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This special edition of "Meet the Experts" has gathered experts for WebSphere's newly announced family of mid-market products, WebSphere® - Express. We asked experts from WebSphere Application Server - Express and WebSphere Portal - Express to answer a few questions to give us a quick overview of the new products.

What are the WebSphere - Express products?

WebSphere - Express is WebSphere's family of offerings designed, built, and priced specifically to power mid-market solutions. Mid-market solutions are for companies with between 100-999 employees, departments of larger enterprises, and Business Partners delivering solutions for these companies and departments.

• WebSphere Application Server - Express offers out-of-the-box installation, simplified administration functionality, and easy back-end database linkage.
• WebSphere Portal - Express offers easy implementation, administration, and access to timely information within and beyond the enterprise.
• WebSphere Business Connection Express Edition facilitates partner integration needs across industries, addressing key business drivers such as collaboration design, supply chain automation, e-markets and, e-procurement.

WebSphere - Express is all about:

• Affordable, per user pricing
• Easy, wizard-driven, installation and deployment
• Near-zero administration
• Modular design for incremental growth

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Paula Cox and Kevin Postreich discuss WebSphere Application Server - Express

Question: What is WebSphere Application Server - Express and why should I care?

Kevin: WebSphere Application Server - Express is a tightly integrated package including a simplified application server and powerful development tools designed to be easy to use and ready to go out of the box. This offering is a cost effective on ramp to the WebSphere product family based on the latest open Java standards.

This product is ideal for mid-market customers and business partners. It enables small development teams to quickly and easily create and deploy dynamic Web applications that access back-end databases, while providing the ability to create and consume Web services. We've done a lot to make it easy to use. The installation only has a few pages and takes less than 30 minutes. We have wizards and application templates that actually write custom code for you. We added this feature we call cheat sheets that gives you step-by-step directions on how to complete a task. We have Infopops, when you press F1, that brings up contextual help. We also built a series of samples that demonstrate a wide variety of capabilities: model 1 design, Model View Controller (MVC) design, a hybrid of the two, using JavaScript and Tag Libraries, and using JSPs and servlets. We document how you can alter them to meet specific needs, such as internationalization. The whole idea is that, even if you aren't a Java expert, you can actually learn Java while working with the product.

Finally, the reduced footprint, silent installation capabilities, and near zero administration provide the foundation that make WebSphere Application Server - Express easy to OEM. This is very important to business partners that want to bundle and promote their solutions with a market leading application server like WebSphere Application Server - Express.

Question: How is it different from the other WebSphere Application Server and WebSphere Studio products?

Kevin: First and foremost, WebSphere Application Server - Express is designed specifically for the Small Medium Business (SMB) market. Our focus is on simplicity and ease of use. With those goals in mind, one of the biggest differences is that this package is a single integrated solution that contains both development tools and the application server. That means that there is only a single interface to learn, which translates to fast development, deployment, and maintenance of your applications.

Another major difference between Application Server - Express and the base WebSphere Application Server is that EJBs are not supported. The simplified application server included in the package is a proper subset of the base configuration of WebSphere Application Server and focuses on the more common and less complex J2EE development architectures, such as servlets, JSP, custom tag libraries, Web services, and XML. This leaves architecture like Enterprise Java Beans (EJB), Java Message Service (JMS), and Java Connector Architecture (JCA) to the higher end products in the WebSphere family. Also, because it's simplified, Application Server - Express has a smaller footprint which, again, makes it a great candidate for an embedded OEM product.

The development tool, essentially WebSphere Studio Site Developer, that is included contains a subset of functions available in WebSphere Studio Application Developer. The tool is tailored to work seamlessly with the simplified application server. The development environment is complete with wizards and samples that you can use as a starting point, as a code reference, and as an educational guide to help developers through the process of building a dynamic Web application. The wizards are very useful for creating building blocks for JSPs and servlets that access databases, create and consume Web services, and build SQL.

