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DAILY NEWS AND INFORMATION
FOR THE GLOBAL GRID COMMUNITY /
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Applications:
PLUMTREE EXTENDS RADICAL OPENNESS
W/ .NET WEB CONTROLS ADD-ON
Enterprise Web leader Plumtree Software announced the release of a new
add-on
to its Enterprise Web Development Kit (EDK), for creating interactive portlets
using Microsoft .NET Web Controls. Part of Microsoft's .NET Framework, .NET
Web Controls are simple, visual drag-and-drop elements that developers can use
to create Web applications. Hundreds of .NET Web Controls created by Microsoft
and the .NET development community can now be used without any coding to
create portlets within the Plumtree Enterprise Web Suite. As a result,
organizations can build rich, interactive applications from existing .NET and
Java components at low cost. The public can register for a Dec. 9 Web seminar
reviewing the new capabilities at http://www.plumtree.com/03/dotnet and can
download the EDK add-on at showroom.plumtree.com/.
The Plumtree EDK offers services, sample code and documentation for using
industry-standard Java and .NET development tools to build portlets and
integration Web services that can work together. Whereas other vendors focus
on supporting a single development paradigm, Plumtree supports many, including
JSR 168 and WSRP portlets, Apache's Java Struts, Sophia, Java Server Faces,
C#, Visual Basic.NET and Java Server Pages, all as part of its Radical
Openness strategy. The newly released add-on to the EDK allows .NET Controls
to function as-is within the Enterprise Web as portlets.
"There is an entire world of .NET technologies largely foreclosed to
portals
that are based exclusively on a single Java application server," said Plumtree
Vice President of Engineering Eric Zocher. "Hundreds of .NET Controls exist
today, and we believe thousands will exist in the coming years. The new EDK
add-on allows customers to build Web applications that incorporate these
controls alongside other components for a far more powerful user experience,
at lower cost."
NetJets, a worldwide leader in fractional aircraft ownership, chose to
deploy Plumtree's Enterprise Web Suite to deliver many different Web
applications for its employees.
"Plumtree's track record of providing developer support for both .NET and
Java
has been critical to our success and has resulted in high developer
productivity here at NetJets," said NetJets' portal product manager, Rob Carr.
"Rather than creating duplicates of basic components we can focus on creating
business value, assembling applications that deliver better service to our
internal and external customers. Having components from different environments
work together so easily is something we believe we couldn't have done with any
other Web solution."
".NET is a major platform for building Web applications and Web content of
all
types. Portal frameworks need to integrate with this platform as much as any
other," said Gartner analyst Ray Valdes. "Although the portal standard WSRP is
starting to address cross-platform portlet development, it currently has
limitations in scope, platform and purpose. Vendors need to integrate with a
full range of development tools available if they want to help increase
developer productivity and reduce portal development costs."
The release of .NET Controls support is another milestone in Plumtree's
Radical Openness strategy. The basis for Plumtree's Radical Openness is its
cross-platform technologies, which allow Plumtree to develop products in
parallel in both .NET and Java environments, and its Web Services
Architecture, which connects all the components of the Plumtree solution via
Internet protocols. Plumtree is the first major vendor to use .NET Web
Controls in a Web services architecture, and can thus run portlets created
with .NET Web Controls alongside Java portlets and components created on
legacy platforms and proprietary servers.
Combining .NET Web Controls with other types of portlets was challenging
for
Plumtree because .NET Controls are primarily designed to run as native
components on the Web server hosting the entire Web page. The .NET Controls
were not originally designed for the heterogeneous environment of the portal,
where they must run as one of many components assembled from different Web
servers.
When a user interacts with a .NET Control within the browser, the control
typically communicates directly with the host Web server, which refreshes the
entire page; this is impossible in a portal-assembled application, composed of
elements from many servers. The new version of the Plumtree EDK allows
developers to build a portlet from any .NET Control by ferrying the user's
interactions within the Control through the portal and on to the server
hosting the Control.
Using Plumtree's Active Portlets technology for communications between
portlets within an application, the Control-based portlet can refresh within
the page without causing the rest of the page to refresh, and can interact
with other portlets embedded in the same application. As a result, .NET
Controls can be used as one of several types of components in rich,
interactive applications. This frees the user from the hassle of refreshing an
entire page whenever an event occurs in only one component of the application,
or between two components within the application.
The .NET Web Controls are supported on Plumtree Corporate Portal versions
4.5,
4.5WS and 5.0. To download the new .Net Web Controls Development Kit, or for
more information, go to showroom.plumtree.com/.
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