WaveMaker

WaveMaker recently conducted a survey of WaveMaker Community members.  The survey focused on how and why developers are migrating from proprietary development platforms to standards-based Java.

Here are some findings:

What Platforms Are Being Modernized?

Almost half of the developers in the survey are migrating from proprietary Microsoft platforms like MS Access (25% of responses) and MS .NET (24% of responses). Other common platforms include Oracle Forms (8%), PowerBuilder (8%) and Lotus Notes (4%).

What Are the Drivers for Migrating from Microsoft Tools to Java?

Over half of all survey respondents are moving from proprietary development platforms to Java to get better support for web development and take advantage of less expensive, open source software. One third of respondents are choosing a new development platform to get better support for cloud development.

• - Better support for web development 69%
• - Moving to open source 58%
• - Moving to Java 42%
• - Better support for cloud development 33%

Flattening the Learning Curve for Java

According to stackoverflow.com, the average time to learn the Java core is about 10 weeks for an experienced developer – that is just for the language and not for frameworks like Java EE, Spring, Hibernate and Ajax. Survey developers reported that their average time to learn Java using a visual development framework like WaveMaker was 4.4 weeks, less than half the time required to just learn the Java core.

Benefits of Visual Development Platform for Java

A visual development platform for Java such as WaveMaker can dramatically lower development costs. On average, developers reported writing 60% less code with WaveMaker than with a proprietary development platform like Visual Studio. In large part this is because WaveMaker includes a visual IDE that eliminates the need to write code to create basic, form-driven Java applications.

Developers also reported an average 50% improvement in productivity using WaveMaker and a 60% reduction in application maintenance costs. Again, this can be attributed to WaveMaker’s drag and drop IDE. Because WaveMaker generates standard Java applications, developers can switch back and forth between the WYSIWYG WaveMaker studio and a Java coding IDE like Eclipse or NetBeans.

Community Feedback Shows Benefits of Shift to Java

Survey respondents also provided detailed examples of the benefits they have gotten from using WaveMaker to migrate from proprietary platforms like MS Access and MS .NET to standards-based Java. Community member quotes include:

“WaveMaker flat out saved my job! Using WaveMaker, I built an inventory tracking application using 80% less code than I would have needed in MS Access, making me much more valuable to my employer!” – Robert Manshack, New Development, IT, Texas Department of Criminal Justice

“WaveMaker allowed me to quickly build a web-based insurance claims application that was faster and provided more functionality than the original tool – MS Access. Best of all, I did it in only 20% of the time that it took to build the original MS Access application!” – Rob Geib, Partner, MarKur Networks, LLC

“WaveMaker is awesome because it simplifies everything, and for a cheaper price than all of the expensive, hard-to-use programs like Microsoft .NET. I love it!” – Cameron Winget, Cameron Inc.

Original link: http://www.prweb.com/releases/survey-shows-continued/developer-shift-to-java/prweb4322114.htm

Original link: http://www.displacedguy.com/?p=305

About WaveMaker

Rapid Application Development for Business-Critical Web 2.0 Applications

WaveMaker is an easy-to-use WYSIWYG development tool for the cloud platform.  It has a visual drag-and-drop interface that makes Web 2.0 and cloud application development easy and fun, like what PowerBuilder did for client-server.  If I had to describe WaveMaker in one sentence, I’d say it is an open, development IDE, that will help you build impressive looking RIA (Rich Internet Applications) without needing to know how to use CSS, HTML or Java.  The finished product is a real Java application deployed as a .war or .ear file.

The interface has similarities to PowerBuilder in the sense that much of the development is drag-and-drop and WYSIWYG.   Like PowerBuilder you can create database update applications with no code, or very little code.   WaveMaker even has a feature mildly resembling the datawindow in PowerBuilder called enterprise data widgets.  You can import your data-model into WaveMaker and the data widgets are created for each of the tables in your database while taking into consideration the relationships between tables.  When you drag-and-drop the data widgets onto your application window, WaveMaker automatically creates “datawindow like” update forms.  In the application I created, a grid style list on the top and free-form detail view on the bottom.  To do that in PowerBuilder you’d actually need to create two datawindows, and write code to share them, sync them and call update functions.

Though similarities exist, PowerBuilder is a fat client, Win32 style tool and WaveMaker is a pretty Web 2.0 IDE that runs in your browser.   I love that WaveMaker works in Google Chrome and I have yet to encounter any problems with it which is great, I can’t stand tools that require I use the painfully slow Internet Explorer.

