Brightline Partners Up To Bring J2EE Talents To Domino Talent Pool

The company is partnering with WorkFlow Studios and Jacobs Solutions to teach Domino developers J2EE essentials while working from their familiar Domino environment.

IBM's dual J2EE WebSphere and legacy Domino code bases pose a problem for some developers. Those steeped in the Domino culture often find it difficult to learn the esoteric ways of Java and WebSphere, said Jim Wilson, president of Brightline, Portsmouth, N.H., maker of a diminutive J2EE app server that can run on the same box as Domino.

Brightline has positioned its offering as a critical bridge between native Domino applications and the J2EE world.

Now, Brightline wants to offer Domino developers a natural way to convert and preserve their expertise in the Java world.

IBM is trying to get Domino developers to think from a WebSphere point of view, and "that's like going from spreadsheets to a Ph.D. in J2EE. [There's] a huge gap," Wilson said. By contrast, the new courses will teach Domino developers how to preserve the value of their knowledge.

"One track is introducing them to Java agents from within Domino. This is a transition from Lotus Script and its back-end syntax to Java using the same classes they're familiar with. Java is just a wrapper around those classes," Wilson said.

Dallas-based Workflow Studios will offer its four-day class starting in June. It will cost $2,400. Jacobs Solutions, Sudbury, Mass., could not be reached for comment.