Hello,

I am new to EAI. What I know of eai server is that it provides a simulation of the 3rd party database for your application. Since a call to the 3rd party services is expensive in terms of time so we use an EAI server.
I am not sure if this is right. Please if anyone can correct this or give me an url where I could get more info.

EAI as u already know stands for 'Enterprise Application Integration'. When disparate applications in an enterprise are to be integrated (made to talk to each other), some sort of middleware technology is chosen (say CORBA or DCOM) as the backbone & various services/adapters are written using that technology, that talk to the disparate applications. I doubt if there's such a thing called an EAI server - simply because no one knows what one may have to integrate.

Of course there are exceptions like Tuxedo, which is a readymade framework that can be used to hook the disparate apps together. But most smaller software houses simply write their own such framework.

My understanding is (fingers crossed) that its a set of components thats used in an architecture thats responsible to make the thirdparty component calls required for your application. By desiging components, that exclusively does this alone, we decouple the dependencies in a more effective way.

I also agree with Sammer in the fact that, there might not be any all pervasive readymade EAI Server, as such. It seems to me more a abstract design issue which is adapted in application arcitectures as per requirements.
People write those plugins which are customised for the purpose.

Please, correct me, if i have gone wrong.

There's a new emerging category called Web Service Orchestration that carries the promise of Web Services to reduce the cost of enterprise integration. Orchestrating JMS and XML Web Services into business processes is more versatile and ubiquitous concept than EAI which often becomes the next legacy in a company.

Jill.

!EAI Server! is too general a term for what is going on in the EAI space. In the realtively open systems area there are the BEA Weblogic and IBM Websphere Application Servers which support JMS and Web Services as well as EJB, servlets, JSP, and CORBA. Microsoft's app servers support Web Services, DCOM, COM+, and ASP.

These are about as close as you get to a generalized EAI Server, and they don't begin to cover the proprietary EAI products like Tibco, basic MQSeries, Vitria, and Webmethods, which all have their own architectures.