News

Biz Process Dev Tool Integrates Visual Studio

• By Jason Turcotte
• September 6, 2006

The building blocks for speedy biz app development just got more inclusive. A tool that lets .NET developers envision their apps during the programming process, now integrates Microsoft Visual Studio 2005.

Last week Select Business Solutions released an upgraded version of its Select Solution Factory tool–a tool chiefly for enterprises striving to develop biz-aligned software. The product benefits those developing Web services apps in both .NET and Eclipse environments. The tool supports the development of service-oriented architectures (SOA) and model-driven architectures (MDA) by bringing speed and efficiency to the dev modeling lifecycle.

“It enables full lifecycle modeling support from business processes, tracing right through system design to the source code and database schema, and back,” said Hedley Apperly, senior vice president and general manager, Select Business Solutions.

The Solution Factory’s “Select Synchronizers,” which run the gamut from database, Java, C++ and Visual Basic environments to XML, exists as a support system for swift code generation. With version 7.0, C# and VB.NET developers can receive support for Visual Studio. Other features include:

• XML schema generation expansions for Web services
• Automation of the review process through model correction, reports and customization, catching errors earlier in the dev process
• Transformation for MDA that lets users create and synchronize model view points, and code, using UML designs
• Web-based management that prompts searches to determine software reuse and customized reporting for ROI and user discussion threads

According to Philip Howard, an independent analyst with Bloor Research, the Solution Factory has other dev perks. It uses a component wrapping framework that wraps with the initial languages used to build an app; developers don’t need to learn new programming languages to use the product. And he says its management function is paramount to recycling Web services because it provides developers with access to a Web services repository.

“Not only do developers need to know what is on offer by way of building blocks but also, when a new fault is discovered in an old building block, it must be fixed,” Howard said in a product report.

The software comes with a Select Synchronizer of choice, with the option of purchasing others. Select Solution Factory is available now.