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SUN

APRIL 1998

JavaOne: New component model touted for the new millennium

The EJB 1.0 specification debuts this week to the lofty expectations of developers looking for an alternative to Windows-only distributed applications.

As dozens of tool, component and server software vendors line up in support of Enterprise JavaBeans at Sun Microsystems Inc.'s JavaOne conference in San Francisco, one question remains: Will they work?

The age of building software applications like Legos is just around the corner as Sun Microsystems gears up to announce its Enterprise Java Beans (EJB) specification next week at the JavaOne show in San Francisco, and Microsoft ramps up its sales of the Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS).

These two architectures will enable ISVs and corporate IS departments to build applications from reusable software components. However, analysts warn that ISVs will have to be cautious which component model they choose.

"The component decision is the most important decision in 1998 for development organizations," said Eric Brown, an analyst with Forrester Research, in Cambridge, Mass. "It's a question of what the strategic platform will be for developing new business applications."

Microsoft points out that its MTS product has been on the market for six years and is currently deployed in corporations, whereas EJB has not even reached the specification stage.

"MTS is about making it easier to create server-side components," said Joe Moloney, Microsoft's director of ActiveX and COM technology. "But the big issue is that we have been shipping MTS for quite some time, where our competitors are still only talking about releasing their products."

(Omniware text) A comparison of technologies.

• Microsoft
  • Client: Windows
  • Server: SQL Server
  • Middle tier: MTS
  • Transport layer: DCOM
• SUN
  • Client: Web browser
  • Server: Java Database Connectivity
  • Middle tier: Enterprise Java Beans
  • Transport layer: RMI/Inter-ORB

  Java roadmap
  

  Java platform APIs

  Public Beta Final API

  API specification available available

  Java Remote Method Invocation -- Now Now Now Standard interface for Java-based distributed applications

  Java IDL (Interface Definition Now (1) Now (1) Summer 1998 Language) -- Provides inter- operability with CORBA objects

  InfoBus -- Allows cooperating Now Now Now applets or JavaBeans components to exchange structured data

  JavaBeans Activation Framework -- Now Now Now Allows developers to determine, encapsulate access to, and discover the operations available to any piece of data

  Java Cryptography Extension 1.2 Now Now Summer 1998

  Java Accessibility -- Provides Now Now Now interface that lets assistive technologies interact and communicate with Java Foundation Classes and Abstract Windowing Toolkit

  Java Media Framework Now Now Now (2)

  Java Telephony Now N/A N/A

  Java Speech Now (beta) N/A N/A

  Java 3-D Now Now (3) Summer 1998

  (1) In Java Development Kit 1.2 (2) Version 1.0 (3) Early access implementation

  
  JavaSoft news

  Instead of widening the breadth of Java, JavaSoft is focusing on filling out existing APIs and development products.

  Development tools

  JavaServer Engine: multiprotocol deployment component with security, due this summer
  JavaBlend: database access, due fourth quarter
  Java Modeler: modeling and code generation, due fourth quarter
  JavaSafe: code versioning and revision, due fourth quarter
  JumpStart: developer kit combining Activator for smoothing JVM inconsistencies in browsers and development tools, due fourth quarter
  Jcentral: documentation, available now

  APIs

  Embedded Java, available now
  Enterprise JavaBeans 1.0, available now
  JavaTV API, AutoJava API and JavaPhone API, all due third quarter

  Network computers

  JavaStation, available now

  EJBs: Great expectations
  Backers of Enterprise JavaBeans now must deliver on cross-platform pledge
  

  The EJB 1.0 specification debuts this week to the lofty expectations of developers looking for an alternative to Windows-only distributed applications.

  As dozens of tool, component and server software vendors line up in support of Enterprise JavaBeans at Sun Microsystems Inc.'s JavaOne conference in San Francisco, one question remains: Will they work?

  "[The specification] shows promise for standardization and unity among the Java community, instead of fragmentation," said Jonathan Clay, chief technology officer at Nevo Technologies Inc., in Cambridge, Mass., who is planning to evaluate EJBs. "But where's the beef? So far, it's just a spec."

  With IBM, Netscape Communications Corp., Oracle Corp., Sybase Inc., Borland International Inc., Symantec Corp. and others ready to deliver EJB-based products, the prospects look strong for the object-oriented technology as a rival to Microsoft Corp.'s COM (Component Object Broker) and NT strategy.

  The reasons for that optimism? Efficiency and extensibility, say observers. The EJB architecture could cut Java development time in half. EJBs also can wrap objects based on COM and the multivendor Common Object Request Broker Architecture into one application.

  In addition, EJBs provide a standard interface to transaction processing systems such as IBM's Customer Information Control System, and they separate the creation of back-end connectivity from presentation-layer development. Furthermore, EJBs offer a level of maturity so far unavailable to Java developers.

  "The spec looks solid," said Jon Thompson, an application development manager for a Southern manufacturer. "This will no doubt be a 1.0 technology, but the foundation is there for the future."

  ISVs that have worked with preliminary versions of the EJB specification say the technology has lived up to its billing.

  "We haven't had to replace anything with platform-specific code," said David Levine, president of HuskyLabs, a research and development company in Shepherdstown, W.Va., which is wrapping a database engine as an EJB.

  Tool vendors such as Sybase, which will announce PowerJ 2.1, and Symantec, which this week will ship Visual Café for Java 2.5, will include EJB support in their Java tools this year in the form of wizards for creating and deploying EJBs, storage facilities for reuse and drag-and-drop capabilities for visual development.

  On the server front, Netscape will announce EJB support for the next version of its Netscape Application (formerly Kiva) Server, due in the second half of the year. Likewise, IBM will announce support for EJBs in its Component Broker development tools and will detail how Version 2.0 of its San Francisco Project development architecture is built on EJBs.

  All of the major database vendors are supporting the specification, with Oracle planning support in its Application Server and Sybase in its Jaguar component transaction server by year's end.

  Smaller vendors are also getting on board. Persistence Software Inc., of San Mateo, Calif., will release PowerTier for Enterprise JavaBeans at JavaOne, and NetDynamics Inc., of Menlo Park, Calif., will release an upgrade of its application server that incorporates new technology dubbed Business Beans.

  Also this week, two online initiatives will launch JavaBean online component resource centers: Java Component 100, a cooperative venture organized by Digital Harbor LC, of Orem, Utah, and supported by Novell Inc., Sun, Caldera Inc. and several others; and several Java reference centers, run by Sun, IBM, Netscape and others.

  As with any technology that attempts to go up against Microsoft, Enterprise JavaBeans face a formidable challenge.