Oracle Announces the Latest Release of JDeveloper

Oracle Corp, a major provider of software for ebusiness, announced the latest release of Oracle JDeveloper with Business Components for Java. This latest version offers end-to-end support for Extensible Markup Language (XML), a foundation technology for business-to-business exchanges. With JDeveloper Version 3.1, Oracle is the first to deliver an integrated, full-featured application development tool for building and deploying applications in Java and XML.

Developers will be able to use JDeveloper to build, debug and deploy Internet applications that create and process XML data and documents. In just four months, almost 50,000 developers have downloaded the prior version of JDeveloper from the Oracle Technology Network (OTN).

XML, a standard for information exchange from the World Wide Web Consortium, has rapidly evolved into a key enabling technology for new kinds of Internet applications, including business-to-business online exchanges, hosted software, self-service Web applications and portals for wireless Web content. Oracle has played a leadership role in bringing XML products to developers, starting with the industry's first XML-enabled database, Oracle8i.

"Java and XML are the foundation technologies of business-to-business exchanges," said Jeremy Burton, vice president of Internet Platform marketing at Oracle. "Oracle JDeveloper 3.1 will allow Internet developers to rapidly assemble new business-to-business applications through tight integration with Oracle's completely Java- and XML-enabled Internet Platform."

Oracle JDeveloper 3.1 simplifies the task of working with Java application code and XML data and documents at the same time. It features color-coded syntax highlighting for XML and built-in syntax checking for XML and Extensible Style Sheet Language (XSL). With the included XML Structured Query Language (XSQL) Pages support, developers will be able to edit and debug Oracle XSQL Pages, Java programs that can query the database and return formatted XML, or insert XML into the database without writing code. The integrated servlet engine will allow developers to view the XML output generated by their Java code in the same environment as their program source, making it easy to do rapid, iterative development and testing.

JDeveloper's tight integration with Oracle8i and Oracle Application Server will also help improve productivity by allowing developers to remotely debug Java/XML programs running on either server. JDeveloper will also allow Java developers to produce, develop and debug multi-tier Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) applications and remotely debug Java components in any Web server or application server through its support of the J2EE Platform Debugging Interface (JDI). The tool also includes Oracle's XML Parser for Java Extensible Style Sheet Language Transformation (XSLT) Processor, and related JavaBeans components that make it easy to do drag-and-drop XML development.

Oracle Business Components Framework Boosts Productivity

Oracle Business Components for Java, which ships with Oracle JDeveloper, is a standards-based, server-side framework for creating scalable, high- performance Internet applications. The framework helps developers build reusable components for all types of Web-based business applications. The same server-side business component can be deployed without modification as either a JavaServer Pages/Servlet application or Enterprise JavaBeans component. This deployment flexibility, unique in the industry, enables developers to reuse the same business logic and data models to deliver applications to a variety of clients, browsers, and wireless Internet devices without having to rewrite code. In JDeveloper 3.1, programmers will be able to customize the functionality of existing Business Components by using the new visual wizards to modify their XML metadata descriptions. Business rules can be changed on site without needing access to the underlying component source code.

JDeveloper 3.1 is scheduled to ship and be made available online starting in April. Developers can download JDeveloper from the Oracle technology Network at technet.oracle.com.

In addition to it's XML-enabled database, Oracle also offers the Oracle XML Developer's Kit (XDK), a set of XML components that can run in the client, application server, and database. Recent releases of Oracle's Web-based Business Intelligence tools -- Oracle Reports and Oracle Discoverer -- support XML-formatted output for e-commerce catalog creation, reporting, and ad-hoc querying. With this latest release of Oracle JDeveloper 3.1, companies will have everything needed to build and deploy high-performance XML applications that run on the Oracle Internet Platform.

About Oracle

Oracle Corporation provides the software that powers the Internet. For more information about Oracle, please call 650-506-7000.

Contact Kristin Kryway of Oracle Corp, 650-506-6338 kkryway@us.oracle.com.