Lotus Enlists Open Source, Eclipse For Rich Client

Executives at Lotusphere 2004 showed off the promised ability of the new WorkPlace Client to run existing Notes applications.

The Cambridge, Mass.-based company will ship an updated WorkPlace Client with messaging and document management in the second quarter and start rolling out the Notes plug-in capabilities by year's end, said Jeanette Barlow, program director for product strategy and planning for IBM's Lotus Software group.

Lotus is trying to master the tricky task of expanding its base beyond proprietary Notes technology into the J2EE and open-source realm. Toward this end, the new rich client builds atop an Eclipse-based application development framework.

That client is part of the company's back-to-the-future strategy of pushing a "rich" client as a more productive alternative to lightweight browser counterparts. The upcoming WorkPlace client will embed the Java-based Cloudscape database for local intelligence.

This approach is very similar to what Microsoft is proposing with Longhorn, but Lotus' approach is not Windows-centric. "It supports Linux or whatever," said Dana Gardner, analyst with the Yankee Group.

The net message is the browser is great for some things but hundreds of thousands of mobile and oft-disconnected workers need more, said Dave Fowler, vice president of marketing at Groove Networks, the Beverly, Mass., ISV that has promoted a rich-client worldview for some time.

A richer client also means a more robust programming environment. "Whenever you put info on the desktop, you have to handle what we call the 'goes-intos' and 'goes-outtas',how you pull information for the user's or team's desktop and then save off the intellectual property so it's not lost," he noted.

Of course, a richer programming model means a learning curve, especially for Domino-legacy developers who may not have the necessary J2EE and open-source expertise. "Many of those partners are not happy," said Amy Wohl, president of Wohl Associates, Narberth, Pa.

But a few at Lotusphere were bullish. The new client will open up the market beyond traditional Domino shops, said Jim Wilson, president of Brightline, a Lotus business partner.