Envoy Technologies Developer Portal

Envoy XIPC Overview

Envoy XIPC is an advanced software toolset for the development of multitasking and distributed enterprise applications, regardless of the location of the involved processes and regardless of the variety of operating systems, network protocols, and hardware platforms being used. Envoy XIPC essentially permits the developer to conceptualize the programming environment as a virtual multitasking environment where processes communicate and interact with each other using a single high-level programming model, independent of the physical location of the processes.

Envoy XIPC applies the standard programming model for multitasking Inter-Process Communication (message queues, semaphores, shared memory), expands it to include guaranteed message delivery and makes this enhanced model completely operating system and network transparent. To the Envoy XIPC programmer, the network appears as a single multitasking operating system. With the addition of high-level functionality and extensive monitoring and debugging aids, Envoy XIPC facilitates the rapid development and deployment of sophisticated multitasking, network-transparent and enterprise-scalable distributed computer applications.

Envoy XIPC lies between an application and its underlying environment, providing a rich Application Program Interface (API) that:

• Performs all inter-process communication operations
• Is independent of the underlying operating system, network protocol, and hardware platform
• Is easy to learn and use
• Insulates the applications built with Envoy XIPC from changes to the underlying deployment environment

The Envoy XIPC programming model has a number of important advantages:

• Productivity: With its familiar multitasking model, Envoy XIPC eliminates the need for network programming skills. As a result, the cost of developing and maintaining distributed applications is significantly reduced.
• Connectivity: Envoy XIPC's programming model allows processes of a distributed application to appear local to one another - client to server, peer to peer. The processes interact as if there were no network.
• Interoperability: The Envoy XIPC programming model is preserved even when processes are spread over a network of heterogeneous computer platforms. Application logic is independent of application environment mix.
• Portability: With its portable API, provides for immediate source code portability between dissimilar platforms. The IPC portion of an application need only be written once.
• Scalability: Applications written using Envoy XIPC are inherently scalable. Applications involving thousands of users and network nodes may be built and quickly deployed. Subsequent adding and deleting of nodes can occur "on the fly" - without disrupting or modifying any aspect of the running application.
• Reliability: Envoy XIPC's sophisticated exception handling, fault-tolerant recovery mechanisms and real-time monitoring tools provide the means for building distributed applications that are robust and reliable.

You can find more information about Envoy XIPC in the online documentation.