Developers productivity

IBM® Lotus® Expeditor software provides a desktop client integration solution to build composite applications and extend managed clients to a variety of devices. Built on Eclipse™ and OSGi™ technologies, Lotus Expeditor is an open, standards-based alternative to Microsoft® .NET clients. Lotus Expeditor software augments the Eclipse Rich Client platform with security, middleware, and an integration framework to provide customers with a supported product that has been proven in production on millions of desktops. The software toolkit plugs into your existing Eclipse or IBM Rational® Application Developer environment to help developers rapidly build and deploy applications. The software can be used to extend other IBM offerings like IBM WebSphere®, IBM Lotus Sametime®, IBM Lotus Notes®, IBM Lotus Symphony, IBM Lotus Forms and IBM WebSphere Application Server software.

Lotus Expeditor enables developers to be more productive by delivering these capabilities:

Rapid Composition. The Composite Application Editor allows an application to be rapidly assembled by dropping components onto the workspace and then wiring actions and events together - all without touching a line of code. Components can be generated dynamically by customizing the container templates shipped in the product or custom-built on technologies including Java™ Foundation Class Swing, host terminal, native applications (Microsoft Visual Basic, ActiveX, C++, .NET), HTML and AJAX pages, Adobe (Flash, Flex, PDF), Java Server Pages, IBM Lotus Forms, and more. The following composition features help simplify and speed the development of composite applications:

• A generic application container.
• A property editor and a new drag and drop wiring user interface to assist in the wiring of components in a composite application.
• Enhanced Composite Application Editor capabilities (from IBM Lotus Notes 8 software) so that developers can integrate information across applications more quickly and easily.
• Side shelf integration enhancements, including drag and drop wiring and hide/unhide functions.
• The ability to debug against an actual runtime, rather than an emulator.

Enterprise Integration. Connectors and technologies allow that enable a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) to be extended out to clients in a secure and flexible approach.

Client integration. Helps bring information to your user's fingertips by enabling access to multiple data sources thorough the managed client using various technologies such as:

• Transactional Messaging with the Lotus Expeditor Microbroker component, which provides publish/subscribe messaging
• Web services with security features (JSR 172 and Apache Axis - JSR 101)
• Web container that supports Servlet 2.5 / JSP 2.1
• Synchronized databases with IBM DB2® Everyplace® and with Apache Derby
• Portlets (JSR 168)
• IBM WebSphere Business Integration Adapter (and SCA client proxy) software

Agility and Flexibility. Write applications using your choice of technology knowing that it can be remotely deployed and managed to meet your users' needs — mobile, offline and even from a Citrix™ Presentation Server. Reuse existing skills — for the developer and end user — and shorten development and deployment cycles compared to traditional rip, replace, and retrain approaches. A new Platform Builder Tool allows an IT shop to select just the Lotus Expeditor features needed for the enterprise development environment. In addition, Expeditor 6.2.1 software enables location APIs that developers can use to provide geographic-specific information in their applications.

Security Features. Help your enterprise be prepared for hackers and ready for an audit by leveraging client security features like desktop lockdown, credential (key) store, enterprise single sign-on, two-factor authentication, enhanced Web services security, RSA encryption and integration with eTrust® SiteMinder® and Tivoli® Access Manager for e-Business (WebSEAL) for authentication. Lotus Expeditor 6.2 software adds Signed Features, FIPS 140-2 support and local encryption of the Microbroker software.