What sets WaveMaker apart from the competition?

WaveMaker is the hottest development platform for RIA available with over 15,000 developers worldwide.  The last time we’ve seen a development tool with such a head start over the competition was with PowerBuilder and client-server development in the 1990′s.  PowerBuilder developers cashed in for nearly a decade while PB maintained technical superiority and another decade due to the sheer number of apps developed in PowerBuilder needing to be maintained or rewritten.   Any developer looking to ride the next wave,  owe it to themselves to take a hard look at WaveMaker.

WaveMaker Studio generates standard Java apps – extensible by experienced Java developers using any Java IDE

You can develop a robust, fully functional database web application with create, read, update and delete functionality without writing any Java code.

My first WaveMaker database web application. Created in less than an hour via a WaveMaker tutorial and has insert, update and delete functionality. Zero lines of Java code were written… by me.

This isn’t marketing hype, I’ve downloaded WaveMaker and created my very first RIA in a matter of hours following the tutorial on the WaveMaker website.  The beauty of WaveMaker is that it generates a standard Java application (WAR or EAR file) that can be deployed to just about any old application server.

Entirely open source, including the WaveMaker application itself

WaveMaker is based on Dojo 1.0 framework and automatically generates Java, Spring,  ACEGI (Spring Security),  Hibernate, messaging, user security (LDAP or DBMS) andmultitenancy code for you.  People like myself who want to learn all the latest technologies can use the generated code as a crutch in coming up to speed using Java and experienced Java developers can extend the WaveMaker applications as needed.  Last but not least, WaveMaker improves developer productivity after coding is completed by providing one-click deployment to various cloud-based servers!

WaveMaker applications have the benefits WPF without being forced to deploy on Microsoft servers

WaveMaker’s use of panels in the graphical designer is a strong feature that makes it easy to create attractive looking web 2.0 style apps that automatically scale, adjust and resize based on screen resolution or platform.  WaveMaker provides the same benefits as Microsoft’s new WPF technology without being forced to deploy on expensive Microsoft servers or software.  All other non WPF 4GL programming languages require that you manually code for resizing which can not only be time consuming but technically challenging if there are a lot of controls on the page.  So with WaveMaker you get the benefits of WPF but in an Open Source solution.

My first impressions after trying WaveMaker

Coming from a PowerBuilder background I expected a lot and WaveMaker delivered

I’ve spent most of my career doing PowerBuilder development against every major DBMS and I still believe it offers productivity beyond anything on the market for client-server applications.  But the writing is on the wall for client-server and rich internet applications and WaveMaker are the future.   I’ve been spoiled with visual inheritance and the datawindow in PowerBuilder.

WaveMaker is the fastest, easiest way to develop RIA and soften the steep Java learning curve

WaveMaker is the first development tool to catch my attention and keep it.  WaveMakers’ claim of building a functional enterprise web application without needing to write Java code is for real.  In a single day, I’ve taken an existing PHP / MySQL web 1.0 application and re-created a good portion of the core functionality using WaveMaker.  I had initially planned on showing off my work in this article but I’m so impressed by the end result that I’m seriously considering finishing it up and making it a SaaS  (Software as a Service) offering.   The fact that a non-Java developer can take WaveMaker with minimal experience and training and develop a competitive SaaS should speak volumes about how powerful and easy to use WaveMaker really is.

WaveMaker is fun to use and I can use the generated code to better understand Java

From the day I downloaded WaveMaker and gave it a test run I knew that it was the next step for me as a former PowerBuilder developer.  I recently had the opportunity to attend one of WaveMakers three-day, extensive nine-hour training courses which is offered for under $200 and worth every penny. Not and not only am I still having a blast but I feel as confident as ever to tackle the challenge of developing enterprise web applications, or robust SaaS solutions.

You can try WaveMaker yourself by going to www.wavemaker.com/download!

Sincerely,

Rich (aka DisplacedGuy)

http://www.displacedguy.com/?p=305

WaveMaker is the only open and easy-to-use development platform for web and cloud applications. With WaveMaker’s visual, drag and drop tools, any one can start building enterprise Java applications that deploy directly to The Rackspace Cloud in minutes.

During this webinar, you will learn how you can:

- Build a great-looking cloud application in minutes
- Deploy to The Rackspace Cloud in just a few clicks
- Easily manage your new application

Join Rackspace and WaveMaker on July 22 at 1pm, CDT to learn about these and more.

