The registry will support version 3 of both the ebXML (Electronic Business XML) and UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration) standards.
By releasing the registry beta now, Sun is hoping to seed the developer community in advance of the Q4 release of the Java Enterprise System version 4, which will include the registry in its various editions.
In so doing, Sun is following Microsoft, which already has a basic UDDI registry included with Windows Server 2003, and third parties such as Systinet, SOA Software, and Infravio that offer deeper functioned best-of-breed products.
Of the bunch, Sun’s registry most closely resembles a lighter version of Infravio because of the ebXML support. ebXML was an early standard that was much broader than UDDI, because it attempted to cover much of the trading partner and contract management provisions of EDI (electronic data interchange), an early form of electronic commerce that automated the exchange of routine shipping documents between trading partners.
As such, it is a bit more mature than UDDI, because it also includes features like version control, but is far less popular for deployment of web services because of its greater complexity. Today, ebXML usage is primarily confined to the public sector, with most registry products supporting the now more mainstream UDDI.
As currently packaged, JES includes components such as the former NetBeans appserver, webserver, identity management, access control, messaging and collaboration, and portal in various editions.
When Sun integrates the registry with JES as part of version 4, it will tie it in with access and identity management, portal, and the appserver. Additionally, Sun plans to incorporate it as part of the Java Studio Enterprise development tool.
We don’t think of this as being compared with products like Systinet because we’re not selling it as a standalone registry, said Ashesh Badani, Sun’s group marketing manager for SOA. We’re in the game of providing a platform, not a registry point product.
