IberAgents

News

December 3 2004: The site now sports a menu for easy navigation.

December 2 2004: demo site is now online, check it out.

December 1 2004: relelased version 1.3.1, with some security fixes. If you downloaded the last version and it is using up too much memory, please update to this version.

November 26 2004: released version 1.3, with an emphasis on security: secure communication with SSL, secure passwords and more. See the security page for details.

September 7 2004: published the javadoc online.

September 6 2004: released version 1.2. Too many changes to list here; most importantly, variable key fields and new component type Restartable. See the architecture guide for details.

August 26 2004: released version 1.1.2. Added support for soap faults, so that remote exceptions are now transparent. Minor bug and documentation fixes.

August 23 2004: released version 1.1.1. Documentation is now organized in frames; a new page explains the agent framework.

August 11 2004: released version 1.1. All unit tests running. Added contact page with information about the new mailing list.

August 6 2004: released version 1.0.2. Added a tutorial on building a personal agent.

July 29 2004: added a tutorial on building a new application.

Introduction

IberAgents is a web application framework that enables the creation of SOAP-interoperable components in Java, with life cycle management and remote configuration. Development started in 2001; we now have a mature, solid open-source platform that has been used in several projects.

IberAgents is free software; the latest version is available for download under the terms of the GPL (GNU General Public License).

Documentation

The following documentation is available online.

The architecture guide details architectural principles and design decisions.
A user guide is available for developers willing to use IberAgents.
Its use as an agent framework is also documented.
There are tutorials for building a new application and building a personal agent.
The status page shows the progress in the implementation of most-wanted features; the change log is also available.
A security guide explains how IberAgents performs secure communications, and details how to create your own certificates for SSL.
The javadoc for all classes is available for online browsing.
Use the contact page for any issues or suggestions.

Capabilities

IberAgents provides the following functionalities for Java developers.

Components: as in any good platform, the definition of the components that form IberAgents is short and precise. It is based on a set of interfaces (CoreComponent, Agent, Service, ConfigurationComponent...) that establish the behaviour of every component. For example, an agent (implementing the interface Agent) will be able to execute tasks independently.
Life cycle management: components are created, configured and started (if necessary) from within the platform. If an agent fails in the middle of a task, it is automatically restarted.
Component discovery: an internal directory maintains the information on the location and state of every component.
Communication: remote messaging is as simple as local method invocation; the platform will deliver the message transaparently to its destination in both cases.
Security: communications between different nodes can be secured with SSL (https) using certificates.
Persistence: to store information in a database, no schema creation (and, more important, maintenance) is needed. The platform will create all necessary tables, and compose the required SQL sentences compatible with Oracle, MySQL and PostgreSQL databases (verified to this moment). Information retrieval is just as easy.

Check the features page for more information.

Projects

IberAgents is used in the following internal projects.

Demo Site

You can create a sample agent using the link below.

http://iberagents.ib-ia.com/iberagents/platform?component=com.ibertest.personal.TestPersonalAgent

Click on "sign up!", then enter the required values. A test agent will be created and will be kept running on the demo machine.