Oracle Claims Java Tools Will Scale for Enterprises

Computergram International, May 11, 1999

Oracle Corp is hoping to revitalize its flagging software development tools business with two new Java tools and updates of its existing Developer and Designer software. At the Oracle iDevelop event, which began on Monday in Burlingame, California, Oracle announced the beta release of its Business Components for Java tool, intended to enable Java developers to reuse and customize the same business logic across multiple applications, and J Developer 2, which it claims is the fist tool to deliver complete support for server side Java standards. Oracle's third quarter results, posted in mid-March, showed negative growth for its tools business, down 12% from the same quarter last year.

Business Components for Java, expected to ship before the end of the year, is a set of Java application framework classes and wizards designed to speed up development and support high-end systems. It uses the XML extensible markup language for managing an application's metadata, making application customization possible by editing XML code. It executes inside the database, and uses Oracle's JServer included within the Oracle 8i database. Applications can be deployed across multiple platforms using standard APIs such as Enterprise JavaBeans and Corba.

JDeveloper 2.0, which shipped yesterday in its production release, also supports JServer, and is the first tool to support the complete development lifecycle for building, debugging and deploying Enterprise JavaBeans, according to Oracle. With the DB Servlets Wizard, the process of building database servlets is also automated. Oracle said the tool offers the most productive way to create and deploy Java stored procedures in Oracle 8i. It supports Java2 and has a set of Foundation Classes directly linked to the InfoBus standard, a Java API intended to enable cooperating applets or JavaBeans components to exchange structured data.

In other announcements, Oracle launched updated versions of its existing tools. Developer 6.0 has a new Java user interface, and the server includes firewall support via HTTP1.1. Designer 6.0 supports the new Developer features, for model-driven development. Reports 6.0 is web-enabled and integrated Oracle's Express and Discoverer business intelligence tools. And WebDB 2.0 is a browser-based tool for end users and web developers to build dynamic web applications and data-driven web sites.

Oracle also says it will move towards a full web-based build-to-order distribution model over the next year, a saving of $500m on distribution and sales costs, according to Larry Ellison. "The only way to order software will be from our web site" said Ellison. The direct sales force at Oracle will concentrate on more complex sales, he said. An area of Oracle's Technology Network for Partners has been set aside for ISVs building applications for resale.

Oracle also introduced a MIPS-based pricing model - dependent on the power and size of the server rather than number of users - which fits its emphasis on using internet clients for its front-end software, where an exact number of users is not always possible to calculate.