pollinate
 
Press release

The Eclipse Foundation, Instantiations and BEA Announce Formation of Eclipse Project to Integrate with Apache Beehive

  • New Eclipse Open-Source Project, "Pollinate" to Help Developers More Easily Create and Deploy Service- and J2EE-based Applications

SAN FRANCISCO, JAVAONE 2004 CONFERENCE - June 28, 2004 - The Eclipse Foundation, a community committed to the implementation of a universal platform for tools integration, along with Instantiations, Inc., a leading provider of advanced Java development solutions and BEA Systems (NASDAQ: BEAS), the world's leading application infrastructure software company, today announced the creation of "Pollinate", a new open-source incubator project focused on creating an Eclipse-based development environment and toolset to be named Eclipse Pollinate. Eclipse Pollinate, which will be designed to integrate with Apache Beehive, the industry's first easy-to-use, cross-container, open-source application framework for building service-oriented architectures (SOAs) and enterprise Java applications is being developed to help enable developers to more easily develop and deploy service-based and J2EE-based applications.

Introduced and led by Instantiations, Eclipse Pollinate, combined with Apache Beehive, will be designed to provide developers with a comprehensive, flexible solution for building and running services and applications. Eclipse will provide the development environment, and Apache Beehive will provide the underlying application framework and runtime services designed to help enable experienced developers to deliver more sophisticated applications with less work, while helping to make those new to Java more immediately productive. Two additional companies, Soaring Eagle and Genuitec, have also announced plans to join the Eclipse Pollinate project and contribute to the code base.

Apache Beehive offers an open-source application framework, or runtime, which can complement integrated development environments (IDEs) like Eclipse. Instantiations, a supporting member of Eclipse, plans to provide the initial code--a broad set of Eclipse plug-ins and user interface components that will be designed to connect Eclipse to Beehive. The Eclipse Pollinate project is being developed to help Eclipse developers easily plug the Pollinate components into Eclipse, which would help to remove much of Java's complexity and can ultimately help enable them to more easily deploy their applications on any application infrastructure that supports Apache Beehive.

"By integrating the Eclipse IDE with Apache Beehive application framework, we want to help developers leverage the strength of both the Eclipse and Apache open-source communities, and help provide free access to leading Java innovations, while helping to ensure investment protection and portability for applications, said Mike Milinkovich, Executive Director, Eclipse Foundation. "Combining the knowledge and experience of BEA, Instantiations and Eclipse, the Eclipse Pollinate project can help to dramatically expand the number of developers who can build enterprise scale Java applications."

"We are very excited to provide the key technology to help integrate Eclipse with Apache Beehive," said Mike Taylor, CEO, Instantiations, Inc. "Developers are clamoring for sophisticated, yet easy to use development tools and application frameworks such as we're designing with Pollinate and Apache Beehive, to help make what they do easier and more productive. Eclipse Pollinate will be designed to extend the power of Java, Eclipse, and Beehive deeper into the typical IT development organization."

"We launched Apache Beehive with more than 50 partners who had already supported the framework, many through our Java Control architecture now in Beehive. Bringing Java Controls to the Eclipse developer community is a big win for the Beehive ecosystem," said Scott Dietzen, chief technology officer, BEA Systems. "Controls not only simplify the code needed to access J2EE resources, but they're also IDE-friendly, so defining and configuring access to those resources can now be a wizard-driven process, or be represented using visual design metaphors available in Eclipse".

About Apache Beehive

Apache Beehive is based on award-winning technology found in BEA WebLogic Workshop, including Java annotations, Java Controls, Java Web services and Java Page Flows, designed to drive increased interoperability and developer productivity. Project Beehive leverages WebLogic Workshop Controls, reusable meta-data driven software components based on drag-and-drop technology designed to easily integrate into BEA and other software platforms. In addition, Beehive builds on BEA's innovative Web services programming capabilities-now being standardized in the Java Community Process (JCP) under JSR-181--that can allow for easier consumption and management of services, and page flows, which can help developers quickly and easily, define and view page transitions between applications. Project Beehive can attract new users to a simpler way of building enterprise Java applications, while also attracting experienced Java Web and J2EE programmers with a model that is designed to save them from writing the same Java plumbing code over and over again.