We also recognize that as customers grow and become more successful with the product, scaling up to higher end products must be easy. The application server portion of the package is a proper subset of WebSphere Application Server so migrations will be very easy. The bottom line is that it's different because it's cost effective, it's simplified, and it's integrated.

Question: What functions does it have and what platforms does it support?

Paula: Based on the most common usage scenarios, the development tool and application server have slightly different platform support. Both portions support Windows® NT 4.0, Windows 2000 Server, and SuSE Linux for Intel 7.3. This means that you can use a single integrated install to install the entire solution on the same machine. In addition to these operating systems, the development tool also supports Windows XP and Red Hat Linux for Intel 7.2, while the server supports Windows 2000 Advanced Server, Red Hat Advanced Server for Intel 2.1, and iSeries V5R1 and V5R2. When your desired operating systems differ for the development tool and application server, you can use the custom install to select the appropriate feature for each operating system.

While we are on the topic of support, I would like to quickly tell you about the databases that Application Server - Express supports. We support DB2 UCD 7.2, Oracle 9i and 8iR3, SQL Server 2000, OS/400 DB2 V5R1 and V5R2, Informix 7.31, 9.3, and Sybase 12.0.

Customers will have the functions that they need to create a J2EE 1.3 application. This includes, but is not limited to:

• JDK 1.3.1 support
• JSP 1.2 including Custom Tag Libraries
• Java Servlets 2.3
• Web Services (SOAP 2.2, WSDL, and UDDI client)
• Java Security model including APIs and J2EE authentication and authorization
• XML tools, including Xerces and Xalan
• JDBC
• Connection pooling
• JNDI
• Struts

As mentioned before, there are some functions that are not in the product. Application Server - Express does not include an external HTTP server because it includes an internal HTTP server. However, we will support one if the customer has one. As a single server edition, it does not include functions that link multiple servers together like failover and network deployment. These functions are available in the higher end WebSphere Application Servers products. Complex functions like EJBs, JMS, and JCA, are not included.

Question: Why doesn't it support EJBs?

Paula: The answer is two-fold. First, as we look at the target market, many of our customers are in the early stages of e-business adoption. Often they have smaller staff who do more with less and with tight development schedules. Investing and educating their programmers on new architecture may put an undue burden on their team.

Designing an EJB application requires more design time and requires the programmer to know the EJB application model. To reduce the complexity for our customers, we have removed EJB support. We put less emphasis on complex Java architectures, and put more emphasis on the less complex architecture like JavaScript, servlets, custom tag libraries, and JSPs for this target market. We also want to keep administrative requirements to a minimum and EJBs require a lot of administration.

In addition, not having EJBs help differentiate Application Server - Express from the higher level products in the WebSphere Application Server family of products, allowing us to offer the product for less money. As a company grows and requires more functionality in this area, we see them growing to WebSphere Application Server and WebSphere Studio Application Developer where they can leverage EJBs.

Question: Where do you see this product going in the future?

Paula: We are hearing that it is important to our customers and partners to support more platforms for the server (including Unix), and to have a browser-based administration that allows the server to be configured outside of the tools. We will continue to look at increasing the ease of use of the product to help customers who have little programming background.

Note: This information represents the opinions of those interviewed and is not an official statement of direction.

Question: Where can I get more information about the product?

Answer: For more information, see the WebSphere product Web site. On that site, Business Partners can link to the Early Enablement Program Web site to register for a road show or sign up for the program. The Early Enablement Program is specifically designed for partners (existing IBM partners and those new to IBM) to learn about our mid-market products. It offers free education and access to the product code with support.

If you want more information about WebSphere Application Server, see WebSphere Application Server Zone.

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Uwe Hansmann discusses WebSphere Portal - Express and WebSphere Portal - Express Plus

Question: What is WebSphere Portal - Express and WebSphere Portal - Express Plus all about?

Answer: WebSphere Portal - Express was designed in close consultation with IBM Business Partners, who offer an exceptional understanding of small and medium-sized businesses. The result is portal software that is simple to deploy and use. With only a few clicks of the mouse, customers and IBM Business Partners can customize a page layout, add a new portlet, add a new user, or completely change the portal's interface.

