Business integration and process management company Tibco Software has released a beta version of Tibco General Interface 3.2, an Ajax Rich Internet Application (RIA) toolkit.
Tibco General Interface includes an
open source 
licensing option with support for Firefox 1.5. The open source license allows developers to freely use and extend the product to combine the capabilities of a service-oriented architecture (SOA) with RIA technology.
Boost for SOA
"What PowerBuilder did to accelerate the use of relational database systems in the 1980's, Tibco aims to do for SOA," said Kevin Hakman, director of product marketing 
for Tibco General Interface.
"Offering Tibco General Interface under an open source license broadens the availability of our enterprise-class Ajax RIA libraries and visual tools to an even larger group of developers and organizations," he added.
Tibco General Interface 3.2 is designed to enhance the value of service-oriented IT systems -- ranging from simple XML (extensible markup language) and Web services to large scale managed SOA -- for the following users:
- Customers already transitioning to SOA - Tibco General Interface connects end users directly to reusable data services and business processes through graphical user interfaces that can be accessed through a Web browser; and
- Customers just beginning to leverage service-oriented concepts - Tibco General Interface works with simple services via Web-based systems already in place.
Unifying Principles
"Bringing RIA and SOA together makes sense at a programmatic level, as they share the same underlying principles," said Mark Driver, vice president and research director, Gartner (NYSE: IT) .
"Specifically, the asynchronous model in Ajax is very similar to the ESB (enterprise service bus) model," he explained. "By connecting RIA on the front end to services on the back end, it brings the possibility of service reuse into a vendor-neutral client tier and the potential to deliver significantly more powerful client applications to the browser."
Tibco General Interface 3.2, which is available now as a beta download, will provide developers with more than 100 ready-made components and easy-to-use visual layout, data management and communication tools.
Its support for Firefox 1.5 should further assist developers in meeting the growing demand for the open source browser on business desktops, Tibco said.
Two licensing options for the product are available: a free open source BSD license and the Tibco enterprise license, the latter of which includes support, warranty and indemnity.
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