Java gets serious with RAD - rapid application development - Technology Information

Will the first wave of Java RAD tools jolt the Net's user community into developing more complex business applications? Critics say the tools are too immature, but early adopters are moving ahead with data access applications.

Providing up-to-the-minute medical information and services to 12,000 faculty members working in 20 geographically dispersed medical organizations is a project most IS managers would not want to undertake. Faced with this problem, Dan Moriarty, associate dean for information technology at Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, Mass., turned to the Internet. "Compelling business reasons for adoption of an Internet-based solution are not very frequent," says Moriarty. "However, supporting all those remote users with interactive applications would have been a very difficult task using conventional client/server technology. Our unique situation motivated us to use the Internet."

New though it is, Internet-based processing is generating much interest within the IS community. Development tools vendors have responded with a wave of Java RAD (rapid application development) tools, promising to make Java applet development a point-and-click proposition. Early adopters are building data access applications, and most agree that industrial-strength transaction processing applications won't result until the tools mature further.

In fact, finding a Java-generating tool that provided security, good session management, error correction and recovery proved quite difficult, according to Moriarty. "A number of the tools were idiosyncratic and inconsistent -- in a word, immature," he says. Moriarty finally settled on NetDynamics from NetDynamics Inc., Menlo Park, Calif., formerly Spider Technologies Inc. He liked the fact that NetDynamics targeted the Web with its product, rather than adding Web capability to an existing product.

Moriarty's first project using NetDynamics was to build a system enabling faculty members to access the profiles of students enrolled in the medical school. "With thousands of students rotating through the different training organizations, accessing this type of information becomes crucial for the faculty," Moriarty explains.

The Java application runs on a Web server that accesses the student data, which resides on a Sybase database accessible by OpenSQL commands. The Sybase relational DBMS maintains security over the information and provides some stored procedures for generating ad hoc queries.

So far, performance of the Student Profile System has not been a problem, Moriarty says. "However, when 5,000 members of the faculty start using the application in the fall term, our performance may deteriorate. We may decide to add more servers if that happens."

Like most of the Internet-based applications written so far, Harvard Medical School's system consists mainly of inquiries, with some updating of student grades and course descriptions. This kind of workload is typical of most applications selected for Java development, which is not surprising, considering the newness of the language and the tools.

An evolution is underway, however. Evan Quinn, research manager at International Data Corp. (IDC), Framing- ham, Mass., finds that Internet use is starting to advance beyond the first phase, which dealt with preparation of HTML-based documents and clever browsers. "Now we are beginning to see a second level of use with Java tools for data access," says Quinn. "These data-centered applications, such as the dynamic presentation of a newspaper's real estate pages, utilize a two-tiered architecture, which provides the client with access to a database."

The third phase, according to Quinn, will encompass transaction processing applications, capable of handling monetary transactions. These systems will be enterprise-level applications, such as materials processing or customer billing applications.

However, many claim that developing these heavy-duty applications will be impossible until Java systems are more reliable, recoverable and secure. "Java is still immature," says Michael Foody, president of Visual Edge Software Ltd., St. Laurent, Quebec, Canada. "Developing polished graphical user interface front ends with Java is difficult because the ability to interface with servers, their menus and buttons is just not there. Additionally, enterprise-wide systems require guaranteed delivery message systems and so far, Java has no such capability."

Foody adds that Java may well find a niche in the business world, providing dynamic access to insurance rate tables and the like. But for now, he says, Java tools don't have the high level of support necessary for production work in the corporate environment.

For his part, Hans Jespersen, a senior systems engineer at Tibco Inc., a Palo, Alto, Calif.-based inde- pendent subsidiary of Reuters Holdings Plc., doesn't blame Java for Internet insecurities. Tibco, which makes messaging software, is using JClass Table and JClass Table Applet from Toronto-based KL Group Inc. to develop a realtime table manipulation application that will operate over an internal network.

"Java is not the problem," Jespersen argues. "A developer can easily write fault-tolerant code in the language. The real problem is the anarchy of the Internet itself." Jespersen tries to protect himself and his users from the vicissitudes of the Net by using a TCP/IP-based intranet to provide the controlled and secure environment needed to run more complex business applications.

Another Java proponent, Ginny Schmidt, a senior software engineer for Lockheed Martin, Seabrook, Md., is using Java to develop a medical imaging and archiving system. This intranet application will store X-rays and other medical images on optical disk. The images can be retrieved when matched with identifying patient information that has been entered and stored on an Oracle database.

Schmidt and company are developing the medical system with the help of the Builder Xcessory tool from Integrated Computer Solutions Inc., Cambridge, Mass. According to Schmidt, Builder Xcessory's drag-and-drop components and window design features are productivity aids. "The generated code can run on a variety of Unix and PC platforms. The portability of Java is one of its big benefits," she adds.

Recognizing Java's potential, most development tool vendors in the client/server arena are making some effort to be Java-compatible. For its part, Microsoft Corp., Redmond, Wash., has already released a beta version of Visual J++, its Java integrated development environment (IDE). Meanwhile, Borland International Inc., Scotts Valley, Calif., has scheduled a third quarter release of its Latte rapid application development tool for Java. And of course, Sun Microsystems Inc., Mountain View, Calif., is continuing to support its fledgling with its Java Workshop development aid.

IDC's Quinn cites Symantec Cafe from Symantec Corp., Cupertino, Calif., as an early leader in the Java IDE field. Symantec's Visual Cafe, still in test, will offer a new line of Windows- and Macintosh-based RAD tools for Java, including drag-and-drop capabilities, a library of reusable components and database tools.

Meanwhile, Sybase Inc.'s Powersoft Division, Concord, Mass., offers its Optima product line, visual RAD tools that support both Java and C++. Optima Developer was released last May; Optima's Professional and Enterprise products are scheduled for release before year-end.

These tools have not been in the workplace long enough for customers to have put them through their paces, however. Many users are in experimental stages, writing prototypes or pilot systems. For example, Bill Fredericks, senior consultant and principal at TFP Systems, Lancaster, Pa., is using a beta version of Vision/Web from Unify Corp., Sacramento, Calif., in a proof-of-concept project for a large financial institution.

"Our goal is to determine the feasibility of using the Web to inform the public of the products and services offered by a major financial institution," he says. In Fredericks' scenario, Unify's Vision/Web creates the Java applet that will connect over the Internet to a distributed application that, in turn, accesses the financial institution's database. "Right now, there is no connectivity between Java and the database. However, Unify is planning to publish an application programming interface later this year," Fredericks adds.

Despite enthusiasm from Java advocates, the technology's immaturity is causing many firms to limit its usage. The near future will not see any rush to deploy critical business systems on the Web. "Cor- porations are basically conservative in nature," says IDC's Quinn. "Before committing their mission-critical systems to the Java development arena, CIOs will require sophisticated load-balancing capabilities, wide geographical reach and high levels of security. In addition, there is some distrust for the Version 1.0 development tools currently available." Production of heavy-duty, Internet-based applications will have to wait until the development tools are more mature.

The good news is that intranet-based systems with their secure firewalls and closed networks will provide higher degrees of control over the processing environment. These networks may see some transaction processing applications as early as 1997. Says Quinn, "Many organizations on the supply side of the IS industry see the Web's problems as opportunities. Solutions to those problems may be available in a surprisingly short time."

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