January 9, 2006 (Computerworld) --
Two software companies are beefing up their Web applications using Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (Ajax) and contributing parts of their products to the open-source community to try to spur further Ajax development. ClearNova Inc., an Alpharetta, Ga.-based software vendor, today announced that it is releasing its ThinkCAP JX Framework rapid application development product as an open-source application for noncommercial distribution. GridApp Systems Inc. has unveiled plans to release its Ajax tool kit library as open-source software in the next several months to encourage further development of the tools. The New York-based company is preparing the next version of its proprietary Clarity database management application, due out next month, with broad Ajax features. Ajax is a software development language that uses Asynchronous JavaScript and XML to update Web pages directly from a server instead of requiring full Web page refreshes to modify content on the client. Only the changed content is modified on a Web page using AJAX, which means changes can be done more quickly and seamlessly, improving the experience for users. Unchanged content is not refreshed. Steve Benfield, vice president of strategy at ClearNova, said his company is releasing its ThinkCAP JX Framework as an open-source product to further promote its use as an Ajax development platform. ThinkCAP JX Framework is used to create rich Internet applications using Ajax, Java 2 Enterprise Edition and other open-source applications. While the company will offer the open-source ThinkCAP JX Framework for free, it will continue to sell its accompanying ThinkCAP JX Workbench, a visual designer environment that offers a drag-and-drop interface for the creation of Ajax applications. The Workbench, which sells for $499 a year per developer, makes it easier to create Ajax applications without having to write line-by-line code, according to the company. The ThinkCAP Framework includes about 25 open-source projects, such as Prototype, Apache Axis, Jakarta and Script.aculo.us so developers don't have to put together packages of tools before creating their work, Benfield said. ClearNova decided to offer its Framework as open-source after customers and would-be customers complained about paying for it on a per-server basis. ClearNova had priced the Framework at between $5,000 to $15,000 per server, but those fees have now been dropped. "People don't want to be restricted on how they use it once they've gotten it inside their door," Benfield said. The company will sell training and developer support services for the Framework and expects to make enough deals to more than offset the lost software revenue, he said.
ClearNova will also still offer a licensed commercial version of ThinkCAP JX Framework for a one-time fee of $2,000 per developer to independent software vendors that want
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