IBM Announces Third Release of Industry-Leading SanFrancisco Application Components
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Armonk, NY (September 29, 1998) – Today IBM announced the third release of its IBM SanFrancisco* application business components for Java**. With this new release developers can now rapidly build Accounts Receivable/Accounts Payable applications, as well as simultaneously track transactions in multiple currencies, which is essential for applications that support the new Euro currency.
In addition, IBM has expanded platform support and made performance and usability enhancements to previously released SanFrancisco application components. IBM SanFrancisco is a Java-based collection of components that allows developers to assemble applications from existing parts, rather than build from scratch.
Release 1.3 Features and Additional Platform Support
The SanFrancisco Accounts Receivable/Accounts Payable framework provides a sound architecture and extensible, object-oriented implementation. As a result, developers can build financial applications much quicker and easier. The framework supports features such as ledger types, ledger accounts, log items, ledger items, installments, collection documents, allocations, payments and revaluation.
The new Accounts Receivable/Accounts Payable framework tightly integrates with the General Ledger framework that IBM shipped with its initial release last year. Both General Ledger and Accounts Payable/Receivable, like all SanFrancisco frameworks, are Year 2000-ready.
Previously available on AIX*, Windows NT** and OS/400*, SanFrancisco has expanded platform support to include Sun Solaris**, HP-UX** and Siemens Reliant UNIX** platforms using the Oracle database to provide single phase transaction support.
“IBM’s SanFrancisco is unique in the industry. No other company today offers software developers and enterprise customers pre-tested, reusable Java components that provide the basis for rapidly building e-business applications with content from IBM and our partners,” said John Swainson, general manager, Application and Integration Middleware, IBM Software Group. “SanFrancisco enables developers to compete more effectively in today’s marketplace, while broadening their market opportunity.”
SanFrancisco, WebSphere and VisualAge for Java: A Winning Combination
Recent announcements from IBM have created an unmatched portfolio of products to build, deploy and manage e-business applications. Last week IBM announced the integration of its industry-leading transactional server technologies into a unified WebSphere* family of Web application servers.
The expanded WebSphere family brings together the Web server, transaction processing, Web commerce and distributed component technologies of IBM’s WebSphere Application Server, TXSeries*, Net.Commerce* and Component Broker* products. The family of WebSphere Application Servers is designed to meet the different needs of customers building e-business applications, from simple Web publishing to enterprise-scale transaction processing .
IBM’s VisualAge* for Java development tool is the only integrated Java development environment that supports the development of Java applications that can scale from Windows NT to OS/390* enterprise servers. VisualAge for Java V2.0 also incorporates authoring “wizards” that are custom-built for working with SanFrancisco business components, making it simpler for developers to extend SanFrancisco frameworks to business applications.
IBM SanFrancisco offers customers pre-tested, reusable components that provide application content to deploy on any of these servers. Since this entire product line is built on Java and converging to support the Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) programming model, customers will be able to easily move an application “upstream” as their quality of service requirements dictate.
SanFrancisco Enhancements to Existing Frameworks
Each element of SanFrancisco — the Foundation, Common Business Objects, Graphical User Interface (GUI) Framework, General Ledger, Warehouse Management and Order Management frameworks — have been enhanced. Highlights of these enhancements include:
Faster performance by implementing reduced path length in Foundation
Usability continues to be a focus area for Release 1.3. Examples include several GUI framework enhancements, additional documentation, and additional samples that demonstrate SanFrancisco function and usage
Additional Common Business Objects JavaBeans samples, along with a component catalog and authoring “wizards” to enable developers to easily generate JavaBeans
New functions added to Order Management framework: support for back-to-back orders, quotes, replanning, shipment, stock movement, credit sales, multi-client support, and direct sales
Warehouse Management framework adds new function to support quality control, replanning, shipment, stock take, multi-client support, and “product kit” definitions
All elements of SanFrancisco, including the new Accounts Payable/Receivable framework, feature run time National Language Support for English, German, French, Italian, Spanish and Japanese.
Enhanced Support and Educational Resources
In addition, 18 months of technical support is now provided to new Solution Developers (ISVs) as well as 12 months of technical support to all new end-user customers at no charge.
IBM provides a range of educational courses to help developers gain familiarity with both object oriented programming in Java, and how to reap the most benefit from working with SanFrancisco. IBM offers partners these courses through its worldwide Solution Partnership Centers, as well as at new San Francisco Technology Centers that have been established in LaHulpe, Belgium, Austin, TX, and Tokyo, Japan. Information about class schedules and course materials are available online at http://www.ibm.com/java/sanfrancisco.
Additionally, several examples of integrating SanFrancisco-built applications with Lotus* products are available from SF Technical Marketing Support. To request these materials, send an e-mail to sanfran@us.ibm.com.
Future Directions and EJB Support
As with all its middleware and server products, IBM will migrate SanFrancisco to support EJB, as the specification continues to take shape. This will allow SanFrancisco business objects, frameworks and applications to run on a wide range of server infrastructures in addition to the SanFrancisco Foundation infrastructure, and the WebSphere family of Web application servers.
Developers can begin building distributed applications using SanFrancisco today. As EJB matures to offer function equivalent to SanFrancisco, IBM will add native interfaces to SanFrancisco, making it possible to easily migrate SanFrancisco applications to an EJB base.
Source: IBM