NetManage Roadmaps Web Services for OnWeb

Now with SOAP and WSDL

• By Chris McConnell
• 04/18/2002

Adding key transport protocols, NetManage Inc. will enable enterprises to expose legacy systems as Web services this year. The company plans to add SOAP and WSDL with the next version of OnWeb.

According to David Burton, director of product marketing for OnWeb, NetManage will add SOAP and WSDL functionality to OnWeb 6.0, the next major release slated for the fourth quarter of this year.

The current version, OnWeb 5.2 already supports data in the XML, COM and JavaBean formats, which enable communication with J2EE application servers. The addition of a full Web-services implementation expands the way enterprises can integrate legacy systems into the overall infrastructure.

OnWeb is NetManage’s host integration product. It enables enterprises to integrate applications residing on legacy systems, such as the IBM mainframe, iSeries, DEC VAX and a variety of Unix platforms, into the greater business infrastructure.

SOAP, or Simple Object Access Protocol, allows HTTP requests to query data from a machine and send the data out on the network. WSDL, or Web Services Description Language, describes the kind of data a Web service can provide.

Burton says customers have requested SOAP and WSDL because they believe the standards will help them accomplish needed integration projects. “It is more a response from what customers are asking for, more than anything else,” he says.