Oracle WebCenter Suite Now Available

WebCenter Suite announced at OpenWorld 06 is now available for
download. Oracle WebCenter Suite is an
integrated suite
of products designed for creating dynamic, highly productive user work
environments that take advantage of SOA and enable business users to
bring complete context to their daily work tasks.

Oracle WebCenter
Suite combines the standards-based, declarative development of
JavaServer Faces, the flexibility and power of portlets and runtime
customization, and a set of integrated Web 2.0 services into a new
generation of context-centric, composite applications.

Oracle WebCenter Suite Overview
Oracle WebCenter Suite, a component of the Oracle Fusion Middleware
product family, is based on a Services Oriented Architecture (SOA) and
is hot-pluggable and standards based. Oracle WebCenter Suite will be
delivered through six major components:

• Oracle WebCenter Framework:
  a Java Server Faces (JSF) and Oracle
  ADF based framework that enables developers to embed rich, AJAX-based
  components, portlets and content into their JSF applications to create
  a dynamic and context-rich user experience. The WebCenter Framework
  will support portal and content integration standards including JSR
  168, JSR 170 and WSRP 2.0 and will inter-operate with standards-based
  portals including Oracle Portal.
• Oracle WebCenter Services:
  embeddable Web 2.0 content,
  collaboration and communication components including Oracle Content
  Database, Oracle Secure Enterprise Search, SIP-based VoIP and Instant
  Messaging Presence Server, Discussion Forum and a Wiki service.
  Voice-Over-IP (VoIP) services to enable click-to-dial applications will
  also be available as an option to Oracle WebCenter Suite.
• Oracle WebCenter Studio:
  exposes the WebCenter Framework and
  WebCenter Services to programmers inside Oracle JDeveloper.
• Oracle WebCenter Anywhere:
  enables users to connect and work
  wherever they happen to be by exposing critical task flows and services
  through familiar mobile devices, and desktop tools including Microsoft
  Office and Exchange.
• Oracle WebCenter Composer:
  a browser-based environment for
  composing and customizing the application user interfaces, business
  rules and policies, user profiles and preferences and business
  processes.
• Oracle WebCenter Spaces:
  a configurable work environment that
  enables individuals and groups to work together more effectively.
  Individuals can use their WebCenter Personal Spaces to perform
  structured and free form tasks, organize their daily activities, and
  interact with other users more effectively, while WebCenter Group
  Spaces can allow groups of any size to improve communication, the
  execution of distributed work processes and information sharing.

“Because Oracle WebCenter Suite will provide a comprehensive set of
enterprise-class capabilities and rapid integration with Oracle and 3rd
party infrastructure, our customers can realize both an immediate boost
to productivity and continuing long term savings,” said Rahul B. Patel,
vice president, Oracle Server Technologies. “Competing technology from
other vendors can cost significantly more, take months to stitch
together, and typically lacks the flexibility and standards support
built into Oracle WebCenter.”

The download WebCenter options available on the Oracle
WebCenter page are –
1) Oracle
JDeveloper (new Jan 07 version)
2) The WebCenter Suite download link takes you to a confusing page consisting of
links to 10s of software. The WebCenter download link is hidden
somewhere near the bottom of the page. The download for windows is 510
MBs while the one for Linux is 579 MBs.

The WebCenter
Documentation page provides tutorials, developer guides and
samples.

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is the most comprehensive Java IDE available