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ObjectWeb, the international consortium of companies working to build open-source middleware, has announced an open-source Enterprise Java Beans 3.0 container known as EasyBeans.
Grenoble, France-based ObjectWeb said Feb. 22 that the EasyBeans project will deliver a pluggable, easy-to-use and scalable container. EasyBeans also will implement the EJB 3 container in the future version of the ObjectWeb JOnAS application server certified for Java Platform Enterprise Edition 5, consortium officials said.
EasyBeans is designed to be integrated in a Web container through a Web application, but the technology also can be used alone, ObjectWeb officials said.
In addition, EasyBeans relies on the bytecode generation technology of ASM, an ObjectWeb project to deliver a small, fast Java bytecode manipulation framework, consortium officials said. ASM is a reference to the “asm” keyword in the C language that allows some functions to be implemented in assembly language, ObjectWeb officials said.
ObjectWebs goal in developing EasyBeans was to simplify EJB 3 development while maintaining performance and reliability of the middleware.
EasyBeans is licensed under the GNU LGPL (Lesser General Public License).
Meanwhile, earlier in February, ObjectWeb officials said that after four years as an organization ObjectWeb will become a nonprofit legal entity in 2006.
The organization will form a new structure around three core concepts: strategic members; market driven initiatives to bridge the gap between business interests and open-source projects; and local chapters to increase the organizations presence around the world.
According to ObjectWeb officials, the organizations new charter will focus on delivering commercial class open-source middleware for enterprise users. And because open-source technology is moving so quickly into the mainstream, ObjectWeb is moving to put more people directly on projects.
ObjectWeb officials said “projects need to be staffed by employees appointed to stick to a road map and to deliver software of a level of quality that enterprises can rely upon. In an international and multicultural environment, this requires more than an informal community.”
ObjectWeb was founded in January 2002 and as of January 2006, the organization had 60 corporate members, 1,800 individual members, 550 committers and 6,500 contributors representing 80 countries.
ObjectWeb will be governed by a board of directors and run by a management organization. Three councils will contribute to governance: a technology council, an ecosystem council and an operations council.
“I think that the business world is asking for this new kind of open-source organization that goes a step beyond code,” said Francois Letellier, a member of the ObjectWeb executive committee. “The value of ObjectWeb is in collaboration, hence the nonprofit status of the new structure. This appears a natural, and important, step to make open-source middleware really mainstream.”