I think Randy wrote:
> I'm building a comercial consumer-oriented web site using Microsoft's
> new .NET infrastructure and I am attempting to use Jess as a back-end
> service behind the web application. The issue I'm facing is how to
> bridge the Win32<->Java gap while trying to minimize the
> Java-architecture-learning-curve and $ expense. It also needs to be
> architected so that I can achieve scaleability in the future. I've
> spent a week researching this (including the archive of this list), and
> before I get down to serious coding, I wanted to run my analysis by this
> group to make sure I'm on the right track.
There are some misconceptions here, which I'll try to
correct. Otherwise, many of the alternatives are six of one, a
half-dozen of the other: any of SOAP, CORBA, raw sockets, RMI, etc,
etc, could work. It just depends on what you're most comfortable with
using and maintaining, what you already know, what your people know,
etc.
>
> I don't want to go back to CLIPS, because it doesn't use the Rete
> algorithim,
CLIPS most certainly -does- use the Rete algorithm.
> and doesn't seem to be being maintained much and I'm not
> willing to write the whole app in Java.
I'm not sure what this statement means. CLIPS has nothing whatsoever
to do with Java. There is, though, a CLIPS DLL, which can be
integrated with the various Microsoft gimcracks and geegaws.
> I could use a comercial product
> such Haley, however besides the cost, they don't seem to have fuzzy rule
> support which I would like to use in the future.
>
Jess does have fuzzy rule support, via the FuzzyJess extension from
Canada's NRC. But this sentence seems to imply that Jess isn't a
commercial product -- it is. It is competitively priced with other
commercial offerings, and is distributed free for academic use only.
> The basic architecture that I think scaleability requires is to have a
> Jess Server capable of managing multiple Rete() engines, one for each
> task - each with its own thread, and possibly in the future having
> multiple Jess Servers clustered together. So the issue is is how to
> build this with minimum fuss, and how to communicate with it.
EJBs and Servlets come to mind.
>
> So, my options I see are:
>
> 1) COM Wrapper such as Sun's CAS COM. Problem here is that It doesn't
> seem scaleable (each instance is a seperate JVM - do I have this
> right?).
>
> 2) Use CORBA as a trasport between Win32<->Jess Server. Problem here is
> CORBA support seems week on the .NET side and this seems to be alot of
> trouble and perhaps overkill, plus I still need an App Server. But this
> could just be my inexperience with CORBA talking.
>
There are unmpteen excellent CORBA packages for Win32, both free and
commercial. It .NET requires everybody to start over from nothing, I'm
not sure how it will ever get adopted.
> 3) JNI - Not really a transport solution, but could be part of a
> solution
Microsoft's JVMs used to have "J/Direct" which was basically
a transparent, automatic JNI equivalent. Not sure what the support for
this is like these days.
>
> 4) Web Services (via SOAP) - this is my prefered method, however on the
> Java side I would have to buy lots of expensive tools (such as
> CapeConnect + an App Server) - Isn't there an easier way to handle SOAP
> in the Java side?
The whole point of SOAP is that it's easier than spit to implement;
there's lots of free XML and SOAP software out there.
>
> 5) Sockets - this is what I'm currently leaning toward. I'm considering
> building a simple Jess Server via Sockets using the App Server framework
> outlined in the book 'Server based Java Programming' by Neward.
>
Could do this; trickier and harder to maintain, though.
> So, I ask this group - Is my thinking on track or am I missing
> something? Any experience or advice (or code) would be appreciated.
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Randy Bradley
>
---------------------------------------------------------
Ernest Friedman-Hill
Distributed Systems Research Phone: (925) 294-2154
Sandia National Labs FAX: (925) 294-2234
Org. 8920, MS 9012 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
PO Box 969 http://herzberg.ca.sandia.gov
Livermore, CA 94550
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