s. People can edit documents, add data from remote files, and print the final version, all from a browser still playing in the Java sandbox.
The system is not magic. You must install Epic on the same system as the HTTP server, and it requires access to an LDAP server through the network. It runs as a separate process on the HTTP server, sending out the applets to the client browsers on the network. Most browsers let applets running in the browser's own sandbox communicate with the applet's originating host. This is how you access network resources. The data travels to the HTTP server, which sends it to the right file server, printer, or other resource.
The software is a crucial step toward enabling network computers (
NCs), such as the ones from Oracle. In this realm, a user would need only a "thin" client running a Java-enabled Web browser such as Netscape Navigator 3.0. Corel is using Epic's layer to enable its applets to provide all necessary services on the Internet. Corel's suite of office applications will live as Java applets on an HTTP server in the office. A Java "kernel" from Novera will run on the same machine and provide the file and printing services.
At first glance, this approach sounds unwieldy. If you are running a word processor, your Java applet must connect remotely with Novera's kernel to save a copy of the file. However, this is not too different from what happens already when people save documents on a file server. It is also substantially more secure, because the client's browser treats the Java applet as untrusted code.
This extra layer of security can be useful in a corporate environment. For instance, Novera is also shipping a Java application for reading e-mail. You could use this to
ol to read your e-mail from any Java-capable browser that may be in a cybercafe, a bar, or an airport. The Epic kernel formats the e-mail data as a Java applet or HTML that is read directly from the distant browser. This client flexibility applies to all applications that are cooperating with the Epic kernel on an HTTP server.
There are limitations to this worldwide flexibility, however. The server dispensing the HTTP and Epic kernel data must be able to send its data without being impeded by a firewall. You can accomplish this by either reprogramming the firewall to let some packets through or locating the server outside the firewall. In many cases, the reprogramming is already in place, because many companies let HTTP requests through the firewall to run Web servers inside the secure perimeter.
Internetwork Services
If you use Epic in your office system, you must create two types of Java programs. The first type is the applets that do the work for you. These all come from the Java apple
t class and can make contact only with the host machine that gave them up. The second type consists of full-fledged applications written in Java. These provide the "services" or resources that the client applets need.
Novera has included all the major services in release 1.1, available for $7500. These services include Java applications for the expected file access, printing, and mail. Lower-level services include event swapping, time synchronization, and TCP/IP relaying of packets. You control access to these services, and those you write, by a management-and-lock service that controls who uses which applet when. Software developers can use this service to control the licenses for networks.
Epic also includes process management services that let you, for example, pass off work from the HTTP server to other servers with the message-passing services. You can use this to do heavy-duty database access or merely to balance the load on the HTTP server. Novera has clearly considered the needs of corpora
te IS managers.
Most IS managers will want to develop custom services for their in-house network. Novera ships two sets of skeleton classes. One offers the basic proxy communications that applets use and includes basic methods for creating connections with services running on the HTTP server. The other offers the basic methods for the application running as a service and accepts communications packets from the clients. You can use both class skeletons to whip up services quickly.
You may wonder why you need Novera's system. After all, you can use any Java development kit to write applets that communicate with the host on any port, and plenty of books show how to make your applet invoke its own HTTP or FTP sessions. One of the simplest methods is to write server applications as Common Gateway Interface (CGI) processors and have the applet communicate with them by passing the data as forms objects.
Writing your own CGI scripts and applets might produce most of the same functionality as Epic's
clients and services, but it would miss some of the ancillary services. Most programmers using Epic could easily add the buffering and other basic network management to their applets quickly. However, they would be hard-pressed to add extra features such as file management, access control, license management, and remote-server process initiation. When you add this to the built-in e-mail and database access, it is obvious that Novera's package is a good way to get a full office system up and running faster.
The Epic Saga
Adding resources such as printing and file management to a network of Java applets is a crucial step in the evolution of Java from a neat toy to a full-fledged environment. Epic provides an excellent set of features that many IS managers need to build a complete IS system for an office complex. The product should shine in environments where people need to get access to their office system from randomly placed, publicly accessible browsers in places such as airports. Java's secur
ity mechanism lets a distant browser act as a full-fledged, trusted terminal.
The OS will also shine in environments where many people use the same software. Centralized servers can control the software and prevent people from mucking up their own installation. On the other hand, offices with highly specialized machines (e.g., programming shops) may find themselves less interested in the highly centralized approach. Anyone who needs customization needs help from the system administrator.
Sun will also soon release a Java OS -- a stand-alone OS that can run on different platforms and will compete with the Epic solution. However, Epic will be preferable because it can run directly on top of Microsoft's Windows NT server software and leverage available NT services. A business can still run Microsoft-compatible software while using Epic for major applications, but enabling robust transactional applications may call for a significant investment in Microsoft products.
An interesting academic quest
ion is whether an office with a Novera network has a mainframe or a network of PCs. The latter collection may be tied together by a central server that controls which software you can run and exerts control over how it is run, making it like a mainframe. However, most of the Java computation is done on the local machine, meaning that people do not share computational resources too much. In fact, the central server can crash and come up again without disturbing many users. This makes it more like a network of PCs.
The result is a strange hybrid that may have many of the best features of both. Regardless of which perspective you apply, Epic is a neat idea.
Product Information
Epic 1.1.........................$7500
(Windows NT or Unix, HTTP and LDAP servers)
Novera Software, Inc. Burlington, MA
Phone: 617-270-4422
Fax: 617-270-0840
Internet:
http://www.novera.com
Enter 1007 on Inquiry Card.
Novera Composes Epic for Java
