Business Objects on the Web David A. Carlson, IBM Corp. (c/o Lisa Florence, Lisa_Florence@vnet.ibm.com, (617) 277-3534 ) Web browsers are rapidly becoming an integral part of desktop computing tools. Not only are they being used to browse static pages of text, but they are increasingly used as a client interface for database access and client/server systems. Given this evolution, it=92s now more accurate to refer to them as web clients instead of web browsers. However, most implementations of web client applications are built with application specific designs, whether they are implemented in HTML forms and Perl scripts, or Java applets. Reuse of HTML forms and Perl scripts is difficult, given their tight coupling, opaque semantics, and lack of abstraction. It=92s too early to judge the reusability of Java applets, but it=92s likely that applets will be designed for narrow domains (e.g., a specific database table) or system level tools (e.g., an animation development factory). Java=92s object-oriented potential for common= business components may be mostly unrealized. The explosive growth of Java, when combined with CORBA compliant common business objects (CBOs), presents an interesting potential direction. "A business object is defined as a representation of a thing active in the business domain, including at least its business name and definition, attributes, behavior, relationships, rules, policies and constraints. =85= The technological infrastructure to support =91plug and play=92 business= application components is the Business Object Facility." [1] When encapsulated as a Java applet, CBOs become viable candidates for mobile code executable within a Java-enabled web client. These applets would be valuable even without access to an ORB. With an ORB connection, a CBO Java applet could be reduced to an IDL stub whose behavior is distributed. Consider a brief, current example in supply chain management. A computer products distributor sells hardware and software from 100 vendors to hundreds of system integrators world-wide. This firm is aggressively implementing web technology both internally and externally to provide current product specifications and technical support to their sales representatives and to customers. They are approaching this situation as a document management problem by cataloging, indexing and searching HTML representations of spec sheets and other files. However, no two vendors use the same document structure, and this firm must rely on a variety of vendor proprietary configuration support systems. No good approach exists for multi-vendor configuration support, but they would like to deploy configuration, inventory availability and specification reference on their internal and external web sites. This distributor=92s dilemma might be addressed by OMG=92s concept of= business objects that are defined as horizontal (domain independent) and vertical (function or industry specific) common facilities. Business objects representing a Product, Customer and Purchase Order would be horizontal facilities, whereas Computer, Peripheral and Printer would be industry specific. A Configuration is a business object incorporating relationships, business rules and constraints controlling combinations of other objects. Implementing these business objects as one, or a coordinated set of, Java applets enables rapid deployment within an existing Web-based infrastructure. Business objects on the Web hold an interesting promise for future multi-organization system integration, but only if they are standardized and shared. A combined effort of the OMG and W3C memberships will help define a library of shared Java-based business objects. [1] OMG Common Facilities RFP-4, Common Business Objects and Business Object Facility, CF/96-01-04, Jan 1996.