Vendors bolster XML integration tools

By John Cox
Network World, 04/16/01

NEW YORK - New tools for XML-based data integration and application development took center stage at last week's XML DevCon conference.

X-Aware unveiled Version 2.0 of Avantio, which has been billed as a "virtual" XML database. Avantio stores no data, but rather acts as an XML overlay on data residing in back-end databases such as Oracle and Sybase, and through third-party software, with mainframe databases and enterprise applications such as SAP and Siebel.

A data administrator uses Avantio's new graphical interface to identify back-end database rows and columns from different databases, which can be dragged and dropped into an XML template. When a client application that can send or receive XML requests the data, Avantio uses what X-Aware calls "connectors" to access the target database. The requested data is formatted according to the template's guidelines and returned to the application.

"We are an additional software layer," acknowledges Kirstan Vandersluis, CTO at X-Aware, of Colorado Springs. "But we perform very well. On a 700-MHz-based server, we can do over 2,000 Oracle [database] inserts per second. That's a lot."

The new version includes a complete graphical tool set, new connectors to support FTP and HTTP, and an interface to access custom data sources. X-Aware is creating an Enterprise JavaBean that will let Java components on a Java application server, such as BEA WebLogic, call Avantio, which can then access the data sources on their behalf. Developers can use a set of X-Aware Java class libraries to build an interface to Avantio.

Available now, Avantio 2.0 runs on Windows NT and 2000. Pricing starts at about $10,000 for all elements and connections to four data sources.

Also shown at XML DevCon:

InfoShark of Chantilly, Va., announced XMLShark 3.1, which uses XML to exchange data among a range of popular third-party databases. New features include single-keystroke replication of databases; an HTML interface that lets users view subsets of data sources with Internet Explorer and then save data to an Excel or HTML file; and the capability to move objects such as diagrams as attachments.

Data Access Technologies unveiled Component-X, a set of XML-based graphical tools, ready-to-use components for building Web services, and adapters to connect with a range of middleware software products. The development environment supports emerging protocols such as Simple Object Access Protocol and ebXML, as well as component models such as Microsoft .Net, J2EE and Common Object Request Broker Architecture. Component-X components are based on the ebXML component model, which is a standard for complex electronic business data exchanges. They use XML to interconnect with each other.