OGIS, Mentor Aid Web Services Development

Software development conference and Expo East provided a platform for announcing new tools to aid Web services development.

OGIS International Inc., which delivers Java, UML (Unified Modeling Language) and Web services solutions, announced here last month its XGrotto Integration Platform and Directory, a system for finding and using Web services. OGIS, of Palo Alto, Calif., is a U.S.-based subsidiary of Osaka Gas Information System Research Institute Co. Ltd., of Osaka, Japan.

XGrotto works in a manner similar to UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery and Integration) directories, but it does not use UDDI, said Katsuya Oba, general manager of OGIS. The company began working on XGrotto more than a year ago and began its development with UDDI in mind, but the company said it ran into problems because of "limitations" with UDDI.

Like UDDI, XGrotto enables users to find and invoke Web services and enables organizations to define business processes and integrate Web services. However, no programming expertise is required, Oba said.

"We think Web services technology is very important for next-generation application development," Oba said. However, Web services should not be "only for programmers. This technology has big impact for business guys and nontechnical people with no programming skills," he said.

XGrotto works like a regular Web search engine, Oba said. It features a search engine that understands XML, Simple Object Access Protocol and Web Services Description Language and searches for services using keywords.

Also at the show, Mentor Graphics Corp.s Acceler- ated Technology division announced that its Embedded Development Environment has been upgraded to support Microsofts Visual Studio .Net. The Wilsonville, Ore., companys product runs as a plug-in to Visual Studio .Net.