Web Development Kit offers .NET and Java interoperability.
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Press Release Summary:
Enterprise Web Development Kit consists of development tools for Enterprise Web Suite in order to build personalized, interactive applications from Web services running on different platforms. It includes sample code and documentation for Java and .NET development environments plus software that bridges incompatibilities between Web services. Enterprise Web Suite includes Corporate Portal v5.0, Plumtree Search, Collaboration Server v3.0, and Content Server 5.0.
Original Press Release:
Plumtree Delivers Industry's First Web Services Development Tools for .NET and Java Interoperability
Enterprise Web Development Kit Lets Developers Build Applications from Components Running on Different Platforms
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., April 28, 2003-Enterprise Web leader Plumtree Software (Nasdaq: PLUM) today announced the Plumtree Enterprise Web Development Kit, a comprehensive set of development tools for using the Plumtree Enterprise Web Suite to build personalized, interactive applications from Web services running on different platforms. Based on the Enterprise Web Suite's new Web services programming interfaces for integration components and the portal itself, the EDK includes sample code and documentation for Java and .NET development environments, as well as software that bridges many of the incompatibilities between Web services that preclude true interoperability.
In a separate announcement, Plumtree also today launched the Plumtree Enterprise Web Suite, based on new releases of every major Plumtree product: the Plumtree Corporate Portal 5.0, Plumtree Search, Plumtree Collaboration Server 3.0 and Plumtree Content Server 5.0. The Enterprise Web Suite allows customers to create a volume and variety of Web applications and workspaces, and manage them in one environment.
To assemble these applications, the portal orchestrates a wide range of Web services running on industry-standard application servers, for importing users, profiling users, indexing content and federating searches. By insulating the developer from platform-specific differences in Web services implementation, the EDK ensures that all of these services are interoperable, regardless of the development environment in which they were created.
"Web services are interoperable in theory, but programmers actually attempting to make Web services built in Java and Microsoft .NET work together will be dismayed by the practical difficulties created by different encoding schemes and different ways to serialize data," said Plumtree Vice President of Engineering John Hogan. "Plumtree enthusiastically supports the standards efforts now underway, and has used recommendations from standards bodies such as WS-I to develop our EDK. This EDK insulates Java and .NET developers from the irregularities and complexities of Web services, allowing developers to work in their native environments, building Web services exactly as if they were native objects. This level of developer support frees developers from having to make Web services connect to one another, so they can focus instead on the business logic of the application."
Plumtree customer NetJets has tested the Plumtree Enterprise Web Suite, and is deploying Plumtree's Enterprise Web Suite as a platform for creating new applications. Using the Plumtree Corporate Portal 4.5, NetJets created a flight flow portlet for tracking the status of all planes, and a crew compliance monitor portlet, which simplifies scheduling. With the Enterprise Web Suite, NetJets can build richer, individually branded applications that combine new services with user profile information.
"The Enterprise Web Suite gives us a powerful new set of developer resources that will help NetJets advance our vision of using the portal to assemble and deliver highly personalized applications," said Rob Carr, project manager at NetJets. "The Enterprise Web Developer Kit allows us to create applications that integrate a wide range of services and hides much of the development complexity from our team. Combined with the new flexibility the 5.0 portal offers for individually tailoring applications to our users, these developer resources will transform the way NetJets uses the portal to run our business, from planning flights and crew schedules to streamlining plane maintenance."
Cross-Platform EDK Insulates Developers from Web Services Complexity
The EDK insulates developers from Web services complexity. In spite of major advances in Web services technology, developers continue to face several significant challenges when developing applications using Web services:
o Because SOAP and WSDL are relatively new technologies, developers are still forced to make protocol-level choices when implementing Web services, resulting in significant differences between implementations of WSDL and SOAP, and poor interoperability between Java and .NET SOAP toolkits.
o Developers trained in traditional object-oriented programming techniques face a steep learning curve in adopting Web services technologies.
o Programming interfaces that were not designed explicitly for use with SOAP and HTTP tend to perform poorly in actual deployments.
The Plumtree EDK was designed to address these challenges, ensuring interoperability across Java and .NET implementations. Plumtree's EDK hides the complexity of SOAP from developers and exposes well-documented, object-oriented programming interfaces in both Java and .NET environments. Providing Java and .NET APIs allows programmers to use the tools they already know without getting mired in the complexities of Web services. Once a developer chooses the .NET or Java API and begins development of a new portal application, the Plumtree EDK a layer of abstraction that manages the communication between the application and the portal, minimizing HTTP requests to ensure acceptable performance. As a result, developers are able to build new portal services quickly without having to master the complexities of Web services.
EDK Helps Customers Deliver Contextualized Applications and Content to Every Portal User
The EDK supports a wide range of integration Web services, beyond simple portlets. To date, development tools from portal vendors have facilitated the creation of portlets, which embed application services in users' pages. Yet to create truly powerful applications and workspaces within the portal, developers will often need to build a much wider range of services, for integrating search, security, content, and user information. The EDK provides a new suite of development tools for these critical portal services:
o Profile services import data about users from any system, creating a universal user profile that facilitates advanced personalization and expert location;
o Authentication services synchronize with various user directories and authenticate users, letting organizations easily add customer, partner and employee users to the portal from different user directories;
o Crawler services identify new content from other repositories, for indexing in the portal's knowledge directory;
o Search services federate searches to other search engines, combining the results with Plumtree Search results; and
o Portlets embed application services in personalized and community portal pages.
To ensure that customers can deliver highly personalized applications and content to customers, partners and employees, the Enterprise Web Suite introduces a universal user profile system that allows organizations to import user data from virtually any system. Combining portal services with user profile information results in more personalized applications.
For example, by combining user profile information with Siebel data, a sales support application delivered through the portal can generate regional sales updates for each salesperson, with information about his customers. A customer support application delivered through Plumtree can offer each customer customized content and searches with only results about the products she has purchased, based on her profile in a customer database.
"Customers creating a volume of applications on a variety of infrastructure need tools that support interoperability between components running on different application servers, coded in different languages," said Plumtree CEO John Kunze. "The Plumtree Enterprise Web Development Kit lets developers easily build Web services that range far beyond simple portlets, to create applications based on components from different systems that nonetheless work together to offer the user a personalized, highly interactive application."
About Plumtree Software
Plumtree Software is the Enterprise Web technology leader. Plumtree's mission is to create a comprehensive Web environment for employees, customers and partners across the enterprise to interact with different systems and work together. Plumtree's Enterprise Web solution consists of integration products for bringing resources from traditional systems together on the Web, foundation services such as collaboration, content management and search for building new Web applications, and a portal platform for delivering these Web applications to broad audiences. Plumtree's independence and its Web Services Architecture allow this solution to span rival platforms and systems, maximizing customers' return on their existing investments. With offices in more than a dozen countries, Plumtree has over 480 customers, including Boeing, Ford Motor Company, Procter & Gamble and the U.S. Navy.
Plumtree is a registered trademark of Plumtree Software, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and/or other countries. All other registered and unregistered trademarks in this document are the sole property of their respective owners.
