Informix announces Centaur analytical-processing server
Informix introduced the Informix Internet Foundation.2000 (IIF), formerly known as Centaur, its Internet-centric online analytical-processing object relational database server (OLAP). It also announced the migration step to Centaur, the Informix Dynamic Server.2000 OLTP server (IDS).
According to Informix Marketing Manager Randy Brasche, “Foundation.2000 is IDS plus Internet data management, including Java and COM/ActiveX support in the database core.”
IIF will include J/Foundation, Informix’s Java extensions; the Excalibur and Web DataBlades designed for text search and Web publishing; a COM adapter; and a new product, Informix Office Connect, which lets users send data from Foundation.2000 to a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. According to some analysts, this version of IIF is a transitioning version from the company’s DataBlade technology (which didn’t catch on with third parties as well as Informix hoped) to a Java one.
Informix plans to ship the server in August 1999. The Informix Dynamic Server.2000 costs ,500 per seat (though it is free for existing customers of Dynamic Server 7.x/9.x). The Informix Internet Foundation Server.2000 will cost ,800 per seat through August 2000; the price then moves up to ,400 per user.
IBM EADP extends VisualAge Persistence Builder
IBM alphaWorks announced EADP, software that includes extensions to VisualAge Java Persistence Builder, providing model-driven support for functions needed to create a complete business application.
For all Java platforms, EADP provides the tools to help applications reconnect the data that RDBs tend to scatter to disparate tables and fields. It offers complex object support for defining such complex object relationships as order-to-line-item or item-to-bill-of-material. These relationships can be modeled in Persistence Builder as ruler-to-subobject relationships. EADP provides for presentation and update of the complex object, including support for cascaded complex object actions (copy and delete, and promote under version control), and automatic provision of focal data on subobject lists.
EADP also supports the presentation of information based on combining or retrieving data from various tables, allowing normalized data (such as a customer name) to be presented where it is useful (within an order where it is linked by customer number).
EADP computed column support allows the addition of computed fields (such as the cost of a line item calculated as unit price times quantity); summary column support works with complex object support to provide summary data (such as the total cost of an order). The software also provides centralized control of the external names of data elements and objects.
EADP offers mechanisms to isolate business logic from the rest of the application, and to make business rules easy to identify and alter. It allows users to define error conditions, error rules, and error messages. Other features of EADP include:
- Version control support to isolate formalized data from work in progress, or to provide an audit trail
- Help support with a “learn” mode that lets users bring up a help panel in an editor and define it
- New AWT-based visual parts — one that allows tabular input, while another that is a split panel designed to work with the VisualAge Composition Editor
- Batch interface support to create outgoing text files and to parse and process incoming ones
- VisualAge Persistence Builder extensions to increase the flexibility of VisualAge persistence support
- DynaBeans, custom editors for beans to specify the various modeling activities
Lightweight ORB ClassBroker for Java
IBM announced ClassBroker for Java (CBJ), an ultralightweight object request broker that offers extended network services and smart proxies for Java applications and applets.
CBJ sports 100 percent pure lightweight (200 KB) Java classes and a distributed programming model (designed as much like a nondistributed version as possible, to make it idiot-proof).
CBJ allows remote access to classes and objects by passing them parameters and getting return values either by value or by reference, without changing class signatures or adding wrapper classes in the remote host. It also makes it easy to incorporate a high-performance client GUI component into a Java server application.
It comes with APIs for such user services as:
- Starting a JavaClass Supplier server daemon to provide remote services to any local Java class
- Getting an instance of a JavaClass Broker to connect to a specified JavaClass Supplier server daemon
- Creating proxies for designated master objects, with a versatile set of automatic translations from remote references to local, and vice versa
- Setting a user socket implementation
- Setting a user remote access control
Spinner Beans get some fixes
alphaWorks announced that the Swing-based Spinner suite of beans, designed to let users modify the values in an input field, sports some fixes from the original version posted in July 1998.
Fixes include ToolTip support, corrections to the getValue() method, and minimum/maximum validation.
The Spinner suite (includes CalendarSpinner, DateSpinner, TimeSpinner, NumericSpinner, ObjectListSpinner, and StringSpinner Beans) are components with two small direction buttons that let users modify the value in an input field and possibly enter a new legal value directly in that field. They work with JDK 1.1/1.2.
Java virgin stories
Sun is asking for your help in a survey, which will collect people’s reminisces about their “first time” with Java. The survey is designed to provide experience for other first-time users of Java technology.
So, if you feel comfortable sharing the details your first time with Java, please do. Sun promises to be gentle with you.
