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Although the WebSphere Application Server is cross-platform, the WebSphere Studio runs only under Microsoft Windows 95/98/NT. The application server runs under IBM AIX, Sun Solaris and Windows NT, and is shipped with and runs on Novell NetWare 5. But this is not yet as complete a list as the platforms supported by version 2 (which also supports AS/400, OS/390 and others). Linux support, too, is presently stuck at version 2, but a Linux release of version 3 is in the works. WebSphere 3.0 is still bundled with an SSL-enabled version of Apache (IBM HTTP Server), but also works with Apache 1.3.6, Domino version 5, Lotus Domino Go 4.6.2.5 or higher, Internet Explorer 4.0 and Netscape Enterprise Server version 3.51 or 3.6. Database support is still limited, with the options being IBM DB2 or Oracle 8.0.5. Upon installation, we had trouble getting the administrator's console to start, but this seemed to be related to our desire to use version 1.2 of the JDK (Java Development Kit) instead of the included 1.1.7B version. Once we installed and used the earlier version, everything worked smoothly.

Some Strong Java
EJB (Enterprise JavaBeans) support in WebSphere has been strong from the beginning, and internal WebSphere objects are implementations of EJB Entity and Session beans. However, formal EJB support in WebSphere 3.0 is still at the level of the earlier EJB 1.0 specification, not the current 1.1 version. This, along with a lack of support for the complete J2EE (Java2 Enterprise Edition) specification, puts WebSphere behind some of its competitors, many of which have been very aggressive in this area. Comprehensive support for the current release of the Java Servlet API and the JSP (Java Server Pages) specs (.91 and 1.0) is included, however, and support for XML, both parsing and output, has been expanded. LDAP support is included, either with the bundled IBM SecureWay Directory or with a variety of supported third-party LDAP data stores, and security within WebSphere can be managed at a granular application level. The Studio product does include good source-code control, and it appears that WebSphere Studio can interface with third-party versioning and code-control tools, but I was not able to test this integration this time around. Integration with IBM's Tivoli system-management package is included, but generic SNMP support is still not available.

WebSphere occasionally shows its legacy as a command-line-based product. For instance, true distributed transactions are only supported if you set up the administrative server to use log files--an action that does not happen by default. Accomplishing this is simple enough: You add a

-logfile flag to the adminserver script file, and specify the log file name and size. It would be trivial to add this functionality to the Java GUI, and ease of management is becoming one of the key differentiators between competing Web application servers. There are some places where various administrative functions in WebSphere involve editing one or more configuration files, but in general WebSphere 3.0 has moved effectively to address ease of management. The WebSphere Studio is a strong and useful tool for centralized deployment, management and monitoring of complex, distributed Web applications.

The price for WebSphere is attractive as well. The Advanced Edition debuts at $7,500 per CPU, which puts it at the low end of comparative products, and the Standard Edition (suitable for small, nondistributed applications) is only $750. WebSphere Studio 3.0 costs $495 per seat, which is extremely competitive.

Send your comments on this article to Richard Hoffman at rhoffman@nwc.com.