Sun Microsystems plans to open source major elements of the Sun Java Studio Enterprise as a project on NetBeans.org. This new project will be released as the NetBeans Enterprise Pack.
“Making [Java Studio Enterprise] available to the NetBeans community, we’ve expanded the range of features that developers can adopt, customize, and deploy for more productive development with the Java Enterprise System,” said Jeff Jackson, senior vice president of Java, Enterprise, and Developer Software at Sun.
The NetBeans Enterprise Pack, which is based on Java Studio Enterprise, is an API-level development tool that is designed to run on top of the NetBeans 5.5 IDE.
Sun says the solution-based tools of the NetBeans Enterprise Pack can make it easier to work on the architecture and implementation of complex applications at a higher level of abstraction.
The feature set includes:
— 2-way UML modeler for architecting and reverse engineering complex enterprise applications. UML tools generate diagrams and keep them insync with source changes without adding markers to the source code. Full support for the current version of the UML specification is provided.
— A set of XML infrastructure and visual editing tools which help enable developers to manage complexity in their XML files. These tools are intended to provide a base that can be extended by third parties.
— Orchestration and SOA tools are included for building composite applications. These leading-edge SOA tools leverage the business integration technology and expertise from Sun’s acquisition of SeeBeyond.
“[The NetBeans Enterprise Pack] allows me to model complex business systems and then seamlessly generate code, or synchronize with existing code saving me hours of time refactoring code and then updating the model,” said David Freels, software architect at Digital Reasoning Systems, Inc.
Many of the components of Sun’s integrated platform are already available as open source, including the Solaris OS and the Sun Java Application Server. The company also offers participation in Open Office, JXTA and participates in open source projects like GNOME, Apache, and Mozilla.
Developers interested in participating in the development of Java Studio Enterprise can visit the website for more details.