Java in Japan
Sun and Steven Meloan offer a profile of the Japanese software market and Java’s role in it.
The article details how Java 2’s multibyte Unicode design works well for Japanese Kanji, a language that contains more than 60,000 characters, and points out that in a market that demonstrates a higher degree of platform heterogeneity (Linux is actually catching up with NT in the Japanese server market, and Apple accounted for 37 percent of 1998 retail PC sales there), Java is the best option.
The article profiles several key players in the local Java market — Justsystem, EC-One, and 10art-ni.
An interesting, free read, full of insight for those thinking of a foray into the Japanese Java market.
A free guide to Java programming
David Reilly offers Java Coffee Break, a free online guide to the wonderful world of Java programming.
The site sports features, tutorials (learn to use the Swing API, multithreaded programming, and so on), book reviews (Beginning Java 2), basic “getting started” exchanges, and a question-and-answer session.
The site covers the knowledgebase, from know-nothing beginners to the most advanced jGuru.
Tutorial on connecting servlets to mSQL databases with Apache JServ
Developer’s Daily offers a tutorial on how to connect Java servlets to mSQL (the m is for mini) databases running Apache using the Apache JServ module.
J/Carnac out in beta version
INT announced that J/Carnac, its Java2D graphics toolkit designed to make it easier to build complex interactive data visualizations, is now available in a beta version.
The J/Carnac graphics library is built atop Java2D. It adds support for labeled axes and grid lines, and for modeling transformations, allowing programmers to think in terms of the coordinate systems of their data instead of in the arbitrary coordinate system provided by Java2D.
It offers a view-management system based on layers, with each layer being completely independent with its own set of graphical objects and its own coordinate system. Layers can overlay other layers, be added and removed dynamically, and be added for interactive markup and annotation without affecting the underlying graphical objects. J/Carnac supports PostScript and CGM, so common printers and plotters can be used.
The J/Carnac toolkit is completely object oriented; attributes such as color, fill style, and line thickness are also object oriented, and can be shared between multiple graphical objects.
To maximize speed while minimizing memory requirements, graphical displays can be rendered dynamically with only the displayed area stored in memory. Rendering during scrolling is also optimized.
The J/Carnac beta is free.
Tracking software development with Visual Bugz
Optimize announced Visual Bugz, an easily integrated tracking software that allows everyone on the software-development team to know just where a project is, and what needs to be completed for it to reach the final stage.
Visual Bugz integrates with most development environments, including Java, Visual Basic, Visual C++, Visual Objects, Delphi, and PowerBuilder. It uses ODBC to connect to databases.
Pricing ranges from 49 for one license to 25 (per license) for 500 licenses. There is a 30-day trial version available. At press time, there was no further information on the company’s Web site.
Javu plows VideoFarm.com
Javu Technologies announced VideoFarm.com, a service that lets users with a standard browser edit and manage digital content over the Internet.
Participants can use VideoFarm.com software to build and host computation-intensive media content sites. It offers subscribers unlimited access to the Java-based JavuNetwork, the company’s proprietary, network-centric, cross-media editing and management tool. JavuNetwork is a drag-and-drop content-creation tool that works with any Java-enabled browser and lets users combine and edit video, audio, and image formats together with text. It then automatically converts the files into the finished video, image, or audio format of their choice over the Internet.
JavuNetwork lets users use a proprietary language — Resolution Independent Video Language — to create and edit high-resolution video footage regardless of the speed of their Internet connection. Users can view a low-resolution version of the video on their monitor while actually editing a high-resolution original which resides on VideoFarm’s servers. The technology was developed at Cornell University, which has granted Javu a license.
VideoFarm.com costs 0 a month.
Aberdeen Group starts group on Java enterprises
The Aberdeen Group announced its Enterprise Java practice, a consulting group designed to help enterprises follow the rapidly evolving business and technology drivers to more efficiently implement and plan for enterprise Java strategies.
The group is headed by research director Tom Dwyer, who noted that, “Java represents one of the major platform technologies for the next millennium. The combination of instant portability, centralized change control, and reusable software components will reshape the way software solutions are developed and deployed.”
The Enterprise Java group is concerned with answering these questions:
- Are many of today’s enterprise-capable Java solutions too tightly coupled to proprietary development environments and runtime management tools?
- Is the implementation of the current JVM mature enough to yield consistent performance and behavior across all enterprise platforms?
- What is the IT experience with Java performance and scalability?
- What forces could fragment the Java market, and what is being done to prevent that from happening?
