[ebxmlms-general] Re: Hermes 2

[Patrick Y. <kc...@ce...>]

Hello folks,

I understand that the release of Hermes 2 might stir up some concerns on 
the further development of Hermes 1. Therefore, I think it might be good 
for me to explain the position of the Center for E-Commerce 
Infrastructure Development (CECID) of the University of Hong Kong here.

As a background, Hermes 2 is a complete rewrite over Hermes 1, after 
absorbing the deployment experience of of its ancestor. The main 
objective to be achieved by Hermes 2 is to design a platform which is 
capable to support multiple messaging protocols through installation of 
different plugins to the main server. Up to this moment, we have two 
plugins, supporting ebXML messaging services as well as AS2.

With that in mind, the APIs of Hermes 2 are not designed to be backward 
compatible to Hermes 1. However in terms of ebXML messaging services, 
the functional features of Hermes 2 do not make any difference from its 
ancestor. Therefore, we expect the existing Hermes 1 users and 
developers can stick with Hermes 1 if the functional requirement of 
their projects has not changed.

As you might have noticed, both the distribution platform and license of 
Hermes 2 has been changed. We no longer put the source code of Hermes 2 
in the CVS of SourceForge. Instead, the source code can be downloaded 
from the web site of CECID. Our idea is that the Hermes 2 would not be 
maintained by the community for the time being. On the other hand, we 
can see that Hermes 1 is gradually shifting from the mode which the code 
is maintained by CECID, to the mode which the code is maintained by the 
community. So from the maintenance point of view, the positions of 
Hermes 1 and Hermes 2 are different.

Anyway, CECID does *not* intend to hide the source code of both Hermes 1 
and 2 from the public. They are both available, only on different servers.

We have also changed the license of Hermes 2 to GPL, which we think is 
most suited for the long term development of our center. Please note 
that the license of Hermes 1 is still AFL. Therefore, the ebXML 
community will have their chances to choose the appropriate version 
based on their situations. If there exists a user who must use Hermes 2 
but does not want to be bound by GPL, please let us know and I am sure 
we can work out a solution accordingly.

I do hope that the above can let everybody understand more on the 
position of CECID, HKU. We welcome all comments and suggestions, so 
please feel free to share your thoughts. Many thanks for your continual 
support!

Happy new year!

Regards,
Patrick Yee
Center for E-Commerce Infrastructure Development

Making E-Commerce Everyday Commerce



Ladislav Urban wrote:

>Hello hermes developers and cecid guys!
>Do you plan to release new hermes on CVS? We still use hermes 1 and
>continue to debug it. We can not switch to hermes 2 because it is not on
>source forge and on CVS. So we can not fix problems. 
>
>Hermes 1 is in production shape. We are in process of certification
>Hermes 1 for ebXML interoperability and we use it in projects for our
>customers.
>
>Hermes 2 requires deep testing in production like environment and
>independent view of other developers till we can start use it for our
>customers.
>
>We have developed broker application for hermes 1. Do you know how to
>easy port it to new Hermes? 
>
>The reworked version has advantages -- we are not constrained by the old
>code but we should not split our development effort. 
>
>The main reason people use hermes in their ebxml projects is not the
>price or extended features but stability and conformity to ebxml
>standard!
>
>
> 
>
>Have a great one.
>Ladislav 
>
>
>  
>