Following its Netscape Communications Corp catch late last year Roger Sippl’s Visigenic Software Inc has landed a second big fish for its distributed object technology. Oracle Corp yesterday fleshed out its Corba-with-everything strategy by licensing Visigenic’s Java and C++ object request brokers which it will integrate into its products and to resell to customers and ISVs. It’s also licensing Visigenic’s VisiBridge connectivity tool – formerly known as VisiBroker for ActiveX Bridge – that enables Corba objects to be accessed from Microsoft Corp ActiveX controls implemented in web pages, Visual Basic applications or OLE-enabled applications. Oracle will use the Visigenic technology to begin to fulfill its NCA Network Computing Architecture vision of enabling any network computer, PC or other client to interact with any web, application or database server over the web. Oracle plans to NCA-enable all of its products over time. Oracle will integrate the Visigenic technology into its Web Application Server, database server and tools, but isn’t saying when that work will be complete. Oracle says the Visigenic brokers will provide a low-level, full-blown Corba programming environment for developers, though it will continue to provide its higher-level Web Request Broker technology that enables users to conduct persistent database transactions over the web. Developers will use the brokers to create applications, called cartridges, that will work with NCA products, including Web Application Server, as well as the forthcoming object-based Oracle 8 database and Sedona development tools. It will also offer Visigenic’s Caffeine development tool that allows VisiBroker for Java developers to write Corba objects in Java rather than IDL.
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