To register, visit https://cc.readytalk.com/cc/schedule/display.do?udc=gwg9xqmsusb0.

Learn more about how to use WaveMaker during our next virtual training session – July 13-15, 9am-12pm Pacific time each day.

Attend it live and interact with Senior Architects and/or get the recording & course materials so you can go at your own pace.

A WaveMaker pro will guide you through the following:

• WaveMaker Architecture & Studio Overview
• New Features
• Working with Databases
• Working with Web Services
• Working with Java Services
• Pages & Layers/Navigation
• JavaScript/Events
• Authentication & Access Control
• Exporting & Deploying
• Troubleshooting

Learn more at http://www.wavemaker.com/training.

Web 2.0 Logistics Application Features Tablet PCs and Offline Access

San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) June 22, 2010 — WaveMaker Software™, the open and easy-to-use web development platform, today announced that Costa Solutions has deployed a web-based logistics receiving and accounting application built using WaveMaker.

The Costa Solutions application runs on handheld tablet PCs from Austin-based Motion Computing. Because these tablets must operate on warehouse loading docks, where internet connectivity is not guaranteed, the entire rich internet application is architected to run in both connected and offline modes.

“We do not have a large technical staff, so I needed an easy-to-use web development platform that would help us create a solution quickly,” said Jeff Strahl, Director of Information Technology for Costa Solutions. “I also wanted an open source solution that didn’t lock me in – WaveMaker gave me an easy way to get started with the open source version and upgrade to a commercial subscription when I needed enterprise level security.”

When the tablet is offline, data and pictures are collected and stored on the tablet PC. When internet connectivity is re-established, WaveMaker automatically synchronizes the changes back to the logistics data center.

Prior to the new system, Costa Solutions was using an application built in ColdFusion. The business driver for change was the requirement to migrate the ColdFusion application to a flexible Web 2.0 architecture that could adapt quickly to changing customer requirements.

“Unlike front-end JavaScript frameworks such as ExtJS and jQuery, WaveMaker gives us an end-to-end web development solution that includes data access and security,” stated Jeff Strahl. “With WaveMaker, we had a running prototype of our logistics application up and going in under a week, which blew away our business users!”

The WaveMaker solution included both WaveMaker’s web development platform as well as agile development services. WaveMaker’s professional services team delivered complete running systems after every 4 week sprint, enabling Costa Solutions to optimize the application’s usability over the course of the project.

Costa Solutions’ new warehouse logistics application handles all aspects of loading and unloading trucks as well as scheduling temporary loading dock labor and reporting damaged shipments. The logistics application is also available via a web browser for the company, its customers, and its partners.

“The combination of WaveMaker and agile methodology allowed us to be incredibly responsive to business requirements,” said Derek Henninger, VP of Engineering and Services for WaveMaker. “WaveMaker makes it easy to deliver complete applications on a regular cycle, ensuring close alignment between business users on and project functionality.”

Web 2.0 Logistics Receiving Application
The application built using WaveMaker provides state-of-the-art warehouse receiving and accounting management. Features include:

WaveMaker’s Agile Professional Services
WaveMaker’s professional services team combines WaveMaker tools with an Agile development methodology to deliver web and cloud applications quickly and cost effectively. WaveMaker’s prototyping capabilities deliver running web applications from Day One, allowing companies to ensure that the applications truly meet their business needs. To learn more, visit http://www.WaveMaker.com/proserve

About WaveMaker Software
WaveMaker Software™ is the only open and easy-to-use web development platform. WaveMaker’s visual, drag and drop tools flatten the Java learning curve by 92% , enabling any developer to build enterprise web applications that deploy to a standard Java platform. WaveMaker’s WYSIWYG studio creates standard Java applications with 98% less code, boosting developer productivity and quality without compromising flexibility. WaveMaker applications are cloud-ready and include built-in support for multi-tenancy and elastic scaling. WaveMaker is a rapidly-growing company backed by a 15,000-strong developer community and customers like the Center For Disease Control, Macy’s and KANA. For more information, visit http://www.WaveMaker.com.

About Costa Solutions
Costa Solutions’ goal is to provide an aggressive, competent, and professional staff of team members to expedite unloading freight in a timely manner. They have had the privilege of servicing the distribution industry for the last 20 years (since 1988) and look forward to providing equal or superior service in the future. They currently service over a dozen docks in the State of Texas and have the resources to expand their service, customized to meet new clients’ needs. For more information, please visit http://www.CostaSolutions.com.