- Regarding the current state of reusability of software components, is EJB the answer?
- What new channel opportunities will JavaBeans and Enterprise JavaBeans enable?
- What certification, branding, and marketing efforts for Java are still missing?
White paper on EJBs
The Aberdeen Group has posted, as a part of its new Enterprise Java Practice, “Enterprise JavaBeans — A Shark in the Proprietary Pool,” a free white paper.
The paper examines:
- The key attributes that define the three current Java markets — enterprise computing, Web computing, and Java computing
- The convergence that is driving these markets to support the Enterprise JavaBeans-based computing model
- How suppliers are responding
- The advantages of making sure that EJB technology fully leverages open standards and embraces the new realities of this convergence
- Recommendations for companies on how to proceed with an evaluation of Java and Enterprise JavaBeans
Forte launches SynerJ
Forte Software announced SynerJ, a Java suite designed to simplify the deployment of distributed, enterprise-level Java applications.
With SynerJ, each product in the suite — the Developer, Assembler, and Application Server — can work together or independently. The EJB 1.1-compliant server supports Entity Beans (container- or Bean-managed persistence) and Session Beans. It can also import and export any standard Java source and binary code.
SynerJ employs a repository-driven component-management system that delivers secure configuration management and version control of source, binary, and third-party components, as well as the ability to collaborate on development testing and perform distributed code debugging among developers and across machines.
It offers automatic management of deployment configurations, component-level reconfiguration without recoding, checkbox HTML and XML enabling of any component, and zero-administration client services. It supports several component models, including CORBA and COM, XML and IIOP integration adapters, as well as adapters to other third-party application packages and middleware.
SynerJ also offers advanced load-balancing, caching, and replication of components; component-level fail-over for 24/7 reliability; hot-swappable components, so there’s no downtime; browser-based management with agent support; and support for JIT compilers.
The SynerJ suite should be available in September 1999. The Application Server starts at ,000 per CPU and the Developer starts at 99 per developer.
Add interactive charts to apps with ChartWorks 3.5
Visual Mining announced ChartWorks Server 3.5, software that lets users create dynamically generated charts and graphs, and integrate them into any application without the need for programming.
ChartWorks Server 3.5 supports direct connection to most data sources. It offers developers charting abilities for applications that require security, scheduling, multiple output formats, multiple client types, indexing, searching, and browsing.
This version offers new and enhanced data connectivity plugins to connect to ODBC, Sybase, Oracle, Lotus Domino, and CSV data sources. It sports easier-to-use, more intuitive data-import wizards. Another feature, Bubble Chart, makes it easy to craft XY charts that dynamically display one or more datasets.
The ChartWorks Designer component lets users define on-demand charts without programming, designing customized versions or choosing from 175 ready-to-use chart templates. The ChartWorks Server generates charts on demand and broadcasts them via the Internet. The ChartWorks Viewer lets users view dynamically generated online charts. It can be deployed as a Windows application or as an applet.
ChartWorks Server 3.5 supports Java 2 and is bundled with the Java Runtime Environment Standard Edition 1.2. Pricing starts at ,995.
I can see clearly now
AAi FosterGrant (UK) announced that it is investing 97,600 in an Intentia Movex enterprise applications system to support 35 users in sales, purchasing, finance, warehousing, and distribution. The company is doing this in order to replace a legacy PC networked system. AAi FosterGrant distributes fashion accessories through supermarkets, pharmacy chains, and service station forecourts.
John Longmuir, finance director, notes that a 70 percent growth over the last three years has forced the company to take a strong look at how it handles business processes. “We have reached the stage of needing to improve our business processes to give us more consistent and better quality information. And, with our impending move into Europe, we want to be sure we can also improve our customer service levels and use this as a strong reason for retailers to stock our products.”
Intentia’s Movex 11 (the latest release) is available in a Java-based version (called the NextGeneration version) and in a conventional version (known as ThisGeneration).
Gas info in BC is driven by Java
British Columbia Gas is in a pilot project to provide interactive Web-based customer information services for about 750,000 utility consumers using the Peace Energy CIS system, a customer management and billing system designed and customized for energy service-provider clients in a deregulated market.
Energy allows utility customers to access service provider Web sites for interactive information about billing, utility usage, inquiries, and support. It also uses Java and VRML browser-based data-visualization technology to let commercial customers examine demand and price profiles.
The pilot program was initially deployed and tested in the small town of Prince George in northern BC, which has approximately 25,000 residential, commercial, and industrial consumers. It was deployed in nine months.
