Chariot Solutions, a firm specializing in software development using Java and open source,  introduced three new tools for the Apache Geronimo J2EE platform at ApacheCon US 2006. The new Geronimo components include a first-of-its-kind Apache Tomcat-to-Geronimo migration tool, a Java Persistence API (JPA) plug-in, and a plug-in for JasperReports.

Chariot's migration tool, the first release in the company's new portfolio of Geronimo technologies, provides a simplified path from Tomcat to the more feature-rich Geronimo platform. It is designed for developers who are running on Tomcat today, but looking to add more advanced capabilities such as messaging, web services and JPA.

Chariot's JPA plug-in makes the JPA framework available to web applications running in Geronimo. With JPA support, web applications can take advantage of lightweight persistence options while still leveraging the latest Java EE standards.

The JasperReports plug-in from Chariot fills a common gap in the J2EE platform by providing advanced reporting features to J2EE applications. With this plug-in, developers can configure and maintain reports independently from core application logic, as well as using value-added file archiving and searching features on previously generated report files.

"Apache Geronimo is a tremendously flexible platform and the only major open source application server to support plug-ins," said Aaron Mulder, CTO of Chariot Solutions. "While developers can laboriously integrate third-party software into their own applications or application servers, we want to offer out-of-the-box solutions that bring together the best open source projects and take the manual effort out of creating advanced applications."