The Bride is Coming!

Open Source & Openness

• The first true Open Source Integration Layer - allowing you to write applications utilizing open source base infrastructure such as MySQL, Tomcat etc. as well as commercial infrastructure such as Websphere, DB2, Oracle, SQLServer - without changing your application code!
• This gives your development the chance to use the infrastructure you need - whether it is an Open Source based infrastructure or a commercial one.
• And there is one more thing to mention: Bride is No Lock-In. It strictly keeps to industry standards and openness. All development is based on Java2EE-standards (without requiring EJBs!) such as Servlet and JSPs, XML and a bit of JavaScript on the client. That is all. No code modification, even not within the powerful persistence layer, just standards.
• And: Silbergrau blue does not only integrate to Open Source frameworks, it also simplifies their usage and extends them. Usage of Struts, e.g., becomes much easier: blue comes along with many predefined powerful user interface components such as DataGrids, trees, calendars etc. DataGrids with paging, insert/update/delete action along with sorting, filters and queries may be defined within three lines of code. This greatly simplifies application development while allowing you to stick to Open Source software.
  

Simplicity

• With Bride, Application Development is as simple as it should be: simple, powerful APIs allow the creation of up-to-date Web Applications, even with Portal- and CMS-integration within days - not months or years. It is just as easy as it sounds: create persistent objects by using simple, standard Java Beans (not EJBs!), mark them as persistent with the integrated ModelWizard and let blue create the database scheme for you on the fly (or, if you like: map to an existing scheme). Then use powerful tags such as Grid-tags, Tree-tags etc. to create an advanced Web-based user interface - without wondering about data transfer objects, business keys, relations etc.
• This way Application Development in the Web environment gets back to what it should be: development of the application, not infrastructure development with a piece of application code. Bride allows your developers to stick to the main problem: the application. And this one, as we know, is big enough.
• And Silbergrau blue V3 ("Bride") keeps your application code clean from implementation technologies and infrastructures such as EJB. Even with persistent objects, blue sticks to open standards such as Java Beans and keeps your applications structure simple and mean. EJB-"Infrastructure pollution" of your application passes away.
  

Commercial Security

• Silbergrau blue V3 ("Bride") gives you one thing important to everyone who wants to use Open Source software in commercial, large scale projects: Commercial Security. Use Open Source base software such as Tomcat, Apache etc. if you like to (or: if it fulfills your requirements). Or use DB2, Oracle, SQLServer or Websphere if you like to.
  
• And even more, switch between them as you like. Without changing your application code. This is true commercial security. Open Source usage is no longer questioned by uncertainty and famous FUD aspects in this infamous discussion disappear. Questions such as "What about the support?", "Who guarantees that this technology will still exist in 3 years?", "What about the quality?", "Where is the company we may call if anything happens?") pass away with Bride: use Open Source software if you like to and - without changing your application code - switch to a commercial infrastructure and back to Open Source software, just as you like. And just as your business plans tell you, without any additional license costs ...

Integration

• Silbergrau blue provides you with tons of integration features: WebServices, Database connectivity, services, JNDI etc.
• Even more, Silbergrau blue allows you to create a kind of Web Application: Web Application development as it was yesterday has passed away. Web Applications are no longer simple, rather static applications with a database integration. Instead, todays Web Applications are integrated into the existing environment. Web Applications integrate dynamic content (the application) as well as static content (articles, multimedia documents etc.) and present one "Portal" to the user. Caching, delivery aspects, personalization etc. are the things to consider when dealing with these applications. Silbergrau blue Enterprise Edition well integrates into this world and, even more, comes along with an open, standard based Delivery Server, a complete content management with workflow support, full text search, image database etc.

Comprehensiveness

• And: Silbergrau blue is integrated and yet comprehensive. It is not a heap of application frameworks put together and sold as a single thing. Instead, it is tightly integrated and reaches from the back end to the front end. There is no thing like messing up with different versions, the framework gap between back end persistence layers and front end frameworks. It even provides you with base frameworks such as concurrency frameworks, various datatypes not covered in the Java language etc.
• This way application developers no longer need several months before they are able to get productive. Within several days you may develop simple but full blown Web Applications from scratch  - without detailed knowledge of JDBC, Application Servers and the other 20 to 30 APIs within the J2EE environment.
  

• New, improved Struts integration
• New, powerful  user interface controls such as Grids, Calendars, Trees, Lists, MultiSelectGrids
• New, easy to use means to describe the organisational structure (Users, Groups, Roles) seamlessly integrated with J2EE (principals, groups)
  
• New, J2EE-integrated security with Access Control Lists and Access Control Entities, allowing to define access to business objects and actions based on the organisational structure (User, Groups, Roles) etc. - while still integrated into J2EE-security (and the container)
• New Eclipse wizards and plugins
• New sample applications
• Improved documentation, several hundred pages
  
• New Object Query Language with textual and programmatical interfaces, integrated to the backend (persistence) as well as to the front end (Web layer)
  
• New, improved persistence features and performance
• New, improved on-the-fly database schema generation ("HotDeploy")
• Improved logging (log4j, Java 1.4-logging, blue-logging)
• Improved error handling
• ...