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NetObjects acquires a Lotus tool

The company has acquired Lotus' BeanMachine, a tool for assembling applications out of Java Beans components.

Mike Ricciuti Staff writer, CNET News
Mike Ricciuti joined CNET in 1996. He is now CNET News' Boston-based executive editor and east coast bureau chief, serving as department editor for business technology and software covered by CNET News, Reviews, and Download.com. E-mail Mike.
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NetObjects has added to its Web tool collection, courtesy of Lotus Development.

The company has acquired Lotus' BeanMachine, a tool for assembling applications out of Java Beans components.

Lotus parent IBM retains ownership of the code and will continue development of the product. NetObjects has acquired branding, marketing, and distribution rights for the product and will pay IBM a royalty.

NetObjects will rename the tool BeanBuilder and will release a new version next week, said Marcos Sanchez, a product manager at the company.

BeanBuilder 1.0 supports all major Java standards and can output multiple formats, including Java applets, Java applications, JavaBeans, Marimba Castanet Transmitters, and NetObjects Fusion components, the company said.

Also included is connectivity to major databases via ODBC and JDBC. The tool includes a wizard to make database connectivity easier.

Applications assembled with BeanBuilder can be published locally or remotely to Web sites using a built-in wizard.

Sanchez said he sees the tool as complementary to NetObjects other development tool, Fusion. BeanBuilder is for assembling applications out of prebuilt components, while Fusion is for deploying Web applications.

BeanBuilder 1.0 is priced at $295. The company plans to post a beta version of the tool to its Web site next week. Final shipment is expected in September.