The second servlet, the XSP Server, generates XHTML (Extensible Hypertext Markup Language) from the data store where everything is kept as XML and dynamically presented as generated Java classes.

These two server servlets need a Web application server and a servlets container in which to operate. FlowBuilder 3.0 requires a servlets container that is compliant with JSP1.2 (Java Server Pages) and Servlet 2.2, so Domino 5 will not support it, but Domino 6 will work, as well as IBM's WebSphere Application Server, Sun's ONE Application Server, BEA's WebLogic Server, Microsoft's IIS (Internet Information Services), and even the Apache Project's Jakarta Tomcat.

After selecting an application server, FlowBuilder 3.0 needs an RDBMS in which to store its XML documents. It currently supports Borland's Open Source Interbase, IBM's DB2, Microsoft's SQL Server, Oracle, as well as providing JDBC (the database connection standard used by Java programs) connectivity for MySQL and Cloudscape.

Developer installation
I chose to test drive FlowBuilder 3.0 with a developer installation, which was surprisingly straightforward. Because all the tools are written in Java, FlowBuilder 3.0 can run on any number of platforms (e.g., Linux, and Macintosh) but I chose Windows 2000 Professional.

With all the choices to make in configuring a FlowBuilder 3.0 setup, the developer installation of the FlowBuilder 3.0 tools has been simplified to automatically include Tomcat, an XML file to substitute for LDAP services, and Firebird (Borland's open-source Interbase RDBMS). It is a very fast install process from a single CD.

About the only hitch that can occur during setup is if your workstation is without a Java 2 JVM (Java Virtual Machine). If your system lacks a current JVM, there is a prompt which includes a link to the Sun site so that you can actually pause during installation, install the JVM, and then continue to finish the setup.

Next, the Firebird/Interbase RDBMS is installed (by default) with a name:password of sysdba:masterkey. An XML file is created in lieu of an LDAP directory and the Tomcat server is configured for port 8080.

The tools that are included with FlowBuilder 3.0 are:

• The Visual XSP Studio is the primary development tool used to create FlowBuilder 3.0 applications. It has an Eclipse look to it and exposes database access, schema access, provides form design, delivers JavaScript emulation of Notes @Formula language, and includes a suite of XSP preprogrammed beans.

• A Visual Designer that is used to model and create workflow applications using a flowchart motif.

• The Visual Planner is the interface to define the complex working relationships that are necessary for workflow applications.

• New to release 3.0 is the Migration Wizard, a dedicated tool to assist in migrating a Notes application into the XML/J2EE structure that the Visual XSP Studio can manipulate.

• The Database Explorer is a universal database access client to browse the content of any database deployed with FlowBuilder XML Edition.