BEA To Enhance Workshop Tool With New UI, Reporting Capabilities

A new version of WebLogic Workshop, which will be released in 2004, will combine messaging technology with a Web browser to allow developers to build Web applications that can update automatically, said Byron Sebastian, BEA's vice president and general manager for WebLogic Workshop.

BEA also is working on new technology for a future version of WebLogic Workshop that will allow the creation of Web applications that can run offline, Sebastian said.

He compared this new technology to some of the new software Macromedia has created to allow its Flash applications to run offline but said BEA is attacking the problem from a Java perspective. "[Our technology] will be built on the J2EE platform," he said.

In addition, BEA will build additional business-intelligence capabilities into WebLogic Workshop through a recently announced deal with Crystal Decisions, Sebastian said. Crystal Reports business-reporting software, which transforms data into Web-based content, will ship as part of the default install with service pack 2 of BEA WebLogic Platform 8.1, due early next year.

In other product news aimed at improving Web-based user interfaces, BEA also is moving forward with plans to develop a wireless browser that can allow applications to be updated in the background, allowing for better performance of Web-based applications on wireless devices, Sebastian said.

Adam Bosworth, BEA's chief architect, recently told CRN about the project, which is aimed at improving the user interface on mobile devices with "a new kind of browser" that will replace the way information is delivered to a network.

Bosworth said the call-and-response way of receiving information via a Web browser has proven not to work so well on wireless devices, where network connections are slow to deliver information. BEA is attempting to build a persistent browser that can download e-mails and other information sent via a wireless network in the background immediately when it is sent so users can receive information on demand.

Bosworth did not offer a time frame for when the browser might be integrated in BEA's product line but said the project "has significant impact for what BEA delivers to the enterprise."