News and New Product Briefs (June 24, 1999)

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Symantec builds separate Java tools division

Symantec announced it will set up a separate company to house its Java tools, with VisualCafe as the primary product.

Officials expect to form the new Internet Tools Division, which is charged with a focus of -enabling business/legacy applications for e-commerce, within the next nine months, although it could come together in less time.

New Symantec President and CEO John W. Thompson said, “Our Java development solutions are purchased by enterprise developers to Web-enable legacy systems, business systems, and create e-commerce solutions. Our other products are purchased by professionals who have responsibility for keeping networks secure and users productive. By setting up two separate companies, we are able to focus very clearly on the needs of these two very different buying groups.”

Symantec officials said that eventually, the company expects to entertain third-party investors in the 120-person unit.

https://www.symantec.com/press/1999/n990610.html

SolidWorks 3D Java viewer for Linux

SolidWorks Corp. announced that its SolidWorks Java Viewer is fully compatible with the Linux 2.0x kernel. It allows engineers to view native SolidWorks images locally or over the Internet using the JVM 1.2 and Java 3D API from Blackdown.

The viewer lets CAD users, on various platforms, view any native SolidWorks parts, drawings, and assembly files using a stand-alone Java application.

The SolidWorks Java Viewer for Linux is available now as a free stand-alone Java application or applet. The viewer has been tested only with Red Hat Software’s Linux 5.2. There are already versions that run on Solaris and Windows 95/NT.

https://solidweb.solidworks.com/swdocs/products/java_viewer/

IBM opens developerWorks portal

IBM announced a beta version of developerWorks, a portal for developers that includes zones for Java, XML, security, and Web development technologies, as well as an upcoming zone on Linux.

IBM intends for developerWorks to be a one-stop resource for information on tools, standards, training, and IBM research. The site, headed by JavaWorld‘s former editor-in-chief Michael O’Connell, will focus on open standards and cross-platform technologies.

https://www.ibm.com/developer/

Lucent debuts broadband app developer program

At the recent SUPERCOMM ’99 conference, Lucent announced Lucent Full Circle, a developer program designed to facilitate the creation of broadband application services for Lucent’s network systems.

Lucent Full Circle components include marketing, training tools, and research for network service providers, as well as wired and wireless hardware and software platforms and testing for ISVs and Web developers under the Lucent real world services creation environment. Other components include service-creation support and Lucent NetCare services, a suite of resources designed to address network services such as implementation, surveillance, monitoring, and maintenance.

The initial application-building services offered include:

• The SoftSwitch IP network switch
• The 7R/E Programmable Feature Server for deploying applications such as Internet call-waiting
• Flexent and GSM wireless network systems
• Toolbox Pro, a suite of tools for Lucent’s AnyPath messaging platform that help service providers customize messaging capabilities

The Lucent Full Circle components use Java (rather than Microsoft’s Common Object Model) for software development, especially in the SoftSwitch and Toolbox Pro tools.

Early partners in Full Circle include Sun, Novell, and AT&T.

https://www.lucent.com/gsp/h/feature.html

Java management spec public draft available

At the recent SUPERCOMM ’99 conference, the first public draft of the Java Management Extensions (JMX) specification were unveiled. JMX is a proposed, standardized method of managing Java-enabled resources that, when finalized, is intended to allow developers to build Java applications, components, and devices that can be managed with a single method instead of having to construct separate methods for each.

JMX offers a framework and services for a dynamic management agent, one that works with existing management systems based on SNMP, CIM/WBEM, or TMN protocols. According to Sun Telecom Software Product Manager Alban Richard, JMX should also adapt to evolving and brand-new management technologies. This way, Sun expects the technology to act as a bridge from the currently available management systems to ones that are network- and Java-centered.

JMX is closely tied to several emerging Java technologies, including Enterprise JavaBeans and Jini. The first specification is designed for instrumentation and agent tiers, and interoperability with SNMP and CIM/WBEM. More advanced management services should emerge in phases, according to the company.

https://java.sun.com/products/JavaManagement

Sun, Motorola make wireless connectivity easier

Sun and Motorola announced a 10-year wireless IP partnership to link both companies’ network devices, making wireless enterprise connectivity easier to establish.

