JavaSoft borrows page from Visual Basic - Sun Microsystems' JavaBeans and Microsoft's Visual Basic ActiveX/DCOM component model - includes related article on developers supporting JavaBeans - Company Business and Marketing

Software Magazine, Feb, 1997 by George Lawton

JavaBeans is a component-based development model that may simplify the process of building distributed applications with reusable components. The initial spec and technology have already been delivered by JavaSoft and development tools are slated to appear in the first half of 1997. The big question: Will it make a dent in Microsoft's Visual Basic ActiveX/DCOM component model?

While early releases of Visual Basic were considered more toy than tool by most enterprise-class developers, in the six years since Release 1.0 appeared on the scene, Visual Basic has evolved into a first-class GUI development tool. Now it seems ready to evolve yet again, this time into a multi-tier component-based development tool for the enterprise.

How did Microsoft extend the once-pedestrian VB? A key step in its evolution came when Microsoft developed Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) and Component Object Model (COM) technologies, making Visual Basic a viable platform for component-based development. Last year's transformation of OLE into ActiveX, and COM into DCOM, improved VB's prospects further by opening the way to distributed object development -- the ne plus ultra of Internet-based network computing.

Now, one of Microsoft's fiercest rivals -- the JavaSoft division of Sun Microsystems Inc., Mountain View, Calif. -- is stealing a page from Microsoft's playbook by pursuing the same evolutionary course with Java via the development of JavaBeans.

JavaBeans is a portable, platform-independent component model written in Java. A chief advantage of Java is that it can run applications on every major computer platform. Whereas Microsoft components can only be run under Windows, JavaBeans can be deployed without modification on any platform equipped with a Java Virtual Machine. This will enable JavaBeans to act as a bridge between the many different component models that are springing up, including Microsoft's ActiveX/DCOM, IBM's and Apple's OpenDoc, the Object Management Group's Corba and Netscape's LiveConnect.

JavaBeans applications can be developed on a multiplicity of platforms as well. "Someone using two different development tools in his IT shop can develop jars for the JavaBeans [jars are containers for storing and managing JavaBeans during development and at runtime], and two separate programmers, one that likes VB and another that likes [another] development environment, can both use Beans in their applications," says Ed Zander, director of Enterprise Integration Programs at Software AG in Bellevue, Wash. "We can even have them calling each other with no thought to it. When we talk to an organization like a bank or telco, there is always the issue of standards. Those problems would all go away if we just used tools that can use beans and make beans."

The JavaBeans initiative was first announced in May 1996, when the specification was revealed for open comment and review. In October, the specification was frozen. The beta version of the development kit became available in December. An ActiveX bridge was expected in January 1997 and the first version of JavaBeans is expected to begin shipping sometime in the first quarter. Its development was supported by a number of industry partners, including Apple, Baan, Borland, Corel, IBM, Informix, Lotus, Netscape, Novell, Oracle, Sybase and Symantec.

JavaBeans allows developers to define separate components that can work together in an integrated fashion with applications that run across a wide variety of browser environments such as Hot Java, Netscape and Internet Explorer. They can also work in non-browser environments such as Visual Basic and Claris Works. The beans tend to be smaller than than full-fledged applets and are oriented more towards developers than casual end users. Developers would use them in the same way they would use a tool like Visual Basic to connect components into completed applications. They can be services, functions, graphical widgets and applets. Because they can use a network or the Internet, they do not need to run within the same application, or even the same computer, to communicate.

This property will simplify the development of components that work together over the Internet. For example, a bank Might develop an applet that allows a customer to calculate his net worth. They could develop another applet to chart that net worth over time, without making any modifications or changes to the first applet. A loan-processing company could then develop a third applet that would calculate the customer's eligibility for a loan by using the results generated by the net worth application. These applets could communicate over the Internet using encryption to guarantee the security and authenticity of the data.

In addition, other third parties could add connections to these applets to drive data into their existing applications. For example, a financial accounting software company like Intuit could write a JavaBean for Quicken that automatically communicates with the bank to better synchronize a customer's checkbook with his actual bank balance.