Web services functionality boosted Sybase is giving developers a preview of an upcoming version of its Adaptive Server Enterprise database featuring improved Web services functionality.The company at its TechWave user conference in Orlando, Fla., this week announced its Early Adopter Program for Adaptive Server Enterprise 12.5.1. Participants in the program have free use of a beta version of ASE 12.5.1 and can provide feedback. Sybase is providing support for the program, which is open to whoever wants to download the beta at www.sybase.com/ase1251beta.Shipping this fall, Version 12.5.1 features self-management, content management, and integration technologies as well as enhanced security and privacy controls, said Sybase, of Dublin, Calif. Web services improvements will enable data being managed by the database to be accessed through a Web service, said Tom Traubitz, Sybase senior group product marketing manager. “Right now, we’re primarily introducing technology that will allow the database to be an entity in a Web services framework,” Traubitz said. A future release of the database after Version 12.5.1 will enable the database to access information from other Web services-enabled systems.Sybase this week also entered into an agreement with Tibco for the development of Sybase Real-time Services, to enable real-time notifications based on changing data in the database. Through the agreement, ASE will be integrated with Tibco’s Java Message Service (JMS) technology, providing for a services bus that will receive notifications of new information in the database.“A message bus environment lets an application register with the database,” Traubitz said. Database administrators will be able to publish information using a point-and-click interface. Sybase Real-time Services is planned for availability in the fourth quarter of this year. DatabasesSoftware DevelopmentTechnology IndustrySmall and Medium Business