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Bear River Associates released Janx, a server-side Java application framework for developing web sites and web-hosted software. Janx combines Java and XML to provide a powerful Java servlet-based framework that provides a strong software engineering oriented foundation for building even the most complex web site. It has been especially useful in implementing web sites that require personalization or dynamic content. Janx runs on all modern web servers (such as Apache or Microsoft's Internet Information Server) and within most application servers such as Enhydra from Lutris Technologies and WebLogic from BEA Systems. The Janx framework is available on an open source basis at Bear River Associates web site located at http://www.bearriver.com/.

The framework was developed several years ago when Bear River engineers realized that many web development tools seemed to ignore the hard-won lessons of software engineering. "Web sites are complex pieces of software. Web sites differ from more 'traditional' types of software because web sites are updated far more often than other software. In particular the look and feel of web sites change frequently. It's crazy to require a programmer to just tweak the user interface -- which is often the case with many web development tools," said Anthony Meadow, President of Bear River Associates.

"Janx makes it easy to cleanly separate the form -- the look and feel -- of a web site from the underlying functions that make it work. We believe that the Janx framework is vastly superior to technologies such as ASP and JSP that require programmers to manually enforce good software engineering practice. The Janx framework was designed to help make it easier to follow best software engineering practices when doing web development."

Other companies have adopted the Janx framework including Cohera Corporation, Michael Stonebraker's third startup company following Ingres and Illustra. "Janx kept HTML chocolate out of our Java peanut butter, and kept Java peanut butter out of our HTML chocolate," said Zig Zichterman, an engineer with Cohera Corporation. "Janx makes it easy to avoid the temptation of putting controller code into a view's HTML source. We had a short period of time and a long list of required features. New engineers quickly learned how to use Janx." Cohera found that Janx helped reduce the potential number of bugs. Zichterman went on to say "Our bugs stay corralled in our Java source files, reducing the files we have to go chasing through when rounding up errors. Use Janx to avoid free-range bugs." Cohera Corporation can be found on the web at http://www.cohera.com/.

Web startup companies are also using Janx. "The Janx web framework was critical in the implementation of our web site in the short time that was available. We found it easy to enhance the web site -- the learning curve was not difficult. We really appreciated the clear separation of form and function. We can update our site's look and feel without having to call in a programmer," said Alex Chang, Interim Chief Architect for zBox Company. zBox Company is revolutionizing residential package deliveries with the 'zBox.' The Company is an enabler of direct commerce that leverages the existing delivery infrastructure to streamline the flow of goods into and out of the home. Their web site is located at http://www.zbox.com/.

The source code for Janx is available on an open source basis from Bear River's web site at http://www.bearriver.com/developer/janx/. An online demonstration provides clear examples of the power of Janx. Documentation and sample code are also available. A Janx developer mailing list is also available for technical support.

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