WebLogic Server 9.2 adds several tweaks designed to bolster uptime. Specifically, it adds the ability to add or subtract nodes to a cluster running WebLogic Server without having to take the system down.
And it adds the capability to hot swap different versions of an app without taking the system down. This capability, critical when migrating from one version to the next or adding patches, might be taken for granted with conventional transaction systems run in high availability environments, but it is unusual in the Java middle tier.
The new round of releases also bring Eclipse 3.1 compatibility to WebLogic Workshop, BEA’s original development tool. This is not to be confused with BEA’s Workshop Studio that came from last fall’s M7 acquisition, which added support for the latest Java EE features and already was Eclipse-based.
BEA says that it’s still committed to merging the two tools, with Workshop’s new Eclipse 3.1 support being the first step. In other words, both share a common IDE that is based on the Eclipse Web Tools Project. According to a BEA spokesperson, the company is progressively integrating the rest of the products over the course of this year.
The final piece in this week’s releases is the addition of several features to WebLogic Portal. Like the Workshop offerings, this is another area where BEA has separate product lines that have yet to be converged (the other portal, which came as part of the Plumtree acquisition, is part of the AquaLogic family).
The new version of WebLogic Portal is still WebLogic Portal. But it adds support for WSRP (Web Services Remote Portlets), a standard that is supported by most players except Microsoft. With WSRP, WebLogic and AquaLogic portals will be able to share portlets.
BEA is also introducing several templates for portlet building and claims that other tweaks will improve portal performance by 35%.
