WaveMaker, formerly known as ActiveGrid, is announcing a beta of their flagship WaveMaker Visual Assembly Studio application. WVAS is designed to replace the underground Access/PowerBuilder applications in enterprises by providing their ease-of-use through the generation of valid Java web applications.
WaveMaker uses DOJO and a custom IDE to create applications built around MVC, using Spring, Hibernate, Acegi, JAX-WS, and a host of other standard web technologies. By using such standards, and providing a single route to generate such applications, WaveMaker is attempting to provide manageability of these applications without making them harder to generate.
These types of "underground" or "shadow applications" are typically the applications written to get requirements implemented before a formal application can be generated. As such, they tend to use "lighter" frameworks like Access, etc., which are much harder for organizations to track and, for that matter, improve.
WCAS is being announced as a beta later today; it will be a free download to readers. As WaveMaker has hired primary committers for DOJO, the application has developers with "street credit," and the generated applications will use current technology like AJAX, etc.
The goal is to generate applications rapidly, while providing an upgrade path such that they can be maintained over time.
From the press release:
The WaveMaker Enterprise Web 2.0 product line includes the following features: - Drag and drop assembly with no code requirements – WaveMaker Visual Assembly Studio combines pages, widgets and scripts to incorporate bind data, events and services.
- Live layout – WYSIWYG design allows testing with live data in the designer.
- Re-usable components – WaveMaker supports CSS for style, drop-in HTML, JAVA, RSS, WSDL and Widgets, templates and applications.
- One-touch deployment – Real-time deployment to local Tomcat servers for testing and staging. WaveMaker applications can be deployed on a .WAR file, and in a local, on-site or on-demand deployment.
- Built on open standards – Incorporates Spring, Hibernate, JAXWS, Acegi, +, enabling IT to extend or maintain an application w/ POJOs.
- Complex application platform– WaveMaker's Visual Assembly Studio is built on Framework for even the most complex application construction.
