ICESoft Technologies releases the beta version of its ICEFaces Community Edition, an AJAX development tool for Java developers.

ICESoft Technologies has released the beta version of its ICEFaces Community Edition, an AJAX development tool for Java developers.

Officials at Calgary, Alberta-based ICESoft said ICEFaces Community Edition simplifies the process of developing and deploying enterprise-level Asynchronous JavaScript and XML applications.

ICEFaces is a framework and set of components abstracted from client runtime software, the company said.

And ICEFaces leverages the entire Java Enterprise Edition ecosystem of tools and execution environments, allowing rich Web application features to be developed in pure Java, and in a pure thin-client model, the company said.

In addition, ICEFaces does not require the use of applets or proprietary browser plug-ins.

ICEFaces applications are rendered as JSF (JavaServer Faces) applications; Java developers are completely sheltered from doing any JavaScript-related development, the company said.

ICEFaces Community edition features the ICEFaces Component Suite, a set of JSF components that leverage the ICEFaces framework and includes components such as menus, auto-complete, drag-and-drop capabilities, and animation effects as well as other user interface components.

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Other features of the ICEFaces Community Edition are: support for server-initiated UI updates, which eliminates the traditional Web application request/response communication barrier; and support for collaborative application development.

ICEFaces Community Edition also deploys to Java application servers such as Tomcat, BEA's WebLogic, IBM's WebSphere, JBoss, and Oracle, and supports popular browsers, including Internet Explorer, Firefox, Mozilla and Safari, the company said.

"We believe ICEFaces Community Edition is the product the J2EE community has been waiting for," said Robert Lepack, vice president of marketing for ICESoft, said in a statement.

Lepack said the product is available for download at the company's Web site.

Meanwhile, ICESoft officials said the company will announce the Professional Edition of ICEFaces in the next few weeks.

This article was originally published on eWEEK.com.

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