Liferay, provider of the enterprise-class, open source portal framework, announced the release of Liferay Portal 4.2. The latest version offers added back-end enhancements to workflow and content management via integration with ServiceMix JBI, jBPM workflow engine, and Alfresco, as well as new features such as chat and other user-interface enhancements that further improve end-user experience and collaboration.

New upgrades in Version 4.2 include integration with the ServiceMix JBI (Java Business Integration) engine, which acts as a single point of connection for disparate enterprise applications. ServiceMix simplifies the integration, upgrade and substitution of siloed applications such as CRM, ERP, and ECM, reducing development time and lowering maintenance costs.

Other new features of Liferay Portal 4.2 include:

* jBPM workflow engine – allows developers to quickly change application workflow to reflect evolving business processes;
* Liferay Chat – a secure, portal-based instant messaging solution with an intuitive AJAX/Web 2.0 interface;
* Alfresco integration – allows users to manage enterprise content directly through the Liferay Portal environment;
* A new parallel portlet rendering engine – reduces end-user wait time by allowing portlets to load independently.

“Version 4.2’s improvements essentially allow an organization to be more nimble,” said Brian Chan, founder and Chief Software Architect of Liferay. “The back-end enhancements help an organization to connect enterprise resources and to react faster to a changing business environment. Meanwhile, strong usability on the front-end maximizes the productivity gains of portal users—a good user experience is key to capturing the highest return on an enterprise's portal investment.”

Liferay Portal, available at no cost under the MIT license, supports all major middleware and database platforms including JBoss JEMS, BEA Platform, WebSphere, Tomcat, Oracle, mySQL and SQLServer. It also complies with major standards such as JSR-168 and JSR-170.