ITF Development Center for Microsoft

IT Factory has announced Version 2.0 of ITF Development Center for Microsoft, a visual development tool for building collaborative applications on both Microsoft Exchange 2000 and SharePoint Portal Server.

The offering allows Microsoft developers to instantly enable their application as an XML Web service with the ability to automatically generate a Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) interface with a single mouse click. Version 2.0 of ITF Development Center also introduces a Microsoft Management Console-compliant administrative console that eases the deployment, management and maintenance of enterprise applications.

IT Factory also reports it has added new application templates that enable developers to add ready-made functionality to their own development projects.

The company explains XML Web services are designed to be accessed remotely, via the Internet or corporate intranet, using industry standard protocols (SOAP as the common access protocol and XML as the common data language), enabling improvement in interoperability among disparate enterprise data systems. The capability, says the company, provides a cost benefit for organizations that need to deploy the same application functionality across a broad range of departments or workgroups. Additionally, XML Web services enable organizations to make application functionality accessible to partners or other third parties via the Web.

Version 2.0 also introduces a new administrative console, which plugs into the Microsoft Management Console interface, giving administrators functionality for easily packaging, deploying, maintaining and upgrading applications developed in ITF Development Center. V2.0 also ships with a range of fully functional application templates. Pricing starts at $1,495 per developer.