An Eclipse plug-in was unveiled at SYS-CON Events' 10th SOA Web Services Edge 2006 Conference & Expo to provide visibility and knowledge into the entire application infrastructure - for analyzing application logic across technologies.

"A growing number of developers within enterprises are utilizing Eclipse as their standard IDE," said Guy Hoffman, President & CEO, Metallect, at a general session presentation given in the sumptuous Grand Ballroom of New York City's historic Roosevelt Hotel, "but their view is limited to the source languages supported by the Eclipse Platform and is static to the application source code they are currently working on."

Founded in 2002 to address one of the biggest challenges faced by IT organizations - the cost of change - Metallect seized the opportunity provided by Hoffman's presence at the New York event to announce the availability of a Metallect IQ Server plug-in for the Eclipse Platform.

"Developers working within Eclipse can now conduct impact analysis and dependency mapping of application logic across all applications and supporting databases with integrated access to IQ Server," Hoffman noted.

In his presentation, "What's MIA in SOA?" - which SOA Web Services Edge 2006 Conference Chair Jeremy Geelan, as he introduced Hoffman, described as being "the most arrestingly titled presentation of the show so far" -  Hoffman outlined the 5-step process to adopting SOA and to ensure governance today.

"A growing number of developers within enterprises are utilizing Eclipse as their standard IDE, but their view is limited to the source languages supported by the Eclipse Platform and is static to the application source code they are currently working on," he said.

In contrast, Hoffman continued, automatic visualization of impacts and potential impacts of an application change from within Eclipse, across applications, technologies and databases, can replace time-intensive and unreliable manual processes.

"This automation and visualization dramatically lowers the risk of business disruption and associated costs due to modifications to an existing business process," he contended.

"Eclipse users can also utilize Metallect IQ Server to conduct semantic searches across applications written in various languages, including COBOL, RPG, C#, C/C++, and more.," Hoffman added. "The search can also reach into databases including DB/2, Oracle, Sybase, SQLServer, and more. Semantic searching enables rapid code location, finding similar functionally supporting reuse initiatives, locating logic in support of governance initiatives, and gaining fact-based knowledge of the inter-relations between applications at the logic level."

The last word should perhaps go not to Hoffman himself but to Mike Milinkovich, Executive Director of the Eclipse Foundation: "Since its inception," Milinkovich noted, after Hoffman's session, "Eclipse has strived to encourage the creation of a collaborative open-source community where developers have the flexibility that comes with working in an open eco-system. Metallect's announcement today at this conference of its IQ Server plug-in is another great example of the innovative solutions available to developers using Eclipse."

Eclipse developers can view a demonstration of the new Eclipse plug-in using IQ Server on a variety of open-source projects on the company website, http://www.metallect.com/. The new plug-in is also available for download from the website.