Free tool for integrating Java with XML debuts

November 1, 1999 — As part of a broad campaign to make back-end services written in Java more accessible, ObjectSpace on Monday released a free tool that eases integration between Java and the Extensible Markup Language (XML).

Over the next several months ObjectSpace will extend its Voyager application server by layering in technology that will allow application developers to mix and match remote services to create applications.

The free tool, scheduled to be released Monday, is called Dynamic XMLa 1.0 for Java, and is a key component of that strategy because it allows any tool or application that supports XML to call a remote service written in Java.

“What we’re doing is building a foundation for [electronic]-services that can be accessed by any developer,” said company CEO David Norris. “We expect to make available a portal site that will allow developers to link to eservices in order to build applications.”

One early adopter of the Voyager is Galileo Systems, a provider of travel reservation systems that earns more than billion in revenue a year. Next month, Galileo will unveil a new system that allows any traveler that has a mobile device that supports XML, including cellular phones, to directly change their reservation without having to talk to a travel agent.

That initiative will be the first project from Galileo in its recently commenced effort to be a provider of travel-related eservices.

“What [ObjectSpace] is going do for us is really jump start our technology and use of distributed objects, allowing us to really push hard on our internal strategy where we’d like to see global travel services offered anywhere to anyone anytime,” said Mary Skaates, vice president of technology and infrastructure at Galileo, in Englewood, Colo.

“Using it, we think we can drive new applications that bring us different revenue streams and better efficiencies internally,” Skaates added.

Voyager is one of several application integration tools that have emerged to support the need for event-driven realtime computing models. Tibco Systems, for example, is expanding its base in the realtime financial industry to mainstream electronic-business applications, while SAGA, a spin-off of Software AG, has begun shipping its own offering.