Tibco Adds Open-Source Ajax Test Tool

Tibco Software today said it has open-sourced its test-automation tool for Ajax applications, making it easier for developers to test Ajax- and XML-based applications.

TIBCO has been giving away its General Interface (GI) Ajax development platform and runtime libraries since October of last year, a business model that is becoming common in the Ajax world. Facing competition from open-source projects, such as Ruby on Rails, and free tools from Google or Yahoo, TIBCO has adopted the free-software business model. The hope is clearly that Ajax will drive adoption of enterprise SOA, and thus of TIBCO's ActiveMatrix product line, though no other TIBCO software is necessary to use the free GI. The GITAK software is based on Selenium Core, an open-source testing tool originally created by consultancy ThoughtWorks that TIBCO has adapted to work with GI. This demonstrates another benefit of open-source development: It gives TIBCO and other companies that embrace it access to a large community of developers and many pre-existing tools. Andy Dornan NWC Technology Editor

The test tool--called the TIBCO General Interface Test Automation Kit (GITAK)--is the latest in a series of Ajax-oriented products the vendor has delivered in recent months with open-source licenses. It also has released Ajax rich Internet application code libraries, visual tools and more.