BC Gas Utility Senior VP Patrick Lloyd said the utility chose Energy “for three key reasons: first, it’s the only CIS product developed from the ground up for the deregulated environment; second, it was designed for the new era of Web and Internet applications, and so will be adaptable for our long-term needs; and finally, the price/performance of the system is extremely attractive.”
Energy also includes all the functions needed for energy service providers (ESPs) to deliver advanced billing services, including Internet customer service, ESP consolidated billing or commodity-only billing, enrollment, and settlements for the deregulated utility market. It uses an integrated browser user interface to give representatives an easy-to-learn way to access the system. It also provides complex billing, realtime pricing, contract management, and energy trading for commercial/industrial segments.
BC Gas plans to roll out the Energy system to customers in the interior of the province during 1999 and 2000; by 2001, it should be servicing metropolitan Vancouver.
BEA snaps up Java education consultant TRGI
BEA Systems announced it has acquired Technology Resource Group Inc. (TRGI), a Java information technology education, mentoring, and consulting firm.
TRGI (based in Maynard, MA and London) offers a curriculum of 45 courses on the analysis, design, and development of component-based distributed systems, as well as the use of Java, Enterprise JavaBeans, CORBA, XML, and the Unified Modeling Language (UML).
TRGI also offers a skills assessment and migration planning tool called FAKTplan, a Web-based system using the company’s Focused Accelerated Knowledge Transfer (FAKT) methodology, which lets companies assess the current state of IT team skill sets. It sports multidimensional skills assessment; curriculum design and customization based on gap analysis; and preparation, delivery, mentoring, and evaluation using guided assessment reviews.
ObjectDomain 2.5 UML CASE tool
Object Domain Systems announced ObjectDomain 2.5, an upgrade to its pure Java UML modeling tool that now sports full notation and metamodel support.
ObjectDomain 2.5 is a Java-based, scalable, multiplatform, user-extendable CASE tool that lets developers create and visualize object models using a flexible, intuitive user interface.
The user interface employs a switchable look-and-feel and theme support. It also supports multiple users, version control, and HTML report generation. It comes in two versions, a standard and a professional edition. The standard edition offers fundamental UML diagramming support; the professional edition adds complete UML and multiuser support. Both versions offer a multiplatform license.
New features in version 2.5:
- Support for all nine OMG UML diagrams, backed by a true UML metamodel
- Faster performance and a smaller memory footprint
- Version control and multiuser support via a file-based repository
- Model searching with regular expression support
- Full round-trip for Java
- User interface enhancements
ObjectDomain will run on any platform that provides a Java Runtime Environment. It supports code generation and reverse engineering for Java, C++, and Python. Its open architecture allows additional language support, user customization, and third-party add-ins.
The interface includes multiperspective browsing, unlimited undo/redo, and a diagram thumbnail view that allows panning and zooming.
The ObjectDomain 2.5 professional edition costs 95; the standard edition is 95. An evaluation copy is available.
IBM SecureWay 4 gets enhancements
IBM announced SecureWay Host On-Demand 4, an enhanced version of its Java-based terminal emulator.
SecureWay Host On-Demand 4 provides secure browser access to host applications, offering host access on desktops without the need to install software on the clients. It doesn’t require a middle-tier server.
Version 4 has been enhanced with:
- Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) client authentication to leverage Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) security standards
- Enabled LDAP to centralize administration for large user groups
- TN5250 host print and file transfer, and native AS/400 installation to boost productivity for AS/400 users
It also sports new ActiveX controls, allowing developers to choose Visual Basic or Java for programming. It uses XML for macro scripting.
Host On-Demand 4 supports OS/390, OS/400, AIX, Windows NT, Solaris, HP-UX, and Linux.
IBM also announced the beta version of the Java-based SecureWay Host Publisher 2, which integrates multiple data sources, including host and database applications, into a single Web page on a client’s browser. It supports AIX, OS/390, Windows NT, and Solaris, with support for OS/400 coming in early 2000.
Version 2 will include:
- Support for more platforms
- The ability to create host integration objects that can be reused within Java development tools
- Inclusion of a runtime version of IBM WebSphere
- Integration with IBM’s connector solutions
Manage app performance with Introscope
Wily Technology announced Introscope, Java-based software that offers application performance management for any Java application, giving users the ability to manage and monitor Java software performance without any reprogramming.
Introscope provides a central console to manage the performance and availability of distributed Java systems and application servers, such as WebSphere, WebLogic, and NetDynamics. The system can be customized to match existing business rules.