Under the terms of the agreement, the companies will construct an open, three-tier architecture for service providers to support voice and data communications over a variety of wireless devices. The architecture will be developed by Motorola’s Network Solutions Sector and the Motorola Computer Group. It should be usable by satellite, paging, two-way radio, and wireless Internet-access products. The involved IP architecture is designed to combine voice, data, and video services for those products.

The three-tier architecture will include cellular-device base stations, call-setup controller systems, and back-end servers to provide applications such as Web access, data services, and e-commerce. It should come with a development environment that will let third parties build services software.

The Motorola base stations (the first tier) will use Sun’s ChorusOS realtime operating system and the Java Dynamic Management Software Kit. The second tier, Motorola Computer Group’s CPX8216 call-processing platform, also will use ChorusOS and the JDM kit. The third tier, carrier central-office operations and back-office servers, will use Sun’s Netra carrier servers and Solaris.

Officials from the companies announced that the first products should arrive by sometime in 2000. Motorola intends to invest as much as billion (in hardware and software) in the initiative.

VisualAge for Java beta 3 coming

IBM used JavaOne to announce a beta version of VisualAge for Java 3.0, Professional Edition, which will offer links for faster access to back-end platforms such as MQSeries and DB2.

Version 3.0 will also include the ability to use, leverage, and build stored procedures in DB2, as well as offer such new features as support for building Java-based applications in Solaris and a remote debugging feature that lets developers debug programs residing on a remote platform such as the WebSphere server.

Version 3.0 is scheduled to make its commercial appearance in the fourth quarter of 1999.

IBM also unveiled technical previews of VisualAge for Java for Linux and Java 2 environments.

The Java for Linux version will let developers build, test, and deploy Java applets, applications, and JavaBean components and servlets on Linux. In an interesting twist, the Linux version came about because one of IBM’s developers presented the company with a 1,000-name petition of developers that demanded a Linux version.

https://www.software.ibm.com/ad/

IBM releases Web Intermediary devkit

IBM announced that is releasing the Web Intermediary Developer Kit for Java (WBI), a free Java toolkit designed to help users build Web intermediary (or programmable proxy) applications, applications that help users control the flow and customization of Web data.

Intermediaries are computational entities that lie along the HTTP stream and are programmed to tailor, customize, personalize, or enhance data as it flows along that stream. Web intermediaries monitor and modify the flow of Web data between clients, servers, and proxies. They can connect local and remote data on the Web, route Web traffic, produce personalized content, and translate protocols and document formats.

The WBI consists of about 80 percent of the code and most of the APIs needed to build fully functional Web intermediaries. The WBI core is a programmable HTTP proxy server.

The WBI offers a set of developer resources for building applications and a runtime environment for deploying the applications.

The WBI runs on all Java platforms, as well as on Linux and Windows 9x/NT.

https://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/wbidk

Online community offers customization to multitudes via Java

Singapore’s national online communities project, named Community Connection and aided by Internet firm Anexa.com, is growing by leaps and bounds. And to offer customization to its rapidly increasing number of communities, it uses a Java application.

Community Connection is an initiative announced in 1998 by the National Computer Board’s (NCB) Online Technologies Consortium (OTC). Last week, the NCB selected Anexa.com to deliver the technology that allows different communities to customize their sites. With Anexa.com’s free (banner ad supported), server-side Java applications, users can share sound, images, and graphics, and conduct discussions using media albums, discussion boards, live chat, events listings, guestbooks, and classified ads. No client downloads are required for any of the services.

The nCB is confident that Anexa.com will scale up to support millions of users, and it has already reported extremely easy integration of it with the Community Connection back-end systems, according to the NCB’s Tan Jin-Ho.

The community: http://www.coolconnect.com

Anexa.com: https://www.anexa.com/

SOS becomes Progress ASP in UK

Systemcare Outhosting Solutions (SOS) announced that it has become Progress’ first software-oriented application service provider in the UK.

SOS provides outhosting service for Progress’s Mfour supply-chain management system to run an engineering-stores management service for company Si3. Si3 Managing Director Sean Fennon said, “SOS is our strategic alliance partner for IT. Mfour satisfies the needs of our business, and by outhosting it, SOS allows us to concentrate on our core competencies, while it provides the IT solution we need to support our business with a lower cost of ownership.” In turn, Si3 manages about 100 engineering stores on behalf of customers in the UK, and 100 more stores across Europe.

