Conference tpsys::tuxedo

151.0. "News from BEA, most on DmQ & ObjectBroker" by SAWA::STEFANOWICZ (Artur Stefanowicz, DB & TP Grp) Sat May 03 1997 10:29

    Most of the following news concern DECmessageQ & ObjectBroker, but as
    this is all BEA, I think it will be good for all of you to know whats
    going on...
    
    artur.
    
UG637-12 BEA ENHANCES MIDDLEWARE; OFFERS CORBA ACCESS FROM WINDOWS
         
BEA Systems Inc has added publish-and-subscribe functionality to 
the DECMessageQ application-to-application asynchronous messaging 
software it acquired from DEC back in February and is offering 
the enhanced package as BEA MessageQ 4.0 (UX No 629). Information 
only needs to be broadcast - published - once to all subscribers. 
The publish and subscribe system was already being written when 
BEA acquired DECMessageQ. 4.0 also includes global naming - 
enabling message queues to be visible across the network. BEA 
claims the software now also supports self-describing messages, 
so that applications receiving the message can decipher and act 
upon its content regardless of data format. Developers supposedly 
do not have to be concerned with programming application-specific 
details into message headers in order for the receiving 
application to act upon it. 4.0 will be available on Unix, NT and 
OpenVMS this quarter. BEA's also revved the ObjectBroker object 
request broker it acquired from DEC at the same time to support 
MessageQ, meaning object application developers can choose 
between native Corba synchronous services in BEA ObjectBroker, or 
asynchronous BEA MessageQ. Use of asynchronous services means 
users can get on with other jobs while the message bus is 
delivering data between applications which can send, receive and 
process messages at their optimum speed. BEA ObjectBroker 3.0 is 
due on DEC Unix and Windows NT for Intel and Alpha RISC this 
quarter. Other Unix implementations will follow in the third 
quarter. The Desktop Connection middleware BEA picked up along 
with DECMessageQ and ObjectBroker is being offered as an optional 
ObjectBroker add-on for connecting Microsoft Corp's Distributed 
Communications Object Model (DCOM) and Object Management Group's 
Common Object Request Broker Architecture (Corba). Desktop 
Connection provides a bi-directional bridge between ActiveX 
containers and Corba objects managed by ObjectBroker (originally 
designed for use with DCOM), and functions by enabling ActiveX 
applications to access ObjectBroker objects and applications. BEA 
claims Desktop Connection's Windows95 Explorer-style interface 
enables corporate applications to be linked to Microsoft desktop 
applications such as Word and Excel without recoding - and 
without knowledge of Corba's Interface Definition Language - 
unlike other solutions which require the ObjectBroker server be 
made "ActiveX-aware." ObjectBroker object applications, data and 
business rules can be incorporated into custom client 
applications written in Visual Basic, Visual C++, Java and other 
programming tools. BEA ObjectBroker Desktop Connection 1.0 will 
be available this quarter for Windows 95, 3.1 and NT and connects 
to ObjectBroker running on Unix or NT. For good measure, BEA's 
also joined OMG as a contributing member, the highest level of 
membership. BEA is currently integrating Tuxedo with ObjectBroker 
to enable object and Tuxedo TP services to interoperate using 
IIOP. The integrated product is code-named Iceberg and is set to 
beta in the first quarter of 1998. BEA Tuxedo is already bundled 
by PeopleSoft Inc in version 6 of its resource planning 
applications where it provides online updates where users were 
previously limited to batch updating. PeopleSoft will open up its 
architecture to N-tier application processing in version 7 using 
BEA Tuxedo. It will also exploit BEA's host and IBM connectivity 
services and management APIs. The relationship will carry forward 
into PeopleSoft 8; BEA's already said it will continue to enhance 
PeopleSoft applications with its other technologies, presumably 
    including the Corba IIOP-based ObjectBroker and MessageQ services 
for object and asynchronous messaging support. Expect Tuxedo to 
be fitted with further object and message integration in the near 
future.