The Java-.NET connector company JNBridge is burrowing itself more natively into the Java and .NET world’s with its new version 4.0 release. Specifically, it is adding plug-ins to both the Eclipse IDE and Visual Studio. The result is that when you do a project to invoke C# or other .NET classes form Java or vice versa, you won't have to work outside the tool as standalone project.

JNBridge is one of a small stable of middleware tools that spans the development world between Java and .NET. Compared to Mainsoft, which is focused on translating .NET code so you can deploy it on a Java platform, JNBridge is a design time translator that doesn't attempt to translate all of the code libraries, but just those that seek to handshake across technology stacks. The result is that you don't have to move or translate code, you simply have a .NET application call a Java class or the other way around. Both code bases otherwise stay deployed just where they are.

The new version also adds some higher performance features, including fill 64-bit support and automatic data compression for very large payloads.

Clearly, the new IDE plug-ins are a good start for JNBridge. Unfinished work includes integration with Eclipse’s Mylyn task organizer, so not only will .NET projects appear within Eclipse, but it will tracked and prompted through the cool Mylyn plug-in itself. Also yet to be done is an API to Visual Studio Team Foundation Server, so that you can manage the Java classes being invoked from .NET as part of the TFS. For now, you have to manually check the code into Microsoft’s older Visual SourceSafe SCNM tool.

---