The stores are managed by buyers and store/stock controllers who access Mfour over a private WAN using ISDN. The individuals who generate requisitions to release product from stock or purchase replenishment stocks access Mfour via a browser and the Internet, so there two networks in place. SOS has developed a Progress WebSpeed application to provide online transaction processing in realtime to the hosted database.

Year one should see 250 users and 500 requisitioners; in year two, the company expects to climb to 500 users and 1,200 requisitioners.

The company intends to move the interface to a Java browser client, which will be developed using Progress’s Apptivity.

Nasdaq/Amex to use Neural’s Java stock-screener

Neural Applications Corp. announced an agreement with the Nasdaq-Amex Market Group (NAMG) in which NAMG will license Neural’s proprietary, Internet-enabled, stock-screening technology — NetProphet — for its Web site.

Neural will provide NAMG with the Java-based stock-screening tool, customized and integrated for the site. It includes default screens for new users, as well as features for advanced users. It allows the user to build or select, then save, display formats. It supports drag-and-drop configuration.

NetProphet lets users view the top-rated stocks and apply their own investment criteria, or use NetProphet’s predictions to analyze stocks before making a transaction. The registered version of NetProphet lets users purchase predictions for specific stocks.

The NetProphet application does not use an Internet browser to act as a go-between, so communications remain speedy and secure. Stock data is provided by S&P Comstock and is delayed 15 minutes. The price-history data and the price predictions are from Neural’s Internet servers.

Neural: https://www.neural.com/netprophet/index.asp

See it in action: https://www.nasdaq-amex.com/

NZ Telecom picks OSI Java workflow software

Objective Systems Integrators (OSI) announced that Telecom New Zealand Ltd. (TNZ) has chosen OSI’s NetExpert Virtual Process Management Java-based workflow software to provide carrier-grade workflow management for the utility’s order-management system.

NetExpert will provide system connectivity among the carrier’s operations-support system frameworks to connect telecom legacy systems, enabling the company to capture, analyze, and automate service delivery processes for its ATM, frame relay, xDSL, analog, and dedicated services. NetSOM, the order-management system, will help the carrier introduce new services faster, improve quality of service, and reduce operating costs.

TNZ advisor Phil Montgomery said, “In this highly competitive market, carriers need the ability to introduce new services rapidly. NetExpert VPM will enable Telecom to separate business processes from system connectivity, giving us the agility to update our business processes as products, technologies, and organizations evolve, so we can build new service offerings without disrupting current services.” He added, “Many people, systems, and databases must work together to fulfill service orders. NetExpert VPM will allow us to represent these activities graphically for assembly into flexible workflows, making it easy to modify these models as we develop new services.”

https://www.osi.com/our_company/html/netexpert_vpm.html

Prentice Hall offers book on Jini

Prentice Hall’s Professional Technical Reference series offers Core Jini, a book by W. Keith Edwards that delivers in-depth coverage of Jini technology, the Sun technology that allows any device to network smoothly and reliably with other networked devices.

Core Jini offers detailed, practical explanations of Jini technology, as well as hands-on Java code developers need to build Jini systems. There is a foreword by Bill Joy and a preface by Xerox PARC Chief Technologist Mark Weiser.

The book covers:

• How Jini addresses crucial distributed networking problems that CORBA and other “traditional” technologies ignore
• The Jini architectural model, including such crucial concepts as discovery, leasing, remote events, and transactions
• Techniques for developing real Jini services and applications
• How to implement discovery using multicast request and announcement protocols
• How to build lookup services and lookup service browsers
• How to manage lease negotiation and relative time, write lease interfaces, handle delegation, and use Jini’s Landlord Paradigm
• How to use Jini with JavaSpaces

The book includes a complete Jini API reference and code for a full set of Jini services.

Core Jini by W. Keith Edwards, Prentice Hall PTR, 1999, ISBN 0-13-014469-X, 9.99, July 1999.

https://www.phptr.com/ptrbooks/ptr_013014469X.html

New JDBC RowSet implementation

Java Developers Connection announced the availability of the JDBC CachedRowSet early access release, an implementation of the RowSet interface that is part of the JDBC 2.0 Standard Extension API.

CachedRowSet provides a disconnected, serializable, scrollable container for tabular data. CachedRowSet objects can be considered a disconnected set of rows cached outside of a data source. Data contained in a CachedRowSet may be updated and then resynchronized with the underlying tabular data source. This makes the implementation a good container for tabular data that can be passed between different components of a distributed application, such as EJB components.

