The team at ATTAP Technologies has announced that it is previewing Jitsu (www.jitsu.org), a new web-development framework. Jitsu is an open source user-interface toolkit that enables developers to build and deploy sophisticated user interfaces for web applications. Jitsu tools include an XML markup language, a page compiler, a client-side data binding engine, JavaScript runtime, control and cross-platform libraries, an animation engine, and AJAX support. Jitsu applications use DHTML and run in most modern web browsers.

Jitsu is the first open source web toolkit to offer a compiled XML markup language and a rich client-side data binding engine:

• XML Markup Language: Jitsu's XML user interface markup is based on XHTML and will appeal to designers. "In web applications, design is extremely important" says Bruce Spector, Founder & CEO of ATTAP Technologies, Inc. "We were unsatisfied with other web toolkits because the only way to use them is by writing code. The XML markup in Jitsu means designers can contribute without learning JavaScript."

• Client-Side Data Binding: Jitsu's codeless client-side data binding engine is another first. Data binding separates the application data model from how it is presented to the user. "With data binding, design iterations happen more quickly," says Bruce Spector, "so you can really focus on getting the user interaction right."

• Open Source: ATTAP Technologies is pleased to contribute a preview version of Jitsu to the open source community. "Our primary goal is to create web-based software that gives people more of what they want from the Internet" says Bruce Spector. "By releasing Jitsu as an open source project, we're hoping that other companies will jump in to make users’ web experience better."