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NCL new release of Provato 1.2.3

NCL's new release of Provato (1.2.3) that eases the development mobile messaging applications in J2EE.

This year in Europe mobile network operators will earn up to 20% of their turnover from message traffic - particularly text messaging or SMS. And while mobile data revenues are growing, the figures are nowhere near the double-digit percentage figures that messaging enjoys - and probably won't be until 2007.

Despite this, there are more software tools for developing mobile Internet (WAP) applications than there are for developing mobile messaging applications in J2EE. One reason for this is that WAP software and development tools have piggybacked on web-based equivalents making it easier for programmers to develop and deploy applications. After all, the architecture is pretty much the same - hosting out static and dynamic content to browsers that connect over HTTP.

Developing and deploying a J2EE application that utilises mobile messaging is a little more involved. To begin with, access to the messaging network is required. Usually this is done by either:

connecting to a cellular device or phone via serial port (low volume, low set-up cost, high per-message cost)
connecting directly to a mobile operator Short Message Service Centre (SMSC) or Multimedia Message Service Centre (MMSC) using an industry-standard, socket-based protocol such as SMPP (high volume, high set-up cost, low per-message cost)
connecting with an independent messaging service provider over a non-proprietary protocol (high volume, low set-up cost, moderate per-message cost).

Messaging network connections are not ideally suited to direct usage from within an EJB:

In most cases, the communication protocols used for transmitting and receiving mobile messages require low-level management of socket connections.
The common protocols operate asynchronously, and can be shared between threads - in fact users are usually limited to one open connection.
Connections to the messaging network can at times be somewhat unreliable. It is preferable not to deal with these connection problems (which are generally recoverable) from within the EJB.

For these reasons it is preferable not to use connections directly from within EJBs. An asynchronous interface between business logic and messaging network connectivity allows that connectivity to be shared between concurrent processes, and between multiple execution threads.

JMS is an obvious candidate for such an asynchronous interface. JMS allows us to use message driven beans or to access queues directly. Different JMS queues can be assigned to different mobile services and messages can be routed to and from the network connections as appropriate. (For example, routing to and from different queues could be based on text keyword or source/destination addresses.) Note that for high volume messaging applications - such as mass market TV voting and quizzes - it is important to ensure that the hardware is capable of supporting fast recovery as well as throughput. Mobile networks are capable of delivering up to 2500 text messages per second!

Once we have settled on JMS as our interface to the messaging network, it remains to implement our messaging-network connection component. This component must consume and produce messages to and from the JMS system. The different network protocols must then be implemented.

NCL develop a mobile messaging component for J2EE application servers called Provato. It does all of the above, managing mobile network interfaces and connections, and provides a consistent API across disparate messaging protocols.

Provato is currently shipped as an EAR containing a WAR for the browser based console and another for the back-end message logic. It has been tested with WebLogic 8.1 and Jboss 2.3.2. If demand grows for running Provato on other application servers, NCL will look at shipping Provato as a resource adaptor.