Oracle releases TopLink upgrade, road map

October 15, 2002 — Oracle has released an updated version of the TopLink Java development tool it recently acquired from WebGain, along with a road map pledging continued TopLink support for competitors’ databases and application servers.

The new version, called Oracle9i Application Server TopLink 9.0.3, supports the Oracle9i AS connection-pooling technology, which enables multiple connections to a server. It is the first product release since Oracle acquired the technology and is now built into Oracle9i AS.

Also featured are performance optimizations and support for Service Pack 1 of the BEA WebLogic Server application server.

The Oracle road map for TopLink includes continued support for third-party application servers, including BEA WebLogic and IBM WebSphere, and databases such as IBM DB2 and Microsoft SQL Server as well as those from Sybase and Informix. Oracle’s road map answers the question about whether or not the company would continue support for third-party products with TopLink following the June acquisition, according to John Magee, vice president of Oracle9i product marketing, in Redwood Shores, Calif.

However, Oracle9i AS users get the new version of TopLink free while users of the other vendors’ products must pay ,000 per processor. A free trial version is available, with fees charged once developers build a production application.

Oracle describes TopLink as a persistence framework featuring a toolset and code to make it easier to build Java applications that function with relational databases. The tool makes applications run faster and cuts the time needed to develop them, Magee said.

Future enhancements include support for direct access to data sources besides relational databases, including Web services and XML documents and files. “What we’re seeing is Web services are an increasingly important source of information as more and more data is exposed as Web services,” Magee said.

The TopLink framework will evolve to enable aggregation of data from multiple relational and nonrelational information sources into a common object model. Services such as XML caching, XML query, and data transformation will be provided, Oracle said.

The new tool is available now.

According to Oracle, TopLink’s new version also includes enhanced performance with caching technology, which minimizes database and network traffic while leveraging JDBC (Java Database Connectivity) databases, and resource optimizations to let development teams streamline the development process and focus on building the application, not the infrastructure.