Web Enabling Your HP 3000

Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)

Internet directory services in the enterprise environment have become increasingly important.

Directory services are no longer a point solution for address look-up, but has become one of the

enablers of various distributed computing and network services such as:

• Electronic Commerce

• Secure communication and transactions including authentication, authorization,

digital signatures and encryption

• Advanced information search and retrieval

• Centralized network and systems management

• Common authentication for users and applications across the enterprise

• Network, IT, and Web Quality of Service

Enterprise directories include directories based on X.500, LDAP and proprietary protocols. LDAP

is a protocol that runs over TCP/IP. It was initially used as a front-end to X.500 directories, but it

can also be used with stand-alone and other kinds of directory servers. Since LDAP does not

require the upper layers of OSI stack, it is a simple protocol to implement. Because of its many

advantages, LDAP has emerged as de-facto Internet standard for directory access. LDAP directo-

ries have become a key infrastructure component in the enterprise-computing environment.

The HP e3000 supports LDAP C-SDK/iX, an API in C for LDAP clients to connect to LDAP servers

to access network directories. LDAP C-SDK/iX enables Internet directory access from the HP

e3000, cross-platform connectivity to any LDAP server, provides generic APIs for application

portability and free client applications from considerations of directory organization and location.

LDAP C-SDK/iX will be bundled in release 6.5 and is available on jazz now.

Message-Oriented Middleware (MOM)

Message-Oriented Middleware lets applications on different computing platforms and networks

exchange data reliably and securely. For example, message-oriented middleware lets mainframe,

Unix or Windows NT applications communicate by sending data messages to message queues.

Those queues hold the message securely until another application comes looking for that data.

There doesn’t have to be a direct connection between the different applications, and the sender

doesn’t even have to know which application or applications will be retrieving the data message

for the queue.

Many developers are finding solutions in Message-Oriented Middleware products. These are

emerging from several major vendors including Active Software’s ActiveWeb, Microsoft’s

Microsoft Message Queue Server (MSMQ) and IBM’s MQSeries.

Active Software’s ActiveWeb Information Broker

ActiveWeb simplifies the complexities of today’s corporate computing environments by seamless-

ly integrating disparate computer systems with enterprise-wide and Internet-styled applications.

The Information Broker is the core product and acts as the central control and storage point. The

broker resides on a server and mediates requests to and from networked clients, automatically

queuing, filtering and routing events and guaranteeing delivery of information. ActiveWeb for

MPE/iX is available from Premier Software.