BusinessWorks did make creation of database connections easier by giving us the JDBC connection, a publisher and a transport for the data. Triggers in its database sent update and insert notifications, then showed us the interface we needed to connect to via the trigger definition, which we then "mapped" to the object (called the publisher) that distributes the message. All in all, a little easier to do the job, and one less object to track. While WebLogic has a similar implementation, during our testing we preferred the simplified configuration of these integrations offered by BusinessWorks.
BusinessWorks' management interface is also cleaner than those of rivals, with the ability to start and stop applications and view critical alerts and system status. Everything systems administrators need, without a lot of excess to confuse the issue--but also not much break on the price.
Tibco BusinessWorks 2.0.4, $350,000 as tested. Tibco Software, (650) 846-1000. www.tibco.com
BEA was one of two vendors to send us the version of its product that was shipping at the time this article was written. While we found WebLogic Integration 7.0 able to meet all our needs and then some, in testing we determined that there are just too many pieces of WebLogic to keep track of, and a centralized user interface is an essential step for BEA.
The product BEA shipped us was much more far-reaching than simply EAI with BPM. It included a portal, B2B integration tools and several smaller products. We installed and evaluated only the EAI and BPM portions of the system.
Installation was relatively simple; we didn't encounter any major problems. But configuration left us frustrated with the JDBC choices offered. WebLogic's documentation talks about the Microsoft
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