Liferay has updated its Eclipse-based Developer Studio to version 1.6.0 with a new visual design tool designed to provide workflow development support for Java programmers.

Kaleo Designer for Java publishes workflows in a visual editor using "new or existing" workflow definitions retrieved from a previous installation. Developers can create workflow scripts in a Java/Groovy editor that provides Liferay API access, code assistance, code validation, and syntax-as-you-type error checking in a familiar Eclipse-based environment.

The firm confirms that a notification editor has also been included here to allow developers to create workflow notifications using Liferay Portal context variables in both FreeMarker and Apache's Velocity.

NOTE: FreeMarker is a "template engine"; a generic tool to generate text output (anything from HTML to auto-generated source code) based on templates. It's a Java package, a class library for Java programmers. It's not an application for end-users in itself, but something that programmers can embed into their products.

Other tools in the new release include a pre-installed version of Liferay Portal Enterprise Edition (EE), a bundled plugins SDK with example projects wizard and support for remote development through the built-in WebSphere server adapter or Remote IDE connector available through Liferay Marketplace.

The latest release of Developer Studio follows the recent release of the firm's Marketplace enterprise applications repository. Liferay claims to have 65,000 programmers currently developing for this portal.