Spring, Adobe Partner for Java RIA

HOLLYWOOD, Fla.—SpringSource and Adobe have announced plans to partner to add Spring support to Adobe's Flex platform, both in the browser and on the desktop using the Adobe Integrated Runtime, or AIR.

At his company's annual SpringOne developer conference here, Adrian Colyer, chief technology officer at SpringSource, announced the Spring/Adobe partnership.

And Chris Ethier, group product marketing manager for Adobe LiveCycle, said in an interview with eWEEK, "We're looking to simplify the creation of rich Web applications."

Indeed, the partnership is aimed at simplifying the development and deployment of rich enterprise Java applications by providing integration between the Adobe Flash and SpringSource platforms. Ethier said this collaboration will make it easy for Java developers to create enterprise-class RIAs (rich Internet applications) using Adobe Flex software, a cornerstone of the Adobe Flash Platform, and Spring, the de facto standard for enterprise Java.

Colyer said with support from Adobe, SpringSource is introducing Spring BlazeDS Integration, a new open-source project that provides tight integration between Spring and BlazeDS, Adobe's open-source server-based Java remoting and Web messaging technology. A beta version of Spring BlazeDS Integration will be available from SpringSource in mid-December. This will be an open-source technology, he said.

Also in development for early next year is the SpringSource Adapter for Adobe LiveCycle Data Services ES, which will provide integration with Adobe LiveCycle Data Services ES, enabling the creation of server push-based applications based on Adobe Flex for real-time and near real-time solutions. This will be a commercial product, Colyer said.

"Both SpringSource and Adobe enterprise have been asking for this integration," Ethier said.

Anil Channappa, senior product manager for LiveCycle Data Services and Blaze DS, said the Adobe integration with Spring is timely as it comes ahead of Spring 3.0, which will feature enhanced support for REST (Representational State Transfer).

"This is very similar to an ESB [Enterprise Service Bus], but we are not claiming to be an ESB," Channappa said.

LiveCycle Data Services ES software is a real-time remote and messaging framework that streamlines the development of RIAs using Adobe Flex software and the Adobe AIR run-time by abstracting the complexity required to create data-intense server push–based applications.

"It will be easy to expose Spring Beans for remoting by Flex and integration with Spring Security," Colyer said.

Speaking of the open-source side of the partnership, Rod Johnson, CEO of SpringSource, said he is excited about the "new open-source project to do integration between the Spring Web stack and Flex."