.NET as client, java as server

Question

Hello,

I am planning to use .NET Client along with a Java Server.

Are there any options / tools which help in .NET to Java connectivity apart from programming against web services.?

Answer 1

Here are a few I've seen for .NET to Java interop:

JIntegra: http://j-integra.intrinsyc.com/

JNBridge: http://www.jnbridge.com/

These seem to be pretty expansive and flexbile, but also expensive. Achieving true interop between Java and .NET can be a bit involved. If XML-based web services are an option, that might be the easiest route.

One slightly unrelated technology is IKVM.NET http://www.ikvm.net/ - this tool allows you to compile Java bytecode into .NET IL (e.g. compile a .jar into a .NET DLL), so that you can use compiled Java code "natively" with .NET. This isn't necessarily good for interop, but a cool technology none-the-less.

Answer 2

You can always use a socket with XML message passing. Both Java and .NET have rich abilities to marshal and unmarshal XML.

Answer 3

• WebServices: preferred
• JNBridge: see this
• DB or Messaging: see this (could be suited for older versions, robotics etc)

Answer 4

Take a look at Thrift (apache project)... It was developed at facebook, and claims:

Thrift is a software framework for scalable cross-language services development. It combines a software stack with a code generation engine to build services that work efficiently and seamlessly between C++, Java, Python, PHP, Ruby, Erlang, Perl, Haskell, C#, Cocoa, Smalltalk, and OCaml.

http://incubator.apache.org/thrift/