BEA Systems Inc. has added mainframe integration capabilities to its WebLogic Workshop, with the announcement last week that it is shipping Version 8.1.
Through a partnership with Attachmate Corp. and co-development work between the two companies, BEA is able to provide legacy data integration capabilities, allowing developers to extend legacy systems into new environments without mainframe expertise.
Attachmate, of Bellevue, Wash., provides host data and business logic access and management software.
BEA, of San Jose, Calif., partnered with Attachmate for its integration tool, MyExtra Smart Connector. It is the first mainframe integration tool bundled and distributed with WebLogic Workshop, according to Attachmate officials.
Attachmates Mainframe Integration Control tool complements BEAs WebLogic Workshop development environment because it extends an application developers reach to legacy and host information, said BEA officials.
MyExtra Smart Connector captures legacy data and business logic as callable services for use in new applications developed in WebLogic, allowing developers to drag and drop transactions from legacy applications from the WebLogic environment.
Attachmates Mainframe Integration Control displays as a control in the WebLogic Workshop Data Palette pane. That functionality enables developers to drag and drop legacy transactions to Workshops main development area, where it integrates with the workflow user interface.
Mainframe Integration Control can process requests from the Workshop application once it has been deployed to BEAs WebLogic Server; it uses Smart Connectors JCA Resource Adapter to execute operations against the legacy host system.
Attachmate offers a dedicated Web site where developers can download sample tasks, tools and information to get a feel for the mainframe integration tool.