Developer site boosts collaboration Hoping to boost collaboration and productivity among developers, BEA Systems and Enerjy Software have expanded Java tools efforts, while MKS launched deeper integration into Microsoft’s Visual Studio .Net development platform.BEA is boosting its online developer resources with an eye toward generating contributions to open source projects. The company has unveiled an enhanced version of its BEA dev2dev developer site, featuring a collaborative dev tool called dev2dev CodeShare. Based on CollabNet Enterprise Edition, CodeShare is a bidirectional collaborative workspace designed to help developers share code and discuss issues. CodeShare includes tools for knowledge management, communication, and administration for open source projects.“What we want to do is organize dev2dev developers that want to contribute toward open source projects and get them away … from individual contributions [and encourage] group contributions,” said Andreas Angelides, community manager at CollabNet. Projects within CodeShare feature a Web-based workspace and the ability to communicate with team members. CollabNet SCM (Software Configuration Management) is featured to track source code changes.Developers on dev2dev can also participate in a portal that offers collaborative tools, newsgroups, best practices, technical content, and other features.With the collaborative effort, BEA is acknowledging the criticality of open source, one analyst said. “I think they recognize that open source is having an impact on the Java market as a whole and they are trying to find ways to work with open source that fits their business model,” said Thomas Murphy, vice president of research services at Meta Group.BEA is not alone in offering online resources to developers. Sun Microsystems’ java.sun.com site features tools and early downloads. IBM’s developerWorks site also offers downloads for developers.Enerjy released Edition 6 of its Java suite of tools, which includes Code Analyzer, Memory Profiler, Performance Profiler, and Thread Profiler. The release is intended to enable developers to focus more on code and to work more efficiently, according to the company. New features in Code Analyzer include rule priority, in which a rule can be assigned a priority, and file filters, for optionally ignoring certain files within a project. Memory Profiler and Performance Profiler offer “on-the-fly profiling,” in which configuration settings can be changed on the fly while an application is being profiled, without requiring the application to be restarted.MKS last week expanded integration into the Visual Studio .Net 2003 development platform, linking the MKS Integrity Manager product for process and workflow directly to the developer desktop. The integration is designed to facilitate collaboration for Visual Studio .Net development projects, according to MKS officials.Through the Integrity Manager Worktray, developers can receive work assignments, run queries, and review and update work without stepping outside the Visual Studio .Net IDE. Software changes are linked to approved development tasks, providing for traceability of work and aiding in compliance initiatives and IT audits. Technology Industry