The additional components include a blogging component, a project management tool, contact management list and online discussion forum. IBM Workplace Designer is also able to import forms from existing IBM Lotus Domino applications for use in building new IBM Workplace applications.

Since first released in beta form in June, over 2,000 developers have taken advantage of the tool's ease of use and flexibility to build applications for the Workplace platform.

Developers such as Rob Novak, President of SNAPPS, a long-time IBM Business Partner and now an IBM Design Partner, says Workplace Designer gives technical users and Lotus Domino developers a "jump-start" to developing applications for Workplace, helping reduce production time for customers' customization and development needs.

"IBM Workplace Designer provides us with a framework for development, a familiar IDE, and support for languages (Javascript, XML, HTML) that we already use on a daily basis for Web development. It lets us take the skills we've developed over the years and instantly put them to work with IBM Workplace applications. Some development tools in the market promise to ease the transition from one technology to another, but don't really deliver.

IBM Workplace Designer delivers, he said. “If you look at the world of IBM Web developers out there, it's pretty compartmentalized. Imagine IBM WebSphere Portal developers in one room, and Lotus Domino developers in another. IBM Workplace Designer doesn't just unlock the door between them, it kicks it down."