There are fundamental issues in rewriting the same exact framework in C#, because certain features that are available through the Java open source community are not yet available for .NET. Nevertheless, FlowBuilder's service-oriented architecture (SOA), featured in the latest 3.5 release, allows you to do three things today:
- Write ASP.NET pages that leverage FlowBuilder services as Web services.
- Integrate Web services written in .NET within FlowBuilder applications.
- Integrate with Microsoft Office documents, such as Word and Excel, using a Java-to-COM bridge or native XML in the most recent version.
Keep in mind that the J2EE version of FlowBuilder already works seamlessly within a Microsoft infrastructure. All you need to do is install a servlet engine, such as Tomcat or WebSphere, to work with IIS. FlowBuilder applications can then be served by IIS, authenticate against Active Directory, use SQL Server as the back end RDBMS or send e-mail through your Exchange server. We still intend to provide a C# version of the Domino object model.
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