This release contains the RowSet JAR file, preliminary documentation, and code examples. Developers are not allowed to redistribute the binary in commercial products.

You’ll need to register and join (for free) to access the technology.

https://developer.java.sun.com/developer/earlyAccess/crs/index.html

RMI over IIOP IDL compiler

Java Developers Connection now offers an RMI over IIOP IDL Compiler, an early access compiler that works with the Object Request Broker (ORB) in RMI over IIOP to build cross-platform distributed applications.

The compiler generates Java client stubs and server skeletons from CORBA IDL that conform to the IDL-to-Java mapping defined by the Object Management Group.

It allows interfaces to be defined completely in Java, so in many cases neither IDL nor an IDL compiler are needed to write distributed applications for Java.

The RMI over IIOP IDL Compiler is completely Java; it runs on JDK 1.1.6 virtual machines and Java 2.

You’ll have to register and join to access this technology.

https://developer.java.sun.com/developer/earlyAccess/idlc/

A Java system for managing online auctions

IBM alphaWorks offers AuctionMaster, a Java client- and server-side system for managing online auctions.

AuctionMaster is an application that allows clients to hold auctions on Web sites. It includes a server, called AuctionMaster, and multiple Java applet clients. The clients connect to the server and send bids. The server determines the current winning bid and the next asking price. The process cycles until the item is sold or the price reaches the minimum threshold.

The AuctionMaster server features:

• Automatic asking price with configurable time interval
• Manual append of auction files during auction
• Pause/resume/cancel for auctions
• A bid function that supports one or multiple items
• Server log for all auction bidding activities
• Sale log for each item
• Automatic e-mail sales confirmation after auction ends
• Repeat auction functions for any unsold items
• A “watch-only” function for non-qualified bidders

The client applets feature:

• Current winner display
• Auction item browse
• Auction bidder information display
• The ability to hide user information from other bidders
• A bidding agent to bid automatically according to the set limit

AuctionMaster is available for all Java platforms.

https://www.alphaWorks.ibm.com/tech/auctionmaster

Java library infers DTD from XML

IBM announced DDbE, a Java component library that infers a DTD or schema from a set of XML instances, so that users can construct a DTD (document type definition).

With DDbE (Data Descriptors by Example), users can learn to author well-crafted and efficient XML. The DDbE automatically produces a DTD from a set of XML documents. Users can craft parameters to allow the customization of content models and attribute specifications.

DDbE can even be used in business-to-business applications that need to automatically generate DTDs for XML message validation.

DDbE is available for all Java platforms.

https://www.alphaWorks.ibm.com/tech/DDbE

Hello, Phone for Java calling

IBM alphaWorks announces Phone for Java 3.1, an application that allows users to make calls from their computer or telephone to IP addresses or other telephones, without being limited to sending text, graphics, or other files.

Phone for Java 3.1 has enhanced audio capabilities that deliver voice-quality conversations over intranets, PSTN gateways, the Internet, or PBXs.

It supports connection to a regular phone via the standard serial port (using ShelCad Hi-Phone device). It allows the user to talk in private and in the natural way using a regular phone, with all the regular phone operations (dial, hang-up, flash, and so on) performed from the phone and reflected in the GUI.

The software is a Java H.323-compliant IP-based phone that meets such industry standards as RTP streaming, H.323 signaling, and G.711, G.723 and GSM codecs. It works with Microsoft’s NetMeeting and H.323 PSTN GateWay.

Phone for Java 3.1 is available for Windows 95/NT.

https://www.alphaWorks.ibm.com/aw.nsf/frame?ReadForm&/aw.nsf/techmain/3A58B25EDF9188048825678C006AB9B9

Java-based JTAPIChat

IBM announced JTAPIChat, a JTAPI (Java Telephony API) implementation with a chat function, letting users use simple, plain-text chat as a reference provider.

JTAPIChat is an implementation that treats text chat just like telephone conversation. It is based on a simple provider metaphor of text chat. JTAPI acts as an interface between a JTAPI application and implementation of a service provider, with JTAPIChat providing the text-chat service for that implementation. With it, developers can construct a JTAPI application that will work with any correct JTAPI implementation.

This implementation uses an RMI-based private protocol between the two or more parties, and can operate on the same machine, as well as on disparate machines on a network. The only requirement is that users run pure Java applications on an IP network.

