IBM has announced the general availability of IBM Workplace Designer 2.5, a new Eclipse-based development tool that helps developers easily build components to use in composite applications running in the IBM Workplace environment, including IBM Workplace Collaboration Services or IBM Workplace Services Express.

With IBM Workplace Designer, customers can extend roles-based, document-oriented composite applications while taking advantage of the cost-effectiveness and flexibility of an underlying services-oriented architecture (SOA), according to IBM.

A composite application brings together disparate applications to initiate new business practices without having to start from scratch. Based on SOA, composite applications are quickly assembled from reusable components, and allow organizations to efficiently adapt software to changing requirements. Composite applications enable customers to re-use data to create new processes for partners, suppliers, customers, or employees during time-critical situations such as mergers and acquisitions or new product rollouts.

IBM Workplace Designer is designed to help script developers leverage existing skills, using forms, views, and scripts in a visual integrated development environment. Built on industry standards such as XML and JavaScript, IBM Workplace Designer allows developers to build a simple, re-usable component in as little as five minutes. Included with IBM Workplace Designer are sample collaboration components that developers can use to add additional functionality to their composite application.