BEA Has Work To Do In Weblogic Integration

At the root of the problem is the complexity of the Java language, which remains an issue even though BEA, San Jose, Calif., has developed some brilliant mechanisms to avoid the low-level requirements the J2EE architecture demands.

For example, the Java Web Services (JWS) in WebLogic Integration 8.1's Workshop developer environment offer strong support for loosely coupled application connectivity. All of the bridging logic in a Web service remains fixed, regardless of any changes made to an application, and BEA's tagging meta-language has made the JWS coding as easy to use as JavaServer Pages.

The tagging of business logic has also made the JWS container a powerhouse unrivaled in the industry because it can create message-driven Enterprise Java Beans (EJBs) by generating hundreds of lines of code automatically without developer interaction.

Workshop's JWS is also helping to glue together coarsely grained processes faster than ever before.

Since most enterprise systems have multiple resource and application dependencies and rely on many applications across numerous platforms, the JWS architecture can act as the bridge between data resources and applications. What's more, by exposing an entire business system as a Web service, processes can be developed rapidly and be more autonomous.

WebLogic Integration 8.1's framework is all about creating and using controls to automate tasks between systems and users. By using icons similar to those in business process management software to represent controls and process nodes, WebLogic Integration 8.1 has opened the floodgates for application developers who are not Java experts and for legacy developers that never made the jump to Java.

The Test Center believes that the success of WebLogic Integration 8.1 will depend on how much complexity those controls can manage. Giving corporate developers the ability to write higher-level code, without requiring them to debug low-level J2EE code, leads to better market penetration of the new framework.

WebLogic Integration 8.1's design time and runtime code abstraction simplify resource handling, but some of the code constructs need to be developed further. Unlike Visual Basic's controls, WebLogic Integration 8.1's custom controls are still primitive and require considerable knowledge of Java. Several ISVs, however, provide canned controls to solve the problem.

Since WebLogic Integration 8.1 makes only some simple access methods available to the custom control, most of the code must be created by the application developer. If coding in low-level Java is what BEA wants to help developers avoid, the company should expand its library of controls and make as many as possible free to use. That way, app developers would have access not only to those controls but also to the ones that ISVs are developing for BEA.

But WebLogic Integration 8.1 does come bundled with some of the controls required for J2EE applications to function. In addition, the default control library is the workhorse of the product and includes Data Transforms, EJBs, Java Message Service and Web services. Developers can build on top of these controls and use them as a communication layer between resources. Business code can then be constructed by relying heavily on process nodes rather than complex controls.

Process nodes are simple constructs such as looping, conditional statements and process executions that direct the flow of an app. WebLogic Integration 8.1 has wizards that help developers add logic to a process node without having to add much coding.

WebLogic Integration 8.1 excels at how it treats XML and non-XML data. By separating the implementation of individual elements from the actual files, any data resource can be accessed the same way by a control. By adding tokens to unstructured files, WebLogic Integration 8.1's mapper can generate an XML view of the file at the control. And because Java objects can be mapped into XML, multiple data transformations can be mixed into one output.

Every resource that's accessible by WebLogic Integration 8.1 becomes part of a control. In other words, the maps become operations of a control. Since everything has a common representation, WebLogic Integration 8.1 uses the XQuery language to manage not only XML files but also any unstructured file or Java objects. At runtime, the XQuery engine processes those maps.

The next logical step for BEA might be to add app monitoring tools that track processes and provide performance-based metrics to developers and managers.

CHANNEL PROGRAM SNAPSHOTS
>BEA WEBLOGIC INTEGRATION 8.1
PRICE: $850
MARGIN: 10 percent to 15 percent
WARRANTY: 90 days
DISTRIBUTORS: Direct from vendor
TECH RATING:

CHANNEL RATING:

CHANNEL OVERVIEW: BEA Systems provides free technical training seats, licenses and technical support to partners using or selling WebLogic Integration 8.1. Regional account mangers offer addition training and assistance. BEAm Sanjose, Calif., provides sales materials, technical resources and training via its PartnerNet site and online community. WebLogic Integration 8.1 is currently shipping. --Michael Gros

Note: Vendors can earn up to five stars for technical merit and five for their channel program. If the average of these two scores is four stars or greater, the product earns CRN Test Center Recommended status.