San Jose, California-based BEA is expected to open its annual eWorld developer conference in Orlando, Florida, by making a beta of Workshop 8.1 available for download.
Workshop is part of the latest version of WebLogic Platform, release 8.1, to be announced today. Platform 8.1 includes updates of BEA’s WebLogic Application Server, Java Virtual Machine (JVM), enterprise portal and integration software also numbered version 8.1.
Workshop 8.1 has been integrated with other enterprise software products in BEA’s Java stack to grow BEA’s position among enterprise customers and grass roots developers. BEA hopes to attract a broad class of technical and non-technical developers to its platform.
Workshop 8.1 introduces custom-built controls to BEA’s development environment. Controls are a BEA technology introduced in the first version of Workshop, which were last-year submitted for ratification to the Java Community Process (JCP) by BEA. Controls simplify development by automating coding behind the scenes.
ISVs can now build their own controls for circumstances, such as component-based development, without waiting for BEA to build them instead. By permitting ISVs to build controls, BEA hopes to establish a broad ecosystem of partners around Workshop and extend functionality.
Workshop 8.1 also introduces visual Java Server Page/HTML designers and Java Page Flows for developers to assemble web applications using a visual, drag-and-drop approach. Other features, as previously reported by ComputerWire, include WS-Security and Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML).
Portals can also be rapidly built using Workshop for deployment on the latest edition of BEA’s Portal. Portal 8.1 also supports the Java community’s proposed specifications for portlet-level development and repositories for content management system integration.
WebLogic Integration 8.1, integrated with Workshop 8.1, features an X-Query Transformation Engine for drag and drop between different schemas. BEA said this approach is more scalable and offers higher performance than if it had used XSLT. Integration 8.1 also features BEA’s first implementation of Business Process Execution Language for Web Services (BPEL4WS), co-authored with IBM Corp and Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft Corp.
WebLogic Server 8.1, meanwhile, offers support for latest web services standards with improved performance. The J2EE application server, the foundation for BEA’s Platform 8.1, supports WS-Security, SAML and the company claimed a 30% performance boost over the previous version. Other features include ability to monitor the JVM, application server and custom code from a single view to more easily spot bottlenecks.
Source: Computerwire
