There are already various open-source projects which provide a framework for developing Java-based Web applications such as Struts and Apache Cocoon. These frameworks allow Web developers to separate presentation from content and business logic.
But Sacha Labourey, European general manager at JBoss, said he does not feel the current open-source solutions are satisfactory, so the company is hoping to work with a project and offer it as part of the JBoss stack.
"We're thinking of entering web front end side," said Labourey. "They [the current solutions] almost all suck -- there is no standard. It is enough to say there is nothing good enough out there. Customers would be happy if we made a choice -- they would say, 'If it's supported by you, you improve it and standardise it, then that is definitely of interest to us.'"
Labourey said one problem with the current Java frameworks is that they are too complicated, which can be a problem if a company only wants to create a simple Web application.
"If a company wants to create just five forms, it takes them four weeks to understand it," said Labourey. "Its very complex to do. ASP.NET is good, too bad it's not in the Java camp."
This is not the only project which JBoss hopes to simplify. The current version of its application server, JBoss AS 4.0, has implemented aspect orientation for Java, a programming methodology that makes it easier to add the same feature to multiple Java objects. JBoss also has four developers working on the Hibernate project, a 'persistence engine' which stores Java objects in relational databases.
Labourey said it is important to simplify the Java language, not just the tools through which it is developed, so that it can compete effectively with .NET, Microsoft's rival programming language.
"Now that .NET has come along, which is easy to code with, much is needed to simplify Java," said Labourey. "During the last one or two years the situation has been that major Java actors have simplified Java by making fancy IDEs. Instead we are simplifying both the development and the tool."
The news of JBoss' interest in front-end technologies comes only a few weeks after it announced that it will start offering services for all the applications in its middleware stack, known as the JBoss Enterprise Middleware System. This will include training, consulting and professional support for external products such as Hibernate and the Tomcat servlet engine.
"We have switched from JBoss being an application server, to being a company that provides a whole stack," said Labourey.
JBoss also plans on packaging certain parts of the stack, such as the JBoss Microkernel, the core of its application server, so that companies realise they can use it as the base of their server applications.
"The Microkernel is at the heart of JBoss," said Labourey. "We now see lots of telco companies using that Microkernel. We need to brand it -- so that people know this is something you can use for that purpose."
