ClearNova Brings the Benefits of Client/Server Speed and Functionality to Web Applications

1 January 1970

ClearNova Inc. today announced the release of ThinkCAP JX(TM) - a rapid application development (RAD) platform for building rich Internet applications that combines the power of AJAX, J2EE and open source to help organizations and their developers quickly
and cost-effectively build intuitive and responsive Web-based applications while leveraging skills and infrastructure already in place.

By providing an intuitive visual design environment along with leading-edge AJAX functionality, ThinkCAP JX gives Java experts and non-experts alike an efficient, intuitive means of adding the power of AJAX to new and existing Web-based business applications.

"Rich Internet applications have been growing in importance for the last few years. Technologies such as AJAX are making it easier for developers and users to respectively build and enjoy a more rich experience," said Daryl Plummer, Gartner Research.

"AJAX provides developers the ability to build much richer, more robust and faster-performing Web applications, making it a true and credible alternative to traditional client/server-based applications for businesses," said Byron Matheson, CEO of ClearNova. "But AJAX development is hard if you don't have the right tools-just like client/server and Windows programming is impossible without them. The beauty of ThinkCAP JX is that it uses the power of the J2EE server along with the browser to dramatically simplify AJAX development. We do the heavy rocket science so that our customers don't have to."

"We chose ThinkCAP because it provides a well thought out way of building Web applications and includes AJAX support. Our initial experience with the product is bearing this out-we're very excited," said Caleb Mitsvotai, executive director of development with Panda Restaurant Group, the largest Chinese food service provider in North America with more than 700 restaurant locations, and an early ThinkCAP JX customer.

What is AJAX and Why is it Important?
AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) is a set of programming techniques that allow Web applications to be much more responsive and provide usability on par with traditional client/server applications. Using AJAX techniques, applications can act on data as soon as the user enters it, updating portions of a page instead of always refreshing the entire page. The results are faster, more robust applications.

"We use the eight-hour rule-it's the litmus test for usability," said Steve Benfield, vice-president of strategy, ClearNova. "Can users work with an application for eight hours a day without getting frustrated? Traditional Web applications fail this rule miserably. ThinkCAP JX with AJAX enables Web developers to build applications with high interactivity and functionality that users never expected through a browser interface."

Until now, AJAX development has been highly labor intensive and required very sophisticated programming skills and a complete change in how developers approach their work. ThinkCAP JX allows Java and 4GL developers to rapidly build applications without having to become JavaScript experts. With ThinkCAP JX, developers can code on either the client or the server-or both; because developers can leverage Java to make changes to the user interface, it is easier for them to develop and maintain the application. ThinkCAP JX can also be used to add AJAX functionality to existing Java applications.

RAD Capabilities, Open Source Flexibility
ThinkCAP JX integrates almost 25 open source frameworks and engines including Struts and Hibernate and provides a seamless framework that ties them all together. It also adds value to open source through ThinkCAP Workbench, a highly visual design environment.

At the core of ThinkCAP's AJAX framework are two recent open source AJAX projects: prototype.js and script.aculo.us. These libraries were chosen because they provide excellent base functionality but also because they are the two projects driving the AJAX functionality of the Ruby-On-Rails project and therefore are very likely to be frequently updated as they mature.

Other open source and standards projects in ThinkCAP's core architecture are OpenRico, JUnit, log4J, JFreeChart, Apache Axis, Apache Commons (Validator, BeanUtils, Collections, Digester, and Logging), Castor, JEP, Jakarta (Oro, POI, and Regexp), Apache (Lucene, Batik, and Bcel), JavaTidy, and Xerces.

ThinkCAP JX Enterprise allows developers to visually build Web services to more than 60 different enterprise platforms including SAP, PeopleSoft, Siebel, Oracle Applications, Salesforce.com, CICS, Tibco, and Lotus Notes/Domino.

ThinkCAP JX runs on any operating system and Java application servers such as IBM WebSphere, BEA Weblogic, Oracle 10g, Sybase EA Server, JBoss, Tomcat, Jetty, and Resin.

About ThinkCAP JX
ThinkCAP JX includes:
* Visual Workbench -- Intuitive visual development of pages, data binding,
AJAX events, navigations, flows, data entry forms, charts and graphs,
and reports
* AJAX powered 3-Tier Client/Server Framework -- Allows developers to
quickly build interactive, event-driven functionality utilizing the
power of Java on the server and Javascript on the client
* Extensive Event Model -- Easy to program event model for all aspects of
application development
* Rich Data-Aware Controls & Visual Effects -- A full set of controls such
as menus, outlook bars and accordion controls along with rich visual
effects for building professional looking applications
* Dynamic Updateable Multi-Row Dataview -- Extremely flexible, data-driven
grid control giving developers unparalleled ability to create complex
views of data
* Page Flow Designer -- Point and click building of application flow and
strutsconfig.xml
* Advanced Web Framework -- A proven MVC (model-view-controller) framework
based on Struts including a full client and server-side validation
framework
* Eclipse integration -- Event and Handler code and method stub
generation; Workbench automatically navigates Eclipse to appropriate
code areas
* Extensibility and Openness -- ThinkCAP includes more than 25 open source
projects and brings them together in one cohesive framework
* Near-Codeless Data Persistence -- Seamless integration of popular open-
source Hibernate and Castor persistence engines
* Agile Development Support -- Allows developers to validate and refine
user requirements through rapidly built prototypes using "mock" data
* Enterprise Web Services & JCA connectivity to over 60 different systems
including SAP, Siebel, PeopleSoft, CICS, Salesforce.com, and more
* Integrated content management system with approvals, workflows, and
WebDAV support
* Full Source Control via CVS Integration

Availability and Pricing
ThinkCAP is licensed per developer and per server. ThinkCAP JX Workbench is priced at $2,500 per developer and includes personal development server. ThinkCAP is pre-packaged with Eclipse 3.1 and Tomcat.

For deployment, a ThinkCAP JX Server Edition is required. ThinkCAP servers are available in two configurations:
* ThinkCAP JX Enterprise -- At $15,000 per production server (1 or 2
single or multicore CPUs), it includes all the features of ThinkCAP JX
and can be deployed on any platform or server.
* ThinkCAP JX Community Edition Server -- Available at no charge, the
community edition allows for deployment of core functionality to Tomcat
and JBoss using the MySQL database.

About ClearNova
ClearNova, based in Alpharetta, part of Georgia's growing technology corridor, provides rapid application development software and expertise to power and deliver today's complex Web-based business applications.

ClearNova's flagship product, ThinkCAP, was originally released in 2001 as a high productivity environment for building Web applications for application service providers. ThinkCAP has evolved to include highly productive and intuitive visual designers for all elements of modern Web applications including AJAX, Rich Internet Applications, Traditional Page Oriented Applications, application flow, data access, content management, security, and legacy integration.

ClearNova, ThinkCAP and ThinkCAP JX are registered trademarks of ClearNova Inc. All other products are trademarks of their respective owners.

SOURCE ClearNova Inc.