XAPIA EXTENDS COMMON MESSAGING CALL STANDARD TO SERVE MESSAGE-RELIANT
APPLICATIONS

SAN FRANCISCO, August 7, 1995--XAPIA, the X.400 Application Program
Interface Association, today announced a new version of its Common
Messaging Call application program interface (API) that supports
additional features used by message-reliant applications such as workflow,
calendaring, document management, and electronic data interchange.

The CMC 2.0 programming specification will sharply reduce the effort to
develop interoperable message-reliant applications that operate on
different platforms, across different mail systems, and in different LAN
environments. Such interoperability preserves a user organization's
investment in systems and platforms, extends the ways that different
applications can communicate, and improves time to market for application
vendors.

Leading vendors and end user organizations including CE Software, Lotus,
Tandem, Novell, IBM, Oracle, and Boeing have voiced their support for the
CMC program. Niraj Jain, director, messaging servers at Oracle Corp.,
said, "The publishing of CMC 2.0 is a significant step in enabling the
widespread development of messaging applications and end-user clients on a
variety of platforms. Oracle in investigating not only the implementation
of CMC 2.0, but is also evaluating the use of the XAPIA Calendaring and
Scheduling API."

CMC 2.0 is not tied to any operating system, messaging protocol, or
hardware platform. It supports standard message formats such as X.400 and
SMTP as well as proprietary message formats.

CMC 2.0 builds on the CMC interface specifications introduced in 1993 and
supported in product offerings from Collabra, ExcelleNet, Inmarsat, Lotus,
Microsoft, Novell, and Tandem. Applications written to CMC 1.0 do not have
to be rewritten to work in a CMC 2.0 environment. Applications written to
CMC 2.0 provide CMC 1.0 support, as well.

CMC 1.0 provides a simple, consistent way for application programs to send
messages, read messages, and translate names into messaging addresses, the
three basic capabilities required to add messaging functionality to an
application. Microsoft has announced that CMC 1.0 will be part of MAPI 1.0
specification that will be released with Windows 95.

Features for Message-Reliant Applications

CMC 2.0 is intended for applications that rely on the store-and-forward
capabilities provided by a messaging system. In addition to the simple
send, receive, and address lookup functions in CMC 1.0, CMC 2.0 supports
additional features between E-mail systems. Applications can notify a user
of new mail, forward and reply to messages, import and export files,
maintain multiple folders, and support addressing nicknames across
platforms. CMC 2.0 allows a user or application to read from one messaging
system and write to another, if both support the standard.

XAPIA will introduce multimedia extensions to CMC later this year. A
committee led by AT&T is extending the CMC 2.0 interface to include
features of voice, fax, and video messaging. The extensions include the
specification of greetings for call answering, message printing on fax
machines, and control of links between different access devices like the
telephone and the messaging system from the messaging API. This last
feature enables the use of existing telephone interface for message
creation and retrieval.

Cross-Platform API

By defining a boundary between a messaging system and an application, CMC
2.0 lets an application written to CMC 2.0 standards use the message
transport facilities of any e-mail system supporting the standard. CMC 2.0
is ideal for development of cross-platform applications. That is,
applications using CMC 2.0 are independent of the underlying network
technology, local area networks, and wide area networks. Applications
written to CMC 2.0 also interoperate independent of messaging system or
operating system software.

For message system developers who want to accommodate features specific to
a message system or to include protocol-specific functions, XAPIA
specified a procedure for extensions to CMC. Vendors of message systems
can register extension sets with XAPIA to encourage consistent
implementation across the industry and minimize the loss of portability
extensions might generate.

CMC 2.0 uses an object-oriented data model to promote programming
flexibility and ease of use.

Specification Available Online

CMC 2.0, which includes sample code and an implementation guide, is
available to the industry. It can be retrieved from the CompuServe GENCOM
forum, XAPIA section, in a variety of formats. It is also posted on the
Electronic Messaging Association's web site (http://www.ema.org/).

XAPIA, an open, non-profit association, has developed X.400 and messaging
standards used by many vendors and accepted by international standards
bodies. Member companies are American Express, Arabesque Software,
Attachmate Canada, AT&T, Boeing Computer Services, BULL HN Information
Systems, Campbell Services, CE Software, Collabra Software, Corporate
Software and Technologies, Digital Equipment Corp., Enterprise Solutions,
France Telecom, Hewlett Packard, Hitachi, Hughes Aircraft, IBM, Infonet
Software Solutions, Intel, Inmarsat, LinkAge Software Inc., Lotus
Development Corp., Microsoft Corp., Microsystems Software, NetManage,
Novell, ON Technology, Oracle, RAM Mobile Data, Retix, Siemens Nixdorf,
Tandem Computers, Wingra, Worldtalk, and XcelleNet.
 
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