Sooplet Server - Ultra-Rapid Application Development and Deployment

Excelsior JET Case Study

By: Paul Warren, BSc (Hons)
Warrensoft
Bridgwater
United Kingdom

The Sooplet Server is a hosting environment for Sooplets. Sooplets are complete, self-contained, data-based applications that are created without requiring traditional code programming. The designers at Warrensoft realised that despite advances in Application Development Frameworks, it was still difficult and time-consuming to create software applications. The reasons for this are explored in the white paper Floating Icebergs, but the outcome is that many useful applications never see the light of day due to these obstacles.

Instant Soop is a Java-based design tool that enables non-programmers to create business applications, complete with context-sensitive help, data querying, multi-format reports, custom documents, informational websites and much, much more. Having accelerated the Development Process to unparalleled speeds, the designers turned their attention to Deployment, and created the Sooplet Server.

Compiled with Excelsior JET's world-class compiler and packaged with JetPackII, the Sooplet Server is easy to distribute and simple to install. Our customers demand a choice: of application architecture, deployment mechanism, platform and Operating System, and this is exactly what Excelsior JET enables the Sooplet Server to provide.

Key reasons for choosing Excelsior JET were:

• The convenience of a single-file automated installation for customers
• The choice of standard exe or Windows service
• The ability to target Linux and Windows Operating Systems
• Performance enhancement over standard JVMs

The performance improvement over the Sun JVM is quite dramatic. Execution time for a sample Sooplet Method, creating a batch of complex objects in a loop, was reduced to nearly one third. Tests were performed on a Pentium 4 3.2GHz PC with 1 GB of RAM, running Windows XP SP2 (32 bit). The JET executable was created using the default compiler settings.

Excelsior's customer support performance is equally impressive. Regular updates are made available from their website, even for early versions, addressing issues that customers have raised. On one occasion when the published update did not cure a Windows XP problem, Excelsior support staff were sending a Hot Fix by return e-mail. When you are up against development deadlines, you really appreciate this commitment!

In summary, Excelsior's JET Compiler and Packager are the perfect tools for delivering the Sooplet Server. Ease of deployment, enhanced execution performance, flexible target options and exemplary customer support all add up to a world-class product.