"With powerful new look and feel options and the ability to build mashups incorporating JavaScript components, Curl 6.0 continues to bring enterprises the tools they need to address their challenges head-on," said Bert Halstead, Curl vice president and chief architect, as he today announced the release of Version 6.0 of Curl's Rich Internet Application (RIA) platform, aimed at making it easier for developers to build enterprise-class RIAs.

"Our focus on the enterprise has enabled us to see the specific pain points that organizations face when developing their most mission-critical, sophisticated, Web-based applications," Halstead added.

The new release includes significantly expanded user interface styling capabilities, said Halstead,enabling developers to provide a fresh, modernized look and feel along with an engaging end-user experience for any Curl-based application.

Additionally, Version 6.0 enables new kinds of enterprise mashups that integrate JavaScript and Curl APIs.

"Rich Internet Application technologies have demonstrated their value in the enterprise, and major vendors are now competing for this growing market," said Richard Monson-Haefel, senior analyst, Burton Group. "Curl is an excellent option for any enterprise considering RIA technologies. In addition to providing common UI widgets and other controls, Curl surpasses many RIA solutions in terms of richness by providing a solid foundation on which to build extremely sophisticated graphics to visually represent very large sets of data."

Key features of Version 6.0 of the Curl platform include:

-- Skinning Package - This provides new appearance options for controls, including drop shadows, custom images, gradients, and rounded corners. In addition, the new version includes a predefined style sheet and skin that can be used to instantly give Curl applications a modernized look.

-- Advanced Rendering APIs - Curl 6.0 provides convenient access to advanced features such as antialiasing and alpha blending.

-- AJAX Interoperability Features - Curl applications can now make calls to JavaScript APIs in the surrounding Web page, and can also be controlled from JavaScript in the surrounding page. Support for parsing and creating data streams in JSON format is included as well. With these features, Curl can be used to build mashups that include data accessed using existing JavaScript APIs.

-- Server Interoperability Features - With this, Curl provides a server-side Java package that can be used to access data on the server using the Curl serialization format.