The IBM Application Web Server for Java (Bojangles) is an IBM technology preview. It provides extensions to standards-based web servers to deliver the foundation for a robust, transaction-oriented Java server platform. In particular, Bojangles provides a collection of Java classes that implement a Business Object Framework and provides a communications infrastructure based on OMG’s CORBA/IIOP (Common object Request Broker Architecture/Internet Inter-ORB Protocol) specifications.
The Bojangles environment is the next step in the evolution of Internet computing. It focuses on incorporating objects into Internet- or Intranet-based network computing to enable 3-tier client/server business solutions. Java is rapidly becoming the defacto industry standard language for network computing application development. It provides a cross platform, "write once, deploy anywhere" object environment that adds distributed object computing to the Web. In addition, the industry is extending the Java class libraries to provide access to existing enterprise data.
Today web servers provide a variety of mechanisms to extend the web server environment including the industry standard Common Gateway Interface (CGI) and proprietary APIs such as Netscape's NSAPI or Microsoft's ISAPI. As the focus of Java development has shifted to the server, web servers have started to provide mechanisms to launch Java applications (servlets) within their server environment.
There has also been a growing interest in technologies to enable distributed Java solutions. Much of the focus has been on technologies to incorporate Java into existing distributed object environments such as the standards-based CORBA/IIOP environment and Microsoft's proprietary ActiveX/DCOM environment. In addition, there is great interest in the industry in enabling both Java and native HTTP access to existing application and data management systems. Bojangles integrates and extends all these concepts by establishing an object method invocation environment within the web server environment.
This technology is applicable to a variety of environments both within IBM and across the industry that support HTTP, and with this foundation, business application frameworks can now be developed utilizing the emerging Java Class Library Extensions (data access, security, etc.) and the standards-based distributed object infrastructure of CORBA/IIOP within an enterprise-wide or global web.
The installation instructions below can be used to create install Bojangles in a Netscape web server environment or as a standalone development toolkit.