Mainsoft has released it Mainsoft for Java EE 2.0, (formerly called "Visual MainWin for J2EE"), a suite of tools that lets .NET developers produce .NET Web and server applications that run on Linux and other Java-enabled platforms, without having to rewrite code. Version 2.0 introduces support for Microsoft's Visual Studio 2005 IDE, the .NET Framework 2.0, ASP.NET 2.0 controls, role-based security, and C# generics.
"Mainsoft's cross-compilation software establishes C# 2.0 and Visual Basic as fully supported languages by the Java Virtual Machine," said Mainsoft's Yaacov Cohen.
Mainsoft for Java EE is the result of the company's collaboration with Mono. Sponsored by Novell, the Mono project is developing an open source, multi-platform version of the.NET (.NET 1.1 and .NET 2.0) technologies.
"Over the last four years, Mainsoft has been a significant contributor to the Mono project," said Miguel de Icaza, vice president of developer platforms, Novell and the leader of the Mono project. "The team's expertise in the .NET 1.1 and 2.0 development platforms and their expertise in open systems have expedited our shared goal of making it easier to run Windows applications seamlessly on Linux."
Mainsoft for Java EE, v. 2.0 is available in three editions:
- The Developer Edition (a.k.a. Grasshopper 2.0) is freely available and designed for individual developers and small group deployments on Apache Tomcat. It includes development and runtime licenses free-of-charge and enables developers to create Web projects using advanced .NET 2.0 functionalities such as out-of-the box ASP.NET 2.0 authentication; authorization with a pure Java datastore for membership, roles and profiles; and ASP.NET 2.0 controls, including master pages, login control, wizard, themes, and data controls such as GridView. To support multi-platform deployments, Grasshopper 2.0 comes bundled with the Apache Derby database, a highly portable database with a pure Java runtime. To speed the debugging process, developers can use the Visual Studio 2005 debugger to attach the Web application to Java and control its execution.
- The Enterprise Edition is designed for enterprise developers and multi-CPU deployments. It includes an integrated development support for IBM WebSphere Application Server and Tomcat; the ability to deploy to standard Java EE servers such as JBoss and BEA WebLogic; multi-CPU capabilities; and the ability to programmatically interact with native Java class libraries and directly invoke their class methods.
- The Portal Edition enables enterprises to populate Java EE portals such as IBM WebSphere Portal with ASP.NET 2.0 applications and services, such as SQL 2005 Reporting Services, in a tightly integrated Front-End Service Oriented Architecture. Using Mainsoft for Java EE, Portal Edition, .NET developers produce standards-compliant Java portlets that run locally on the Java EE portal, delivering a rich and well-integrated end-user environment, with role-based, personalized interfaces, single sign-on, unified navigation, inter-portlet communications, and other portal services.