JTAPIChat is for AIX and Windows 9x/NT.

https://www.alphaWorks.ibm.com/tech/jtapichat

New XML bean suite

alphaWorks offers an easyXML, a bean suite for quickly adding XML functionality to applications.

The easyXML bean suite includes the XMLHolder, XMLElement, XMLAttribute, and XMLFileGenerator beans. These beans can be used to develop XML-processing Java applications, or to add XML-processing functions to existing Java applications.

The easyXML bean suite requires JDK 1.1 or higher.

https://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/ab.nsf/bean/easyXML

Join the Visualize app contest

Visualize has given developers until August 15, 1999 to submit their applet or applications to the “Visualize yourself with some extra spending money” contest. All developers have to do is use Visualize’s VantagePoint or DataVista Pro software to create either an applet or application.

First prize is ,000; second and third prizes are 00 and 50, respectively.

VantagePoint is a Java data-visualization class library that uses a model-view-controller architecture to support a range of two- and three-dimensional graph types.

DataVista Pro is a Java applet that allows users to integrate cross-platform graphing, analysis, and data-drilling capabilities into enterprise systems.

Contest rules: https://www.visualizeinc.com/contest/

Company: https://www.visualizeinc.com/main.html

Whitepaper on applets and Java 2 security

The IBM Developer Connection offers a well-written article entitled “Applets and Java 2 security,” by Theodore Shrader (a principal in the IBM Java Security project) and Bruce Rich (team leader of the IBM Java Security project).

The article covers why applets need security (to protect access to resources), then covers how Java 2 runs applets, the Java Runtime Environment plugin, and some samples.

https://service2.boulder.ibm.com/devcon/news0699/artpage11.htm

Java next big trend area — integration

This Tele.com prediction round-up for the next hottest trends includes Tim Wilson’s pick. Wilson sees a trend away from case-by-case ordering of highly customized tools for billing, provisioning, customer care, inventory control, and order entry; instead, he predicts a move toward integrating all of those areas together, then into legacy and existing networked systems by using such cross-platform technologies as Java, common object-oriented databases, and Web interfaces.

What makes this trend hot? Wilson notes that many service providers are following a new business model that requires the delivery of multiple services (voice, high-speed data transport, Internet access, wireless services) as bundles, although traditionally they’ve established separate systems for each service. They need those services integrated.

Wilson sees that service providers are also rethinking application environments, heading toward more off-the-shelf solutions that adhere closely to established and emerging industry standards.

What’s driving the trend, and what’s next? Wilson thinks that Web technology is the driving force behind the need to consolidate services and technologies. With the development of Java and XML, Web browsers have become the first and simplest entree into a common interface.

Wilson also predicts that the first company to get billing and customer care components designed correctly will have a winning hand, since they’re usually the components designed last, and if they don’t work correctly, the surrounding technology usually goes down the drain. He quotes Charles Ansley, president of the Communications Industry Group at EDS: “Billing and customer care is always the last to get designed in, but it’s a killer to the technology if done wrong. In many of the new IP-based services, no robust standards have emerged for billing ‘thought processes.’ Whoever gets it right first will have an advantage in Internet time.”

For more on other predictions: https://www.techweb.com/se/directlink.cgi?TLC19990607S0032

Quick news: ResQ!Net 3.2

ResQNet.com has released ResQ!Net 3.2, a Java applet that provides access to host computers. The upgrade offers an improved interface, support for viewing multiple applications in a single screen, and improved SSL support.

It Web-enables mainframe and AS/400 applications, and it includes its own TN3270/5250 connectivity. Users download the Java applet from a Web server and can connect to the host through a browser, across networks, intranets, and the Internet.

ResQ!Net is an add-on to IBM’s Host-On-Demand software.

https://www.ResQNet.com/Products/General%20Bar/Gralbar1.htm

Quick news: Cloudscape DB gets new features

Cloudscape announced that its newest Cloudscape Java database, planned for debut later in June 1999, will include such enhanced features as data encryption, enhanced data, and application-logic synchronization between a server and mobile devices running Cloudscape.

Cloudscape is a Java-based SQL database-management system, designed to be embedded in client or server applications as a local data manager. It implements SQL-92 with extensions for Java that enable developers to write stored procedures in Java for execution inside the DBMS. It delivers true Java object support within the DBMS itself.

https://www.cloudscape.com/Products/products.htm