Borland lifts lid off JBuilder 2006

Borland Software today unveiled JBuilder 2006, the latest version of its Java integrated development environment (IDE) designed for the development of enterprise applications.

The upgrade includes enhancements designed to help geographically distributed software development teams with outsourced, offshore, remote or distributed members to collaborate more effectively in real time.

Analyst firm Gartner noted that managing software engineering projects across distributed teams presents complex issues.

"When location-related cultural and organisational differences intervene, collaboration among team members becomes even more integral to ensuring the success of application development efforts," the firm stated.

"Application development organisations engaged in distributed development environments should press vendors for toolsets that mitigate the risks of global, collaborative application delivery.

"IT groups that plan their responses to the challenges raised by this complex issue have a better chance of succeeding in the increasingly competitive environment of software development."

JBuilder 2006 also gives developers the tools they need to help identify and reduce security hazards throughout the development process.

The software includes technology from Borland partner Fortify Software to analyse code and identify security vulnerabilities using best practices and automated code audits.

The IDE suite features out-of-the-box support for Enterprise JavaBeans, web services, XML and mobile and database application development provide standards-based support for a variety of types of Java development. Teams can also bridge J2EE 1.4 and JDK 5.0 with integrated migration capabilities.

JBuilder 2006 also includes improved peer-to-peer developer collaboration features and integrated application lifecycle support for requirements management, source code management and unit testing.

These collaboration features enable developers, irrespective of their location, to jointly perform code editing, visual design and debugging tasks in real time.

Additionally, distributed re-factoring and change management capabilities have been added to automatically propagate local changes to remote projects and provide automatic notification of changes to requirements.

Borland also introduced a new version of its Optimizeit application performance management toolkit. The latest offering is for isolating and resolving performance hazards during the development of J2EE applications.

"Software development has become more complex than ever, as IT organisations are driven to do more with less, platforms and standards multiply, and development teams cross geographies and time zones," said Boz Elloy, senior vice president of products at Borland.

"In order to thrive in this new era, developers have to be able to work in unison as a team regardless of location."

JBuilder and Optimizeit are components of Borland's application lifecycle management (ALM) solution and, as such, integrate with other Borland ALM products including the CaliberRM requirements management offering.