The Eclipse-based IDE provides more than 100 reusable user interface components, charting and animation capabilities, and an integration with Adobe's LiveCycle Data Services that allows developers to sync data from Salesforce.com's Force.com platform with a client-side data store.

A developer preview is now available, with a general release scheduled for the first half of next year. Pricing hasn't been finalized but will be licensed on a per-seat basis. Adobe will provide first-line support, said Dave Gruber, group product manager.

The companies are painting the pairing as giving developers "the best of both worlds," and expect three main uses for the tool.

Some Salesforce.com customers will use it to add better visuals to their existing applications. As one example, the companies demonstrated a "revenue heat map" of the U.S. that surfaces data from Salesforce.com through an Adobe front end.

Other companies will build entirely new applications, and another group will use the technology to offline capabilities to their Force.com-based software, they said.