All trademarks are property of their respective owners.

Original link: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/06/prweb4161524.htm

Selected from a pool of hundreds of the most innovative companies from across North America

San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) June 15, 2010 – WaveMaker Software™, announced today it has been selected as a Finalist for Red Herring’s North America 100 award, a prestigious list honoring the year’s most promising private technology ventures from the world North American business region.

The Red Herring editorial team selected the most innovative companies from a pool of hundreds from across North America. The nominees are evaluated on both quantitative and qualitative criteria, such as financial performance, technology innovation, quality of management, execution of strategy, and integration into their respective industries.

This unique assessment of potential is complemented by a review of the actual track record and standing of a company, which allows Red Herring to see past the “buzz” and make the list an invaluable instrument for discovering and advocating the greatest business opportunities in the industry.

“This year was especially difficult,” said Alex Vieux, publisher and CEO of Red Herring. “Despite the global economic situation, there were many great companies producing really innovative and amazing products that we had a difficult time narrowing the pool and selecting the finalists. WaveMaker Software shows great promise and therefore deserves to be among the Finalists. Now we’re faced with the difficult task of selecting the Top 100 winners of Red Herring North America award. We know that this year’s crop will grow into some amazing companies that are sure to go far.”

Finalists for the 2010 edition of the Red Herring 100 North America award are selected based upon their technological innovation, management strength, market size, investor record, customer acquisition, and financial health. During the several months leading up to the announcement, hundreds of companies in the telecommunications, security, Web 2.0, software, hardware, biotech, and clean tech industries sent in their submissions to qualify for the award.

The Finalists are invited to present their winning strategies at the Red Herring North America Conference in San Diego, June 22-24, 2010. The Top 100 winners will be announced at a special awards ceremony on June 24 at the event.

About WaveMaker Software

WaveMaker is the only open and easy-to-use cloud development platform. WaveMaker’s visual, drag and drop tools flatten the Java learning curve by 92% , enabling any developer to build enterprise web applications that deploy to a standard Java platform. WaveMaker’s WYSIWYG studio creates standard Java applications with 98% less code, boosting developer productivity and quality without compromising flexibility. WaveMaker applications are cloud-ready and include built-in support for multi-tenancy and elastic scaling. WaveMaker is a rapidly-growing company backed by a 15,000-strong developer community and customers like the Center For Disease Control, Macy’s and KANA. For more information, visit http://www.WaveMaker.com.

All trademarks are property of their respective owners.

Original link: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/06/prweb4137144.htm

The first DevBuild of WaveMaker 6.2 makes it easy to create and customize the colors, shading, fonts, borders, and curves throughout an application.  In the DevBuild the default theme for new projects is grey (aka “graphite”) while migrated projects retain the blue (“tundra”) theme.  You can easily change the theme from the default to another theme or create your own unique theme.

Changes can be applied broadly across the entire application or applied to specific widget types, which means you can dramatically change the look of your application with a few simple changes while also fine-tuning to achieve the specific look you want.

Access the Theme Builder from the Source tab.  For more information see the release notes.

WaveMaker 6.2 will include updates to core infrastructure.  The first component upgraded is Dojo.  This DevBuild incorporates Dojo 1.4 into the WaveMaker framework.  See the DojoToolkit for more information on Dojo 1.4.

Download the 6.2 DevBuild here.  You must be a registered member of the community to access a DevBuild.

Do you need to build Ajax applications quickly? Do you have Ajax applications you need to deploy and manage on multiple Tomcat instances?

MuleSoft and WaveMaker have teamed up to bring you the simplest way to build and run enterprise class Ajax applications.

During this 45-minute webinar, you will learn how to:
* Visually build a great-looking, standard Java web application in minutes
* Deploy anywhere (local, data center, any cloud host)
* Easily manage all of your Tomcat instances from one dashboard

This webinar will also feature a live demo showing how MuleSoft Tcat Server can help you apply configuration and deployment best practices with a few simple clicks.

Speakers:
Sateesh Narahari: Director of Product Management at MuleSoft
Derek Henninger: VP of Engineering at WaveMaker

Learn more at: https://mulesoftevents.webex.com/mw0306l/mywebex/default.do?nomenu=true&siteurl=mulesoftevents&service=6&main_url=https://mulesoftevents.webex.com/ec0605l/eventcenter/event/eventAction.do%3FtheAction%3Ddetail%26confViewID%3D390293089%26siteurl%3Dmulesoftevents%26%26%26

Easy-To-Use Cloud Development Platform for Mac Supports Multiple Clouds

San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) May 27, 2010 – WaveMaker Software™, the only open and easy-to-use cloud development platform, today announced that it has released version 6.1 of its platform for the Mac OS X operating system, adding one-click deployment to Rackspace Cloud, OpSource Cloud, and Eucalyptus Private Cloud.

