I reviewed Visual MainWin in the past and its performance impressed me then. Mainsoft Portal Edition still does everything that Visual MainWin did in the past. However, that earlier review is a little long in the tooth and I wanted to bring you up-to-date on what Mainsoft Portal can do for you today.

The problem with Mainsoft Portal is that it’s a complex product. I couldn’t really come up with a new example for this review that demonstrates everything in a reasonable amount of space. Imagine you want to merge two huge companies and rewriting the Linux software from one company to work with the Windows software of the other company isn’t an option. Mainsoft Portal fills that void—it lets both companies keep their original software, but mix them as needed for continuity. My test applications ended up extending across several servers and using a number of files, but even so, I was impressed with the fact that I was able to mix and match so much and just have it work.

It wasn’t long after I started playing with a test server that I discovered the Visual Studio IDE integration for MainSoft Portal is every bit as good as Visual MainWin provided. However, the environment is more complex because of the number of things you can do today. For example, if you need to grab a component from WebSphere and use it in your ASP.NET application, you can do so, the component appears just like any other .NET Framework component you use.

The debugger has also improved considerably. You could always debug your mixed environment applications as if everything were local, but the debugger seems to start faster now and it provides better support for complex data types. The debugging process shows you more about the components you work with, even when those components reside on WebSphere. In short, you not only have the ability to create any mashup needed to make your disparate applications work together, but you can see how those applications are working together with greater ease with Mainsoft Portal.

The other feature that intrigued me in this version of the product is the concept of adding SharePoint directly to your application. The interesting thing is that SharePoint doesn’t appear within an iframe—it’s actually part of your application. When you integrate SharePoint, ASP.NET, and WebSphere together, what you see is a single application—you don’t see pieces-parts that just happen to appear together on the same Web page. The secret to the Mainsoft magic is the cross-compilation that takes place in the background. Your application doesn’t rely on kludges to perform tasks; it exists as a complete application that executes just as any other application does. Mainsoft takes care of the connectivity details for you in the background.

From a developer perspective, the SharePoint integration means that I don’t have to worry quite as much about users doing odd things with the application that cause it to crash and that I don’t have to consider browser settings that prevent features such as iframes from working. The integration also has benefits for the user such as a single sign-on that lets the user interact with SharePoint without having to perform a separate sign-on. The integration also provides the means for creating rules that control access to any data source within your application, including SharePoint. This level of control ensures you can meet government requirements such as Sarbanes-Oxley reporting requirements for financial data.

Bottom Line

No matter how you cut it, cross-platform development is going to be a painful process. Using Mainsoft Portal Edition does make the task considerably easier, but don’t get the idea that it provides the proverbial free ride. You’re still going to have to plan a good application strategy and realize that the result is only as good as the level of cooperation that you achieve between developer segments in your organization. In addition, Mainsoft Portal Edition is still a complex product—it doesn’t relieve you of the obligation to discover how the underlying technology works. What Mainsoft Portal Edition does do is make SharePoint integration for a Linux system possible and it helps you use Java resources for your local applications. Consider Mainsoft Portal Edition as the tool you need to achieve specific results in a notably difficult environment in a minimum amount of time and you’ll be pleased with the applications you create.

BIO

John Mueller is a freelance author and technical editor. He has writing in his blood, having produced 80 books and over 300 articles to date. The topics range from networking to artificial intelligence and from database management to heads down programming. His current project is LINQ for Dummies (scheduled for publication in August 2008), which you can preorder at http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0470277947/datacservip0f-20/. His technical editing skills have helped over 58 authors refine the content of their manuscripts. You can reach John on the Internet at JMueller@mwt.net and his Web site at: http://www.mwt.net/~jmueller/.