JETConnect Pro also includes JETPort. JETPort is the JETConnect Pro network daemon (or NT service, depending on your server platform) that enables applets to access a database on the host Web server. JETPort supports a TCP/IP-based communication protocol that allows JETConnect Pro objects in an applet to communicate across the Internet to JETPort, which is running on a Web server. Although most of JETPort is written in Java, there is still one component that needs to be ported. For that reason, as of now, JETPort only runs on Microsoft Windows 95 and NT, Solaris and Sun OS, with ports to HP/UX and AIX platforms on the way.

Using JETConnect Pro, you are able to provide full transaction processing support to your Java applications and applets. The complete functionality of the data source being accessed is available to your Java program using JETConnect, unlike the JDBC, which is at best a least-common-denominator subset of the full ODBC API. You are able to update, insert, delete and edit records (see Figure 1) in the database with which you are working. JETConnect Pro has provided a complete implementation of the functionality that ODBC provides by using an object-oriented paradigm. By wrapping each of the ODBC handles (environment, connection and statement) with a Java class, all of the ODBC functions can be implemented in a Java applet or application as methods of these Java classes.

In this code sample (which is provided with JETConnect Pro) (see Listing 1) controls for inserting, updating, deleting, editing and moving from record to record are implemented using the JETControls package. JETConnect Pro's unique data-aware class library, which is based on the Java AWT (Abstract Window Toolkit), allows you to link GUI components and composite controls, such as text fields, text boxes or data-aware grid controls, to a field or fields in a database table (see Figure 2). Using Query by Forms and Update by Forms, JETConnect Pro can operate on any field connected to the database, and supports most of the common search criteria entered by the client, including:

Based on the changes that a user makes to the fields in an applet or application window, JETConnect Pro uses the Update by Forms feature to dynamically build and execute SQL update, delete and insert statements. The full power and functionality of JETConnect Pro is demonstrated by its ability to execute all SQL statements within the context of a single transaction.

Java is a full featured language that is extendible, flexible, and less error prone than most object-oriented languages. It is platform independent, allowing developers the ability to develop applications that will work equally well on PCs, Macs, and Unix machines. Unfortunately, Java does not have the inherent ability to access databases directly. Using XDB's JETConnect Pro, developers have the choice of using the JETConnect ODBC API or the JDBC API. With JETConnect Pro, programmers no longer have to be dependent on vendor-specific restrictions to feature high performance database access in their applets and applications. As the Java language continues to develop, these features are not likely to be an accessory, but more of a requirement.