WebSphere Portal - Express is an excellent value because it comes embedded with the performance, standards-compliance, and reliability of IBM WebSphere Application Server. It also offers full support for portal personalization, campaign management, single sign-on across applications, authentication, authorization, and communication between portlets. You can run WebSphere Portal - Express from just one server, which is ideal for smaller businesses that may not have many servers or a large IT staff.

Unlike some competing products, WebSphere Portal - Express is ready for Web services. Its open architecture provides customers with a host of choices. For instance, while WebSphere Portal - Express includes an LDAP directory, alternatives such as Microsoft Active Directory and Lotus Domino Directory are supported as options. WebSphere Portal - Express also offers a choice of databases.

Question: What is Portal - Express?

Answer: Portal Express is a version of WebSphere Portal Server that is targeted at the small and medium business market. It contains Portal Server, WebSphere Transcoding Publisher, Personalization, Portal Toolkit, WebSphere Application Server 4.0.4, and SecureWay Server. It does not contain WebSphere Content Publisher and Portal Content Organizer, but it has all the collaborative portlets that are shipped with Portal Extend Version 4. The usage of Portal - Express is limited to a single Windows 2000 machine with no cloning or clustering. Portal - Express comes with an easy-to-use 5-click installation as well as a Quick Customizer.

Question: Will portlets written for WebSphere Portal Multiplatform V4 work on WebSphere Portal - Express V4?

Answer: Yes, Portal - Express is based on the same underlying technologies. It has the same portlet API as the Multiplatform version. Therefore, portlets written for Portal Multiplatform V4 run unchanged on Portal - Express V4.

Question: Will Portal - Express be able to interact with another WebSphere Portal on another operating system?

Answer: Yes, Portal - Express contains a Web services component for portlets that allows you to publish and integrate a portlet from another WebSphere Portal on the same or another operating system.

Question: I have heard about the Quick Customizer in Portal - Express. What is it?

Answer: The Quick Customizer is an easy way to create places and customize pages. The Quick Customizer portlet allows users to create, arrange, rename, and delete places and pages, modify page layout and content, as well as select themes, skins, and markups. Users can select specific tasks, or they can select the quick path to create and customize a new place and a new page at the same time. All authenticated users are automatically given "View" permission for the Quick Customizer. However, users have "Manage" access to places and pages that they create using the Quick Customizer. By clicking on the Create page or Edit Layout links in the header, you can do context sensitive page editing and page creation. To access the Configure icon from the title bar, ensure that the Quick Customizer skin is not set to NoSkin.

If you want more information about WebSphere Portal, see WebSphere Portal Zone.

About the authors

Paula Cox is the Development Product Manager for the WebSphere Application Server - Express team at IBM Research Triangle Park Lab in Durham, North Carolina. She manages the developers that are responsible for the development of Application Server - Express. You can reach her at paulacox@us.ibm.com.

Kevin Postreich is a software engineer on the WebSphere Application Server - Express team at IBM Research Triangle Park Lab in Durham, North Carolina. With his teammates, he is responsible for the development and beta customer support of Application Server - Express. You can reach him at kevinlp@us.ibm.com.

Uwe Hansmann is the Release Manager for WebSphere Portal - Express and Express Plus. He has been a development manager for WebSphere Portal Server and managed various Pervasive Computing projects, including the development of the SyncML Reference Toolkit and the Everyplace Synchronization Manager. You can reach him at hansmann@us.ibm.com.

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Table of contents

• What are the WebSphere - Express products?
• Paula Cox and Kevin Postreich discuss WebSphere Application Server - Express
• Uwe Hansmann discusses WebSphere Portal - Express and WebSphere Portal - Express Plus
• About the authors
• Comments

Next steps from IBM

• Try: WebSphere Application Server
• Webcast: Using Rational Application Developer with WebSphere Application Server to increase productivity
• Briefing: Building SOA solutions and managing the service lifecycle
• Buy: WebSphere Application Server

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