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XML and Web Services In The News - 04 April 2006
Provided by OASIS |
Edited by Robin Cover
This issue of XML.org Daily Newslink is sponsored by SAP
HEADLINES:
Iona Releases New Version of Its ESB
Darryl K. Taft, eWEEK
Dublin, Ireland-based Iona announced Artix 4.0 on April 3, claiming
that the new Enterprise Service Bus improves customers' ability to adopt
service-oriented architectures into their IT environment. New
enhancements in Artix include improved service orchestration, reliable
messaging, JMS (Java Message Service) support, new data services and
improvements to the product's mainframe support. Artix 4.0 features BPEL
(Business Process Execution Language)-based orchestration to allow
customers to coordinate interactions across a distributed set of
services in mission-critical, heterogeneous environments, said Eric
Newcomer, chief technology officer at Iona. In addition, Artix 4.0
supports WS-RM (WS-ReliableMessaging), delivering standards-based
reliable messaging using SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) messages
over HTTP. The new version of Artix also ships with support for JMS as
a standard messaging API. Artix 4.0 adds new data services capabilities,
and data resources can be manipulated and queries changed via the Artix
Eclipse-based development environment.
See also: BPEL references
Four ESBs that Won't Cramp Your Style
Lori MacVittie, Intelligent Enterprise
Reader interest in enterprise service bus systems is on the upswing, so
we set off on a collaborative journey with our sister publication,
Network Computing, to gain hands-on insight. Our coverage focuses on
service-oriented modeling, mapping and registry integration, while
Network Computing's coverage concentrates on IT needs and concerns. The
team at Network Computing's Green Bay, Wis., business applications lab
installed and tested ESB suites from eight vendors: BEA Systems, IBM,
Cape Clear, Fiorano Software, Oracle, Sonic Software, Software AG and
TIBCO. Some 13 vendors were invited to participate, but Microsoft,
PolarLake, Sun Microsystems and WebMethods declined, and Iona's Artix 4
wasn't released until after testing was completed. Where BPEL 1.1
support was offered (very limited in our evaluation), we exported and
imported between products to evaluate compatibility. We required each
ESB to be both a consumer and producer of Web Services, and we used the
development of services and inclusion of external services to evaluate
integration and use of a registry/ repository. We also examined the
integration features available for common needs, such as database and
application integration. Products varied widely in this last respect,
confirming the current perception that ESB is an emerging technology
that has yet to be clearly defined.
IBM Makes Broad SOA Rollout
Paul Krill, InfoWorld
Building on its SOA emphasis, IBM has unveiled a slew of WebSphere
software and professional services intended to overcome "barriers" to
SOA success. These barriers were listed by IBM as making determinations
on doing an SOA, avoiding additional costs and ensuring that
investments are allocated toward a business strategy that will
withstand market fluctuations and company changes. Products being
introduced include WebSphere Portal Version 6.0, which integrates IBM
Workplace and collaborative technologies to make it easier to build
composite applications for specific industries, roles or tasks. The
product utilizes AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) to provide a
more responsive user environment. WebSphere Application Server Version
6.1, features SIP (session initiation protocol) servlets to reduce the
complexity of an SOA as it grows, and instant messaging. Security also
has been improved to include default configurations and a default user
registry for identity management. Other new products being introduced
include new releases of the WebSphere ESB and WebSphere Message Broker,
to boost service connectivity. The IBM WebSphere Service Registry and
Repository, meanwhile, is being featured for managing metadata around
services.
See also: the announcement
Update for XML Schema 1.1 Part 1: Structures
H. Thompson, C.M. Sperberg-McQueen, et al. (eds), W3C Working Draft
W3C's XML Schema Working Group has released an updated Working Draft
for "XML Schema 1.1 Part 1: Structures." XML Schema: Structures
specifies the XML Schema definition language, which offers facilities
for describing the structure and constraining the contents of XML
documents, including those which exploit the XML Namespace facility.
The schema language, which is itself represented in XML and uses
namespaces, substantially reconstructs and considerably extends the
capabilities found in XML document type definitions (DTDs). The 'Part 1:
Structures' specification depends on XML Schema 1.1 Part 2: Datatypes.
Major changes since the previous draft include: (1) support for XML
1.1 has been added -- it is now implementation defined whether
datatypes dependent on definitions in the XML Recommendation(s) and
Namespaces in XML use the definitions as found in version 1.1 or
version 1.0 of those specifications; (2) correction of an error
relating to the construction of union types from other union types;
(3) a {context} property has been defined for the definitions of
complex and of simple types; (4) appeals to the canonical forms of
values have been eliminated; (5) addition of a note warning that the
replace and collapse values for whitespace handling are not a reliable
means of neutralizing the effects of word-wrapping and pretty-printing
of natural-language data...
See also: the W3C news item
Oracle Versus SAP: The Gathering SOA Storm
Marshall Lager, destinationCRM.com
Oracle and SAP will move into closer and closer competition as they
continue rolling out their competing SOA application platforms, trying
to make their respective standards-Fusion middleware and Business
Process Platform (BPP)-the preferred one for the future of business
software. Forrester Research's report, "Oracle Versus SAP in Enterprise
Applications: Let the Battle of Architectures Begin," explains how the
two apps giants are taking different paths to reaching the same goal.
SAP's BPP, the technology underlying mySAP Business Suite 2007, is
ahead of Oracle Fusion in terms of release schedule; BPP will build
through internal development and partnerships, but is closing off the
middleware layer of its platform; SAP's apps will run only on its own
middleware. In contrast, Oracle's Fusion middleware architecture will
continue to grow by acquisition, as Oracle continues the trend it set
in 2005 of buying the technologies it needs to build out Fusion.
Oracle's next-generation enterprise applications will run only on the
company's databases, which have been its core business. SOA projects
like BPP and Fusion are a response by vendors to customer demands for
agility, interoperability, and business process capabilities in their
enterprise systems. Open standards allow rival systems to work together,
with the capabilities inherent in the integration platform itself
being the selling point.
Sendmail Sets Sights on Open Source
Peter Galli, eWEEK
Messaging company Sendmail is looking at open-sourcing more of its
technologies, including its commercial administration tool, Sendmail
Switch MTA, and its Sendmail Mailstream Manager. The process of
identifying products suitable for open sourcing is at an early stage
and will likely take three to four more months to complete. This is
because Sendmail is looking at how best to ensure those products can
be maintained going forward and what the value-add is likely to be.
Sendmail, headquartered in Emeryville, Calif., is also looking to
create some policy tools that help leverage its mail store, which
holds e-mail, voice and instant messages, and which allows searching
across the platforms. Part of Sendmail's strategy is to partner with
other companies to provide a more comprehensive solution for customers.
The company has already licensed e-mail firewall patents from
Tumbleweed Communications and has held talks with other messaging
companies such as Scalix, which could potentially front-end its store.
Sendmail is announcing that its e-mail control and management products
will be available under the ECOSys banner going forward.
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