Newsletter sign-up

View all newsletters

Sign up for our technology specific newsletters.

Enterprise Java

Email Address:

Oracle redefines the balance of power

Database giant's Network Computing Architecture makes it a real player in the intranet

By William Blundon, JavaWorld.com, 11/01/96

Page 2 of 3

The principal building blocks of NCA are standard clients, pluggable components, common services, common management tools, and a sophisticated mechanism for inter-component communication. The most innovative features of the architecture are its Universal Application Server and compatible components (or cartridges), a software bus (or backplane) for inter-component communications, and a set of shared services.

Oracle's Universal Application Server is a middle-tier platform for linking Web servers to applications and databases. The Application Server is designed to dynamically generate HTML-formatted data in real time. The Application Server will prove important to many Intranet developers because it provides a more efficient Intranet interface than CGI (common gateway interface) for connecting to corporate databases and it will let developers plug in nearly any database, application, or Web server via a cartridge.

A cartridge is a logic component (or object) programmable in a number of major languages (Java, SQL, C/C++, and Visual Basic). These components plug into a software bus that provides cartridges with access to clients, servers, shared services, and other components. Cartridges have access to Universal Cartridge Services for installation, registration, instantiation, innovation, administration, monitoring, and security. In addition to these universal services, cartridges have access to scalable and specialized services through a software bus called Inter-Cartridge Exchange (ICX).

ICX is an object bus that enables cartridges to communicate with each other across a distributed network. It can use both native IIOP and HTTP interfaces, making whatever translations necessary to cross between different environments like CORBA and DCOM. ICX is implemented as a set of libraries that reside on each networked computer. Through ICX, cartridges have access to other cartridges, clients, servers, and services.

With ICX, ActiveX/COM clients communicate with cartridges via a bridge, Java communicates through CORBA and IIOP, and integration of mainframe systems is done through encapsulation of legacy interfaces. While these interfaces will provide an acceptable foundation for building distributed applications, Network Computing Architecture provides additional services that extend HTTP and IIOP/CORBA.

Scalable cartridge services such as transactions, messaging and queuing, and data access through existing database interfaces are provided. Cartridges also have access to specialized cartridge services that are host-dependent. Data cartridges in a database server have access to extensible database services, application server cartridges have access to distribution and load management services, and client cartridges can connect with standard user-interface protocols.

The standard Web Request Broker comes with three cartridges with interfaces for Java, PL/SQL, and live HTML. Other standard cartridges are available from Oracle, and an open interface is provided to enable other software companies and VARs to integrate their tools and applications. Database services include an extensible query optimizer, an extensible set of access methods, database administration facilities, and a large set of standard data types.

 

Improve efficiency with Visual Studio(r) 2010 Beta 2. - Microsoft

About Us | Advertise | Contact Us | Terms of Service/Privacy

Copyright, 2006-2008 Network World, Inc. All rights reserved.