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The Nexbridge Product Division is pleased to announce the release of the NskDdl product:

EGI - Workstation-Based EMS/SPI 4GL Provider

Product Overview

EGI by Nexbridge brings the Event Management Service (EMS) and the Subsystem Programmatic Interface (SPI) capabilities to the desktop. Developers can easily build EMS C++ and Java class structures for complex event logging needs through the ECLIPSE workbench. EGI frees the developer from the hassle of writing DDL and compiling dictionaries on the NonStop and is a pure Java product.

Key Features and Benefits

Executes as an ECLIPSE plug-in on any platform supported by ECLIPSE
Events can be logged from Java or C++, or off-platform
SPI commands can be issued to any subsystem from Windows or UNIX
Platform independent development facility
Platform independent execution
Simple interface for developers
NLS support available
Javadoc-style documentation generated for EMS and SPI structures.
Cause/Effect/Recovery documentation generated for events.

Multiple and Inherited Subsystems

EGI supports the concept of base subsystems (like ZSPI, ZCOM, and ZEMS) where tokens are defined in one place and used by child subsystems. EGI also supports multiple subsystems co-existing in the same workspace. Your entire EMS structure can be represented quickly and efficiently.

Communication with EMS and SPI

On-Platform

EGI classes communicate with EMS via WRITEREADX calls. These are done from Java via JNI links. C++ code is automatically generated for use by Java classes to insert EMS events.

Off-Platform

EGI has a few ways of communicating with EMS and SPI:

SPIBRIDGE can be used to automatically insert EMS events or issue SPI requests. This is done transparently to the developer, although the developer must specify the host acting as the EMS gateway. Events and requests can be issued to any subsystem in an EXPAND network through the SPIBRIDGE gateway, providing security is in place to do so. EGI-generated classes provide a rich set of capabilities to specify and manipulate events.
ODBC can also be used for EMS even insertion. EGI generates classes, JNI, and SQL/MX stored procedures for event insertion over ODBC. This is the easiest way to insert events, but is much less flexible than the Java class approach.

Event Consumers

EGI can generate code that acts as an event consumer. This is custom work, however, and is not part of the standard license. Contact your Nexbridge sales representative at sales@nexbridge.com for more information.

Installation

Installation Instructions for EGI in ECLIPSE Ganymede:

Start ECLIPSE
Open the Help/Software Updates... menu
Add an Update Site with the URL: http://www.nexbridge.com/Eclipse/Ganymede.
Open the site and select the NskDdl product under Development Tools.
Click on Install.
Don't forget to request a license if you do not already have one.

EGI is a commercial product subject to license conditions. You must have a valid up-to-date and paid-for license to use EGI. Terms and conditions apply. EGI licenses are available for $499 (CDN) per workstation. For volume discounts, please contact sales@nexbridge.com. To purchase a license, you must supply an Email address and valid MAC address on your workstation. This information will be used for licensing only. Once we have verified your purchase, we will send a license key to you via email.

Compatibility

EGI is compatible with ECLIPSE Ganymede (3.4.x) and Galileo (3.5.x). It uses base ECLIPSE and JDT. The Nexbridge license manager, which is included, requires only base ECLIPSE.

History

EGI origins draw from the mid-1980's when Tandem Computers released their SPI and EMS API-based subsystems. At that time, the EGI authors, speculated about descriptive languages for subsystem structures. SSDL (The SubSystem Definition Language) was born. Over many years, SSDL transformed into an XML-based schema to describe valid token, command, and object combinations and validations. It lived for a while as a C++ utility, then an internal NetBeans component, and finally as an ECLIPSE plug-in.

Known Issues

The following issues are known for EGI Release 2.4.7:

Case 591 - Documentation links error: Some of the pages in the class documentation generated by EGI result in error 404. This is caused by a recent change in how documentation is generated. This item is expected to be resolved in release 2.5 when documentation generation is centralized.
Case 600 - Update performance is slow: When updates are performed to some field names, the time taken to update all other related fields can appear to take time. This item is expected to be resolved in release 2.5.