Adobe has announced integration between its Flash Builder 4.5 technology and SAP's NetWeaver Gateway, in a developer-focused gambit that plays a new card into the enterprise web application space.

The intention is for developers to get a better front-end experience when programming to encapsulate SAP business and consumer processes. Equally, the companies hope that enterprise customers will enjoy better reach into critical business data across a broader range of devices and platforms.

"The integration of Flash Builder with SAP NetWeaver Gateway will extend the value of SAP solutions within our customer base by making it significantly easier for programmers to create a new highly interactive use case with rich, high-performance mobile and web applications," said Michael Reh, senior vice president, technology and innovation platform, SAP AG.

Flash Builder 4.5 software is an Eclipse-based development tool for building what Adobe calls "expressive" mobile, web, and desktop applications using ActionScript and the open source Flex framework. Its latest release includes new support for developing mobile applications on Android, BlackBerry Tablet OS, and iOS platforms.

SAP NetWeaver Gateway, launched yesterday at the SAPPHIRE NOW conference, is an open, standards-based framework intended to provide a way to interact with SAP applications through any environment or device — enabling, so says SAP, "rapid development of a new class of applications" using any development tool.

Adobe expects to deliver a first public preview of the new integration between Flash Builder and SAP NetWeaver Gateway later this year.