Pricing and Availability

A beta version of Eclipse Pollinate is expected to be available later this year under the Eclipse Public License. For more information on the Eclipse Pollinate project, please visit http://www.eclipse.org/pollinate/

A beta version of Apache Beehive is expected to be available this fall for free under the standard Apache 2.0 license. For more information on Project Beehive, please visit: http://dev2dev.bea.com/technologies/beehive/index.jsp

Developers who want to start working with the Apache Beehive programming model in combination with an IDE immediately can download the free edition of BEA WebLogic Workshop without obligation at http://commerce.bea.com/index.jsp .


About Eclipse

Eclipse has established an open-source eco-system of tools providers and consumers by creating technology and an open universal platform for tools integration. The open-source Eclipse community creates royalty-free technology as a platform for tools integration. Eclipse based tools give developers freedom of choice in a multi-language, multi-platform, multi-vendor supported environment. Eclipse delivers a plug-in based framework that makes it easier to create, integrate and use software tools, saving time and money. By collaborating and sharing core integration technology, tool producers can concentrate on their areas of expertise and the creation of new development technology. The Eclipse Platform is written in the Java™ language, and comes with extensive plug-in construction toolkits and examples. It has already been deployed on a range of development workstations including HP-UX®, Solaris®, AIX®, Linux®, MAC OS X®, QNX® and Windows® based systems. Full details of the Eclipse community and white papers documenting the design of the Eclipse Platform are available at http://www.eclipse.org.

 
About Instantiations

Instantiations, Inc. provides leading-edge software products, services and technologies for Java. Through our industry partnerships with IBM, Eclipse and others, Instantiations ensures that its products integrate seamlessly with the latest development environments and platforms. Instantiations is a member of the Eclipse Foundation and offers a line of products for IBM WebSphere Studio and IBM Rational Java development tools. Based in Portland, Ore., Instantiations was founded in 1997 by a team of internationally recognized pioneers in the field of component software technology.

 
About BEA

BEA Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: BEAS) is the world's leading application infrastructure software company, providing the enterprise software foundation that allows thousands of companies to benefit from service-oriented architectures. With more than 15,000 customers around the world, including the majority of the Fortune Global 500, BEA and its WebLogic(r) and Tuxedo(r) brands are among the most trusted names in business.

Headquartered in San Jose, Calif., BEA has 71 offices in 34 countries and is on the Web at www.bea.com.

 
Media contacts
Susan Siegel
BEA SYSTEMS, INC.
+1 408 570 8364
susan.siegel@bea.com
Mark Johnson
Instantiations, Inc.
+1 503 598-4909
mark@instantiations.com
Barbara Stewart for Eclipse
Patterson & Associates
480-488-6909
barbara@patterson.com

Legal Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Some of the statements in this press release are forward-looking, including the statements regarding: the availability, plans, delivery, goals, development, expected features, expected benefits and competitive position of the Eclipse Pollinate, Apache Beehive, Eclipse, and Beehive products and technology (the "Products"); the goals and focus of the Pollinate project; and the plans of Soaring Eagle and Genuitec to join and contribute to the Pollinate project. Actual results could differ materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statements. Risks and uncertainties that could cause results to differ materially include risks associated with: any unforeseen technical difficulties or software errors related to the final development and launch of any Product; any technological or standards changes in the application infrastructure market which could make Products less competitive, less effective or require feature changes in these products; any slowdown in the adoption by businesses of open source technologies, Internet technologies or related standards; and any changes to the competitive, economic or strategic position of the BEA, Soaring Eagle, Genuitec or other contributors to the Pollinate project that might cause them to delay or curtain investments in this project. Readers should also refer to the risk disclosures set forth in BEA's 10-Q for the quarter ended April 30, 2004 as filed with the SEC and subsequent reports filed thereafter from time-to-time with the SEC. The forward-looking statements contained in this release are made as of the date hereof, and BEA does not assume any obligation to update such statements nor the reasons why actual results could differ materially from those projected in such statements.

BEA, Tuxedo, and WebLogic are registered trademarks and BEA WebLogic Enterprise Platform, BEA WebLogic Server, BEA WebLogic Integration, BEA WebLogic Portal, BEA WebLogic JRockit, BEA WebLogic Platform, BEA WebLogic Express, BEA WebLogic Workshop, BEA WebLogic Java Adapter for Mainframe, BEA Liquid Data for WebLogic, BEA eLink, and BEA WebLogic Enterprise Security are trademarks of BEA Systems, Inc. All other company and product names may be the subject of intellectual property rights reserved by third parties.

Brand or product names are registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective holders. Java and all Java-based trademarks are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries.