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Two initiatives are under way to help developers reuse Java components to simplify development in the Java and Java 2 Enterprise Edition worlds.
Many developers have said the Java world lacks the kind of reusable components available for Microsoft Corp. platforms, including the .Net platform. But a new initiative from Wakesoft Inc. and Flashline Inc. and another from BEA Systems Inc. and ComponentSource Inc. are aimed at changing that.
Wakesoft, a San Francisco-based supplier of service-oriented architecture technology for J2EE applications, and Flashline, a Cleveland-based provider of reusable components, Tuesday announced an alliance to increase the use of components in building Java applications and Web services Under the alliance, Wakesoft will integrate its Wakesoft Architecture Server with Flashlines Component Manager Enterprise Edition (CMEE) to enable developers to quickly build reusable assets and promote, manage and measure the reuse of those assets with Flashline CMEE.
Meanwhile, on Monday, San Jose, Calif.-based BEA and Atlanta-based ComponentSource announced an alliance aimed at growing the market for reusable Java components and tools for the BEA WebLogic platform and other Java environments.
Sam Patterson, CEO of ComponentSource, said the joint effort is aimed at “expanding the ecosystem” for Java development to become more like that for Microsoft-based applications, where developers have a wide variety of components available and marketplaces where they can purchase them.
ComponentSource announced two new ComponentSource-hosted marketplaces called the BEA WebLogic Galleries, targeted at the BEA WebLogic Platform and the BEA WebLogic Workshop development framework. Developers wishing to access the BEA Galleries can go to http://dev2dev.bea.com/code/components.jsp. The galleries are hosted under BEAs dev2dev developer community portal.
The BEA and ComponentSource alliance “adds all the things we needed to build a commercial component market for the Java world,” Patterson said. Java developers can now compete with Microsoft-based solution developers, in terms of being able to reuse components, he said. “We believe in this because weve seen this model work with Microsoft,” he said.
In addition, the shared initiative will enable Java developers to trade information in online forums, and find, evaluate and purchase products from a list of 27 business categories, Patterson said.
In addition to the BEA WebLogic Galleries, ComponentSource launched a BEA WebLogic Store on its own public marketplace that will target its customer base of 500,000 developers, he said.