Community News

Focusing on the enterprise, PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) tools vendor Zend Technologies is shipping Tuesday version 3.6 of its Zend Platform application server for PHP as well as Zend Studio for Eclipse, an IDE for PHP based on Eclipse open source technology.

In the third quarter of this year, Swordfish is scheduled to emerge from incubation as the SOA runtime integrated with Eclipse SOA Tools Project (STP) and the Web Tools Project (WTP), Deutscher said. Swordfish will also make the best use of both JBI and SCA, ending that rivalry, and employ OSGi to replace Java EE and even Spring, he added.

While at the Eclipse Runtime Summit, I had the chance to talk with Iona's Eric Newcomer (CTO of Iona, Co-Chair, Enterprise Expert Group, OSGi Alliance, and well respected enterprise coding guy) about the emergence of OSGi as a server-side, or enterprise technology.

JBuilder 2007 is an IDE built on the open source Eclipse framework, which makes development of Java and Web-based collaborative applications faster and more reliable. JBuilder 2007 combines the advantages of the Eclipse framework with JBuilder's innovative rapid application development (RAD) functionality, ease-of-use and productivity, and collaborative capabilities that help developers and organizations more effectively manage complex projects across locations and teams.

In this two part screencast, I talk with Andy Smith about the Eclipse SODA project, part of the Eclipse OHF effort. In the first part, Andy gives us an overview of the device populated network with edge and centralized servers that SODA services. He then explains the Stepstone use-case for in-home medical monitoring devices that serves as an example use of SODA.

In this two part screencast, Jochen Krause and I talk about the Eclipse Rich Ajax Platform, or RAP for short. RAP is a front-end framework that uses the Eclipse RCP programming model to create Ajax front-ends in Java. In the first part, Jochen gives us an overview of RAP and how it fits into the overall Eclipse runtime and then shows a few demos of using RAP in the second part.

And how can we discuss the year in Java without mentioning the largest and most complex update ever engineered for Eclipse? Version 3.3, code-named Europa, saw more than 2 million downloads between June and the writing of this article in early December. That's certainly the most interest the project has ever gathered around a new release.

Based on technology from German logistics company Deutsche Post, Swordfish features an SOA runtime platform that leverages three popular projects: Service Component Architecture (SCA), Java Business Integration (JBI), and Open Services Gateway initiative (OSGi). SCA provides a common programming model and assembly description format while JBI serves as a common messaging model. OSGi, which is the basis of the Eclipse runtime platform, provides common deployment and runtime component models in Swordfish.

In this tutorial I propose a quick step-by-step guide to start developing your OSGi bundles using Eclipse IDE and a standalone Equinox implementation.

We will begin by first describing the BIRT designer, which is used to build report designs, and conclude by discussing the example BIRT Viewer, which is used to deploy the designs and generate the completed reports.

froglogic GmbH today announced version 3.3 of the leading, cross-platform automated GUI testing tool Squish. Squish supports creating and running automated GUI tests of applications based on many user interface technologies including Trolltech's Qt, Java AWT/Swing/NetBeans, Java SWT/Eclipse RCP, Web/HTML/AJAX and Mac OS X Carbon/Cocoa. Squish is being successfully used in QA departments across the world in companies such as Reuters Financial Software, EADS, Siemens, Synopsys, Xilinx, Trolltech and France Telecom Group.

Genuitec, LLC, the leading provider of the popular MyEclipse integrated development environment (IDE) and a founding member of the Eclipse Foundation, today announced the availability of MyEclipse Reports, a professional integration and enhancement of the Eclipse BIRT project. MyEclipse Reports is available on startup to MyEclipse Professional Edition users at no charge via the "Community Essentials" program, and provides an enterprise-ready reporting solution to the MyEclipse Enterprise Workbench.

Today, OSGi has become the platform of choice for many software vendors. The majority of Java Enterprise Edition application servers support or plan to support the technology, for example. In addition, many open source initiatives have already begun to integrate OSGi into their server-side frameworks. This trend certainly will facilitate adoption of OSGi in the enterprise. For the first time, we might have one software component model that allows for the convergence of embedded, desktop, and enterprise software development. It's about time.

In this podcast, we take that thought to the next logical step. Let's talk to the guys that make the tools for open source software. So in the above downloadable file, we spend 5 minutes with Mike Milinkovich, representing the leading developer of OSS tools, the Eclipse Foundation. We wanted Mike's vision for the Foundation for 2008 and beyond.

Visual Rules is the only Business Rules Management System (BRMS) that offers a consistent graphical modeling approach. In the spring of 2008 Visual Rules' vendor, Innovations, will introduce Version 4 to the market. It is available now for beta testing.

100% focus on Developers. This is the motto of CodeGear, the erstwhile Borland Developer Tools Group. As an independent company, the CodeGear team works towards advancing and supporting the product lines like JBuilder, Delphi, C++Builder, Turbo and InterBase. They are also innovating in new areas such as Ruby on Rails with their 3rdRail product, PHP with Delphi for PHP, and Java development using Eclipse with JBuilder 2007 and the JGear Eclipse plug-ins.

Genuitec, LLC, a founding member of the Eclipse Foundation, and fellow Foundation member, Codign Software, LLC, today announced that Codign's renowned CoViewDeveloper product will be made available to all users of Genuitec's Pulse. Pulse is a completely free software service that alleviates the frustration of managing Eclipse-based software whether commercial, free or mixed.

The Aptana Studio IDE is based on the Eclipse code base, but it focuses on Web development via JavaScript (vs. Eclipse’s focus on Java). Like the Eclipse IDE, Aptana Studio organizes development work around a project. Once a new project is created, you may add one or more files. The default installation of Aptana Studio supports JavaScript, HTML, CSS, ScriptDoc, XML and plain text as well as others. Plug-ins are available for working with other file types including PHP, Ruby on Rails, Adobe AIR, and iPhone/iPod.

IBM today announced that it is contributing the Accessibility Tools Framework (ACTF) to the Eclipse Foundation, an open source community focused on developing a universal platform of frameworks and exemplary tools that make it easy and cost-effective to build and deploy software.

The Eclipse Foundation member Gentleware AG has released two fresh Eclipse offerings, further expanding beyond UML to delve deeper into model-driven software development.