Merry Christmas CA

Well it is that time of year again when we all take a well deserved break (this is subjective I know), send those work clothes to the dry cleaners for a much need overhaul, eat too much, drink even more and come back to work refreshed in the new year with at least one broken new years resolution by the 5th of January.

Christmas is often a busy time of year for many of us and we sometimes also spend the time talking about those that are no longer with us at those family reunions. I presently have some of my relatives visting us and have also had a long time family friend popping in to say "Hi" even though we live 12,000 miles apart.

Anyhow, Christmas is a time of giving (well it is in my world) and CA thankfully think no differently.

If you haven't already seen the news feeds then you may not know that our friends at CA have gone GA on CA Plex 6.1. There are quite a few neat features in this release that are worthy of a mention here, highlights include:-

Model-based SOA support
- WCF Service Generation
More Extensible Development Environment
- Plex API Enhancements and Add-Ins
- Code Library Service Generator Plug-Ins
Windows Vista Support for development
Group Model Update History
Runtime Backwards Compatibility - Easy Upgrade from 6.0
- No re-gen or re-build from r6 to r6.1
Platform Compatibility Updates
- IPv6
- Java SE 6.0, ANT 1.7.0
- SQL Server 2008, Oracle 11g
- Windows Server 2008
- 64-bit Windows

For full details follow some of the following links (Note I am not responsible for external site content):-

http://www.ca.com/us/press/release.aspx?cid=194906

or the product brief

http://www.ca.com/files/ProductBriefs/ca_plex_product_brief.pdf

I am particularly keen on the additions and improvements to the Model API and what this will allow third party vendors to create to support the CA Plex ecosystem.

But then there is more.

CA have also announced that the user voting system polls used successfully in 2007 will be re ran early 2009 to help provide CA product management with user driven requirements for the enhancement of the toolsets (Both 2e and Plex). But remember you are voting in enhancement requests made. In order to get your requests in the list you need to contac CA support and raise a ticket.

But then there is more.

2e 8.5 is already Alpha and going Beta in the new year. Highlights for this release are:-

ILE Service Program support
- New object type to combine modules into service programs
- Supports CA 2E-generated and external modules
Web Services support
- Deploy ILE Service Programs as web services
- Based on IBM i Integrated Web Services server for ILE
Improved Impact Analysis
- Take account of commented-out code
- Voted No. 1 in 2008 Enhancement Request Survey
Better search/positioning facilities in the model
IPv6 compatibility
CA 2E Web Option Environments
- Separates user data from the product libraries

I believe GA is planned for July 2009.

But then there is more.

There are webcasts to be heard in the new year. There are events to attend. There are conferences to consider. There are powerpoints for CA world to be downloaded.

How do I know all this. Well I am a member of the PLC (Product Line Community) and as such I get regular email updates from the product management team at CA.

To join this ever growing list, simply click the link below.

http://causergroups.ca.com/usergroups/UserGroupHome.aspx?ID=391

Mery Christmas and a Prosperous (Credit Crunch Recovery) New Year.

Thanks for reading.
Lee.