Introducing the Workshop Controls and Extensibility Program
BEA WebLogic Workshop 8.1 is the innovative J2EE development environment that significantly accelerates and simplifies development of service-oriented, enterprise-class applications across the entire WebLogic Platform. Importantly, WebLogic Workshop 8.1 offers a rich extensibility model for software vendors and systems integrators to seamlessly connect their products and services directly into the Workshop development environment. And to complement this extensible foundation, BEA has introduced the Workshop Controls and Extensibility Program to bring together an industry-leading coalition of ISVs and SIs interested in leveraging the power of BEA's WebLogic Platform 8.1. The program provides a framework to assist BEA partners in building, testing, distributing, and marketing their custom controls and IDE extensions. So, if you're an SI or ISV, working with BEA is both extremely easy and very beneficial. See a list of the current Workshop Controls and Extensibility Program members.
Why Join the Program?
- Create significant demand for your products and services by being easily accessible to the large and growing BEA customer base
- Increase awareness of your products and services through BEA distribution channels including the WebLogic Workshop Gallery
- Ensure interoperability with BEA WebLogic through a comprehensive validation program
- Benefit from synergistic marketing opportunities with BEA
- It's free!
Getting Started
It's easy - just follow these simple steps:
- Get started by registering for the program by filling out this online form. Registration is free, takes less than five minutes, and is a prerequisite for having your products listed on the BEA WebLogic Workshop Gallery.
- If you have not done so already, you may download BEA WebLogic Platform 8.1 SP3 from the BEA Download Center. Note that the 8.1 SP3 package is the most recent release and should be the basis of your extensibility development work.
- Visit the Extensibility Portal on dev2dev to review extensive technical resources relating to Workshop's extensibility model, including an Extensibility Development Kit, complete documentation, code samples, architecture white papers, and much more.
- Take advantage of the rich extensibility model to design and build the appropriate points of integration between WebLogic Workshop and your product. Some example Workshop extension and application integration ideas include custom controls that interface with back-end systems; IDE extensions such as custom tool bars, windows, and property sheets; custom JSP tag libraries; and custom project and file types. For more information, please explore the types of extensibility demonstrated by the following BEA partners (follow the hyperlinks for more detailed information):
- Actional provides family of offerings that deliver end-to-end security and management of Web services and enable the creation and management of service-oriented applications
- Actuate integrated the Formula One e.Report Engine to provide Workshop developers with a streamlined approach for report creation and deployment
- Attachmate developed custom controls to makes it easy to integrate Smart Connector tasks directly to Workshop applications
- Confluent provides custom controls and IDE extensions for Workshop that enables developers to automatically secure and manage Web services
- Crystal Decisions integrated their Java report processing and rendering capabilities allowing Workshop developers easy access to Crystal report viewing functionality
- MobileAware developed custom controls, tag libraries, and IDE extensions to enable Workshop developers to build rich mobility applications leveraging their Everix run-time server
- Salesforce.com developed custom controls enabling Workshop developers to build applications accessing the sforce client/service application development system
- SandCherry developed IDE extensions, custom tag libraries, and new file/project types to enable Workshop developers to create VoiceXML applications
- Volantis developed custom controls and tag libraries to enable Workshop developers to extend and deliver wireless applications leveraging the Volantis Multi-Channel Server
- If you have technical questions during development, please refer to the extensibility newsgroup that is dedicated to aiding partners in their Workshop extensibility initiatives.
- After completing development, BEA strongly recommends you get your controls and/or extensions validated. Validation is available to official BEA partners and provides your end-customers with an important peace of mind for smooth interoperability. For complete information on the validation process and pricing details, please refer to ComponentSource, a BEA partner that will perform the validation work on our behalf. Please be sure to review the detailed test plans and associated information available on the ComponentSource website to help streamline your validation efforts.
By following these steps, you are now ready to enjoy increased awareness of your products and provide end-customers with seamless integration with BEA WebLogic Platform 8.1. Moreover, validated partners are eligible for premium co-marketing benefits such as cross-listing in the dev2dev Premier Components Gallery, designation in the BEA Solutions Catalog, usage of a special "validated" logo, PR support, and more.