Gartner predicts that by 2014, 25% of enterprise applications will be built by Citizen Developers who are not IT experts. By eliminating the complexity of building and deploying cloud applications, WaveMaker 6.1 for Mac enables these Citizen Developers to take advantage of cloud computing.

The WaveMaker 6.1 for Mac release includes significant enhancements :

For a full list of improvements, see the complete release notes. WaveMaker has also been selected by Apple as a staff pick on its downloads section at http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/development_tools/.

“Cloud portability is a critical concern of IT and business decision-makers when it comes to enterprise adoption of cloud computing,” said Jeffrey M. Kaplan, Managing Director of THINKstrategies, Inc. and the Founder of the SaaS Showplace. “With their latest release, WaveMaker is making it easier for organizations to leverage an open and easy-to-use cloud development platform that delivers portability across multiple clouds.”

“Until now, Mac users had no open source tools available to them for supporting web and cloud development, with the result that only expert Mac developers were able to take advantage of cloud computing,” said Chris Keene, CEO of WaveMaker. “With this release, WaveMaker has eliminated the complexity of building and deploying portable cloud applications for Mac users, opening up the benefits of cloud computing to the entire Apple community.”

Availability

WaveMaker version 6.1 for Mac is freely available now for use online at http://cloud.wavemaker.com or for use from your desktop at http://www.wavemaker.com/download.

About WaveMaker Software

WaveMaker is the only open and easy-to-use cloud development platform. WaveMaker’s visual, drag and drop tools flatten the Java learning curve by 92% , enabling any developer to build enterprise web applications that deploy to a standard Java platform. WaveMaker’s WYSIWYG studio creates standard Java applications with 98% less code, boosting developer productivity and quality without compromising flexibility. WaveMaker applications are cloud-ready and include built-in support for multi-tenancy and elastic scaling. WaveMaker is a rapidly-growing company backed by a 15,000-strong developer community and customers like the Center For Disease Control, Macy’s and KANA. For more information, visit http://www.WaveMaker.com.

All trademarks are property of their respective owners.

Original link: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/05/prweb4052764.htm

Wellesley, Mass. - May 24, 2010 - THINKstrategies, Inc., the leading strategic consulting company focused on the business implications of the on-demand services market, announced today that WaveMakerhas been named the latest winner of THINKstrategies’ new Cloud Computing Business Value (CCBV) Awards program, which is aimed at promoting the measurable business benefits being delivered by today’s cloud computing solutions.

The CCBV Awardsprogram was launched in this year to recognize Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) providers delivering tangible business benefits to specific user organizations. These benefits include lower costs, faster deployment times, greater profitability, etc.

The CCBV Award program builds on the success of THINKstrategies’ Best of SaaS Showplace (BoSS) Awardsprogram which was initiated in 2009.

WaveMaker is an open and easy-to-use development platform for web and cloud applications. WaveMaker uses visual, drag and drop tools to generate standard Java applications, boosting developer productivity and quality without compromising flexibility.

KANA has used WaveMaker to develop and deliver its KANA 10 call center solution, and enabling end users to do self-service customization of their application. KANA counts 50 of the Fortune 100 as customers, including USPS, Priceline and Sprint. The company estimates that the WaveMaker has reduced its development time 30%. In addition, the WaveMaker platform has enabled KANA to port its solution to Amazon Web Services (AWS) in only 2 weeks.

It is for these reasons that WaveMaker has been named a Cloud Computing Business Value Award winner by THINKstrategies.

“As cloud computing enters the mainstream, the need for powerful, yet easy to use cloud development tools like WaveMaker will explode,” said Chris Keene, CEO of WaveMaker. “THINKstrategies is validating the enormous business value that Platform as a Service vendors like WaveMaker are delivering to enterprise and ISV developers.”

“Cloud computing have gained rapid acceptance because they can significantly accelerate the time-to-market of new applications,”stated Jeffrey M. Kaplan, Managing Director of THINKstrategies. ”WaveMaker’s platform is a clear example of this powerful value proposition.”

For more information regarding the CCBV Awards, go to http://www.thinkstrategies.com/cloudcomputingawards.html