Author: JT Smith
The EnhydraME project is comprised of a suite of J2ME infrastructure components that run in the memory and CPU constraints of Java mobile phones and PDAs, and provides critical support for XML and SOAP-based communication between these devices and Web applications. Mobile Internet devices, which traditionally behave as clients to applications running on Java application servers, are now free to communicate in a peer-to-peer fashion with other devices, with J2EEÔ application servers, as well as with publicly accessible Web Services using standard Internet protocols.
“As the only U.S. carrier offering J2ME-enabled handsets, Nextel sees great value and opportunity for developers and enterprises in building and deploying J2ME technologies. I see Lutris, with its EnhydraME, as an early mover in advancing the J2ME Open Source market and application infrastructure technologies,” commented Randall Mitchum, Director of Technology Development at Nextel.
The EnhydraME project began in late 2000 as the result of increasing demand for pervasive Java computing infrastructure and the emergence of increasingly sophisticated mobile Java devices such as WinCE devices, which run PersonalJavaÔ, and J2ME-enabled mobile phones such as those offered by Motorola and Nokia. Concurrently, Lutris assembled technology licensing and partnership agreements with Sun, Nokia, Pixo and Motorola to advance the wireless capabilities of the Enhydra.org family of projects.
“We rely on EnhydraME’s outstanding quality and support to reduce our development costs and time to market, ” said Francine Hunter of Survivorsoft.com. “With Enhydra and J2ME we easily created an extensible network layer and freed our team to focus on creating great games for the latest J2ME platforms, such as Motorola’s i85s cell phone available through Nextel.”
EnhydraME is the result of the collaboration between engineers at Lutris and developers across the United States and Europe seeking to expand the role of J2ME in peer-to-peer and enterprise computing. The original contributors for the platform include Stefan Haustein, a well-known J2ME expert, John Beatty, a J2ME and peer-to-peer expert, and other engineers from both Lutris and around the globe.
?In preparation for my presentation on using J2ME as a server platform at JavaOne, I agreed to co-found the micro team at http://me.enhydra.org with the expectation that I could learn from what others brought to the community and also contribute myself,? noted John Beatty.
Comprised of five micro-infrastructure components today, EnhydraME offers a wireless WebOS, complementing Internet server side technologies such as Web servers and Java 2 Enterprise Edition APIs. The released and planned projects provide support for all Java platforms, web transports and security standards (e.g. J2EE, J2ME, HTTP, HTTPS, XML, WML, etc.). Technologies ready for deployment today include:
· kHTTP – A micro HTTP server contributed by John Beatty that enables a J2ME device to become a web server
· Locumi – A proxy for HTTP servers contributed by John Beatty that enables devices on private networks and behind firewalls to become HTTP servers. kHTTP uses Locumi to establish internet connectivity with devices behind firewalls or on private networks. Additionally, Locumi is useful for generic P2P applications such as gaming, remote data collection, mobile webcams, etc.
· kSOAP – A micro-implementation of the SOAP protocol which allows for MIDlets running on J2ME devices to act as clients and servers of Web Services such as those implemented by SunONEÔ, Microsoft .NET, and similar frameworks. kSOAP, because of its small footprint, is suitable for building SOAP-enabled Java Applets as well.
· kXML – A micro XML validating parser. kXML was conceived with the J2ME environment as its platform, and thus is a lean XML API with optional WBXML/WML transport support. By incorporating support for WBXML, kXML allows for Java developers to substantially compress the packet size of XML datasets over carrier networks, thus providing higher performance as well as lower costs.
· Mail4Me – A lightweight implementation of the Internet standard protocols POP3 and SMTP, providing wireless devices with E-Mail capabilities. Soon to be added extensions include support for IMAP and MIME.
The EnhydraME project is also announcing the creation of the following five additional J2ME infrastructure components that will soon be launched on the EnhydraME project:
· kUDDI – A lightweight UDDI implementation for J2ME clients
· kBox – A lightweight component container for executing downloaded application code or web services. This service is analogous to a lightweight servlet engine.
· kJMS – A lightweight JMS implementation ideally suited for messaging between peer-to-peer applications and data synchronization and replication.
· kDB – A lightweight relational database.
· kSync – An implementation of SyncML for synchronization of both database and application session state.
Pricing & Availability
EnhydraME project components are available today at http://me.enhydra.org/. All EnhydraME project components are open source and available for development and deployment without license fees. Review each project for exact licensing information, but most projects use the Enhydra Public License, a Mozilla Public License variant.
About Lutris Technologies
Lutris Technologies is a leading provider of Java/XML application server products for building a Web of Services?. Lutris leverages the worldwide Open Source process to combine industry standard technology with the freedom of innovation. The company’s mission is to deliver the highest value development and deployment platforms to our partners in the OEM, VAR, ISV and System Integrator community. Lutris offers a full range of product support, training and custom engineering services to its partners. Additional information about Lutris products, services and partner programs is available at www.lutris.com, or call (877) 688-3724 (U.S. toll free), (831) 460-7590 or +44 1923 431669 in the United Kingdom.
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Lutris and Enhydra are registered trademarks of Lutris Technologies, Inc. Web of Services is a trademark of Lutris Technologies, Inc. Java, J2ME, and J2EE are trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks belong to their respective holders.
