Is it possible to avoid XPRESS?
We are currently evaluating Sun Java System Identity Manager to augment and replace our homegrown identity management software. Many aspects of this product look really good to me but writing real logic in the XPRESS language looks painful. I also hate to embed our business logic in a proprietary language.Since it is possible to call Java methods from XPRESS I'm just wondering if we could successfully put all our workflow and rule logic into Java classes and reserve XPRESS for simple things such as setting property values.
Has anyone else done this? Are there any gotchas I'm not seeing?
Thanks much!
# 1
Hi alpaca-sweet,
You can try do do your business logic in Java but you will have to invoke it from XPRESS. I found that IM Java (in version 5.0 SP6) is almost not documented where XPRESS is. The calling structure you need in Java is often the same as the XPRESS equivalent so usually you can apply the XPRESS documentation in Java. But there are differences. I still have not found how to call an XPRESS translation rule in a Java report.
I agree with you that XPRESS is not ideal and I would like Sun IM to use an industry standard development language.
In our case most of the logic is in XPRESS and we only use Java when it is more applicable.
Success, Theo
# 6
yeah there were some changes to the API between 5.0 and 6.0
I guess what Sun would rather people do is to keep it to XPRESS that way they can help support when upgrading (given you have a support arrangements with Sun). If you use your own Java Customised code then they won't really want to support it. Make any sense?
# 7
Yeah the IDM API's can change during an IDM service pack upgrade - they seem to change from version to version. I got this information from talking to Sun and other industry partners. I originally was on the same train of thought as you - as Java is more universal. XPRESS is not the ideal way of coding but it's not too bad once you get use to it. Sorta feels like Functional Programming. You might want to talk to Sun about the product a bit more.
> Can you explain that comment further? I don't
> understand how a service pack upgrade could affect my
> java code. Do you mean that the IDM API's change?
> Can you tell me where you got this information
> from?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Robin