Introscope offers thresholds, alarms, and analysis tools to prevent, identify, and resolve problems in complex, distributed, component-based Java systems. It manages applets, applications, servlets, and Enterprise JavaBeans running in any JVM on any client, server, or embedded device.
Introscope should be generally available the fourth quarter of 1999, with pricing available at that time. There is a closed beta program available now.
Deliver online services with eFTX 2.0
Enterprise Engineering Inc. (EEI) announced the Java-based eFTX Suite 2.0, an upgrade to its software suite of server, client, and interface components to provide support and delivery of integrated financial services over the Internet.
eFTX 2.0 handles over-the-Net financial transactions in a platform-independent way, unlike OFX (Open Financial Exchange) or FIX (Financial Information Exchange) servers. eFTX components are designed to allow for the delivery of Web-based banking, brokerage, defined contributions (401k), bill presentation and payment, insurance, mortgages, and tax reporting. It also supports XML-based business-to-business transactions.
The suite features the eFTX server, plus:
- Service-oriented architecture that allows service components to be easily added, and provides transactional management of message processing
- Plug-and-play support for protocol services like FIX and OFX
- Proprietary protocol support, including custom extensions for industry standards
- A bill-payment warehouse
- The System Integration Modeling Language (SIML)
- A graphical utility to aid rapid system integration with legacy systems
The eFTX Server is implemented with Sybase technology, including Jaguar CTS and Adaptive Server Enterprise 11.5. It supports off-the-shelf applications, PDAs, and wireless devices, and includes integration objects for financial enterprises. The server allows selectable plug-and-play message sets, offers ACID-transaction capabilities, and features logging/auditing/reporting tools. It runs on Solaris, Windows NT, and AIX.
The eFTX Client includes a custom toolkit and API, and supports Sybase PowerJ, Sybase PowerBuilder, Visual Basic, Visual J++, and Visual C++. It can be customized and source-code licensed.
Check with the company for pricing.
Planet-Intra is instant intranet portal
Planet-Intra.com announced Planet-Intra, platform-independent software to help small- to medium-size companies establish an instant intranet portal with no programming.
The core Planet-Intra product comes with no-programming Java publishing and editing tools.
Planet-Intra is like a workflow system; it lets users organize and group information that is easily accessible. It also offers a search engine so users can scan their own intranet’s database. It comes with modules for search capabilities, a user database, a dynamic directory structure, and file and document management. The company plans to include such future modules as a calendar, scheduler, and contact database.
Planet-Intra offers multiple-level access controls and username/password login security, and can reside either within a corporate firewall or within ISP firewalls.
Planet-Intra costs 99 for 25 users, 95 for 50 users, and ,995 for more than 200 users. It is available for NT and Linux systems.
Minolta Di520/620 printer/copier gets new controller
Minolta announced the Pi6200 print controller, a new FieryX2-based controller that allows the company’s Di520 and Di620 printer/copiers to function as networked, digital black-and-white printers with advanced finishing capabilities.
According to Minolta Senior VP Bud Murphy, the Pi6200 offers “users more than twice the processing power than the previous controller option, as well as enhanced control over the print jobs run on the Di620 and Di520.”
The Pi6200 offers:
- Fiery WebTools, which let users manage and control print jobs remotely through a Java-enabled Web browser; the tools include WebSpooler (for monitoring jobs as they spool, RIP, and print), WebStatus (for referencing job status and displaying basic job information), and WebLink (for linking to a specific Web page)
- Fiery Spooler, which delivers job management-control features, including the ability to view, reorder, and delete current jobs
- Fiery Downloader, which lets users send PostScript and EPS files directly to the controller without opening the original application that created the file
The Pi6200 sports a 200 MHz R5000 MIPS RISC processor; 32 MB RAM (expandable to 64 MB); a 3.2 GB drive; 10/100BaseT interface (with optional token ring support); support for such network protocols as IPX/SPX (Novell 3.x/4.x, NDS), TCP/IP (Unix, NT, AppleTalk/EtherTalk Network Management), and SNMP.
The Pi6200 is available at a retail price is ,500.
Blue Cross of Michigan uses i-Cube for online tool
Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Michigan has collaborated with i-Cube to build a framework to allow the medical insurance provider to simplify administrative processes with online tools.
The new framework uses open standards and component-based modules wherever possible. The application was developed on an HP-UX platform using Java, dynamically generated HTML, Netscape Enterprise Web Server, CORBA objects written in Java using VisiBroker, LDAP directory services, and mainframe data accessed using Stingray and 3270 emulation. It will replace the company’s character-based DOS system.
