Intuit cracks open its developer doors with the launch of a new open-source community for developers interested in creating online applications for small businesses.Intuit has cracked open its developer doors with the launch of a new open-source
community for developers interested in creating online applications for small
businesses.
The community, at code.intuit.com, lets developers work with Intuit and each
other to build SAAS (software-as-a-service) applications that solve important
small business problems on the Intuit Partner Platform.
Intuit officials said the community is part of the companys commitment to
provide an open and flexible PAAS (platform-as-a-service)
offering that helps developers build SAAS businesses. The platforms recently
announced Federated Application capability gives developers the ability to
write applications using any programming language, host them on any cloud
infrastructure, connect them to the Intuit Partner Platform and market them to
millions of Intuits small business customers.
In a July 27 blog post on the Intuit announcement, Alex
Barnett, group manager of developer relations at Intuit, said:
"A few weeks ago we announced IPPs Federated Applications capability
to provide developers the ability to write applications using any programming
language, host them on any on cloud infrastructure, connect them to the Intuit
Partner Platform and market them to millions of Intuits small business
customers.
"code.intuit.com is next step to developing an open small business ecosystem
and we believe that by adopting the open source model for the Intuit Partner
Platform, were enabling developers to collaborate with us to enhance their
applications and the platform and Small businesses will benefit from a better
SAAS experience with Web applications that work together and solve real
business needs."
Alex Chriss, business leader of the Intuit Partner Platform, said, The
Intuit Partner Platform is creating a connected and thriving small business ecosystem.
By adopting the open-source model, were enabling developers to collaborate
with us to enhance their applications and the platform. As a result, small
businesses will benefit from a better SAAS experience with Web applications
that work together and solve real business needs.
The site will host and provide early access to code, toolkits and
documentation for the Intuit Partner Platform. By collaborating, sharing and
improving platform components, developers can build their own businesses faster
and easier and take advantage of the work of Intuit and their peers when
building applications, the company said.
The first Intuit-sponsored open-source projects are designed to expand a
shared infrastructure to make it easier for developers to integrate their
applications with the Intuit Partner Platform. In the future, Intuit will
sponsor additional projects and encourage developers and organizations to
create and run their own Intuit Partner Platform-related projects.
The initial Intuit-sponsored projects under Common Public License include:
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IPP Developer Toolkits:
Language-binding libraries and sample code for the Intuit Partner Platform. The
toolkits under development include Java, Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition (J2ME),
Ruby, .NET, iPhone and others.
Meanwhile, Intuit said third-party developers already are contributing code
to the community. VerticalResponse provided a sample Ruby SAML gateway that
enables authentication between the Intuit Partner Platform and their
application, VerticalResponse for Intuit Workplace.
Contributing our gateway code serves two purposes, said Alan Keller, vice
president of business development at VerticalResponse, in a statement. First
it will help other developers integrate their applications with Intuits
platform and bring more users to it. In addition, we expect to benefit from
future code contributions the community will provide. Everyone benefits heredevelopers
and customers alike. Were all working hard to develop great small business
apps, and sharing code with Intuits developers and others can dramatically
speed up development of additional features and enhancements to our offerings.
And in the end, that really benefits the customer.
Moreover, Intuit will host an Intuit Partner Platform Cloud Jam to encourage
third-party developers to collaborate with Intuit on a number of open-source
projects and speed up their efforts to add their own applications to the
platform. The event will take place Aug. 11-13 at the companys Mountain
View, Calif., headquarters. The
Code Jam will also be available online with live Webinar sessions taking place
throughout the week. More details are available at
http://developer.intuit.com/IPPCloudJam.
Weve had an enormous level of interest from developers wanting to reach
the small business market by tapping into our platform, Barnett said in a
statement. This Cloud Jam is an opportunity for external developers to
collaborate with Intuit in a focused effort to help them bring their products
to market quickly and help them grow their SAAS businesses.
Also, in his blog post, Barnett said Intuit has amassed a team of open-source
and development community leaders to serve on the advisory board for
code.intuit.com. They are:
Barnett added that code.intuit.com has been in open beta for a couple of
months now and many more months in development.
Application Development 
