platform, which is billed as the company's SOA platform.

With the new version of JDeveloper, the company is vying with the Eclipse and IntelliJ IDEs for the hearts of developers, said Ted Farrell, Oracle chief architect and vice president.