Ericsson Mobility World has researched cross-platform implementations between Microsoft .NET and Java technology for server-side Mobile Internet applications. Using JN Bridge software, .NET application developers can call Java-based server-side APIs.

Peter Yeung, SDK strategic manager and development adviser at Ericsson Mobility World, says: “Thanks to JN Bridge the two platform technologies are connected with each other. It means that .Net developers can still use .NET technology to access Java based service-layer functionality.

"They can simply extend existing .NET applications with Ericsson’s Java APIs to access service-enabler functionality such as delivering MMS and SMS messages, as well as for call-control functionality.”

Many applications, especially enterprise applications, are .Net based. With the JN Bridge solution, it is possible for existing .Net applications to capitalize on Mobile Internet features. Instead of waiting for fully fledged web-service interfaces, it is now possible to enable an enterprise’s .Net application to work with Mobile Internet services.

Yeung gives an example of how an extended a .NET application could work: “A possible enterprise .NET application could be for handling documents. Once someone has Checked-in (saved) a document in the document system an automatic alert could go out via MMS to selected people who need to know that the document is in place for use.”

Rehman Adil is a student at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. One part of his final thesis will be how to enable Ericsson’s Parlay implementation on the .Net platform using JN Bridge. He has written a step-by-step manual for developers with a reference implementation, which will soon be published on the Ericsson Mobility World website.

“.NET is a complete solution that includes a business model, platform and different programming languages, such as C-sharp and J-sharp, for developing enterprise applications. We demonstrate how the NRG SDK of Ericsson could be used on the .Net platform for building Mobile Internet applications by providing a sample application written in C-Sharp on top of the NRG SDK,” Adil says.

“JN Bridge provides a proxy-generating tool. First we have to create a proxy that is used for communication between the .Net platform and the NRG SDK. The proxy contains interfaces for Java classes and interfaces we want to use in our .Net application.

"Then we import the Java packages from the proxy as C-Sharp name spaces in our C-Sharp application and use them as ordinary C-Sharp applications. The proxy manages the interaction between the .Net side and the underlying Java classes. In this way it is possible to build C-sharp applications using Java APIs.”

Once further tests are completed, this reference implementation will be available for all developers to download along with the relevant documentation at Ericsson Mobility World.

Find out more about JN Bridge at www.jnbridge.com.

Karin Hanson