When you download the 14-Day Trial version, you will be asked to submit a License request. A license key will be sent to the e-mail address provided in the form. When you receive the e-mail, you can save the contents to a file, or use the contents to cut-and-paste into the license screen.

When the Designer is started without a license, it will display a message prompting you for your license. Select the Get License option to display the License Management Screen. Use either the Browse... option to find the license file you saved, or the Paste option to enter the contents from the e-mail. (You can use the Designer Help "XAware License..." option at any time to access the License Management Screen, and view your license or upgrade from a trial license to a commercial license.)

All product tiers, inlcuding the trial download, include the full Designer Help documentation so you can search and review all XAware features. The 14-Day Trial download is the XAware Basic version, and supports the features listed for that tier. If you wish to use features in the XAware Standard or the XAware Gold/Platinum tiers, you will need to purchase the desired version. If you have further questions about any of the features in the XAware product versions, please review the Products or contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Currently, only the XAware Basic version is available as a free trial download. If you would like more information on using the XAware Standard or the XAware Gold/Platinum versions, please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

XAware is a Java application, built on the Spring platform, designed to work on any operating system supporting the Java 1.5 JVM and Eclipse 3.4. XAware has been tested on Windows 2003, Windows XP, Linux (select versions), and Unix (Solaris, etc.). Customers are also using XAware on Windows Vista, Windows 7, AIX, Mac OS/X, RHEL, SuSE, CentOS, Fedora, and other OS variants.

XAware has been tested on 32-bit operating systems, with Java 1.5. Although not formally tested on 64-bit systems, customers are using XAware running as a 32-bit application on 64-bit systems, on Windows Vista and Windows 7.

XAware is designed to access any database supporting JDBC (or JDBC-ODBC bridge) using Java 1.5. XAware has been tested with Oracle, Sybase, SQL Server, DB2, MySQL, Derby, and HSQL. We also have customers who have built implementations using various versions of these databases (including Oracle8, Oracle 9i, Oracle 10g, Sybase 12.5, SQL Server 2000, SQL Server 2005, DB2 8, DB2 9) as well as other database systems including MS Access, MS Excel, Informix, and PostgreSQL to name a few. XAware can also access databases (and other data sources) configured as an Application Server data source, using JNDI.

Please make sure that you have located your database's JDBC driver files; some drivers such as the Derby driver for the XAware examples are included in the XAware installation, but most drivers are not included due to vendor distribution limitations. Check your database installation for the JDBC files or go to your database's website to obtain the drivers. You can use the SQL BizComponent wizard (first screen) to Browse for JARs and Add them to XAware. Alternatively, you can just copy the driver files to the xaware.home/dynamic/jars directory.

Next, you create an XAware Bizdriver on the first page of the Wizard, and set the Protocol field for your particular database; in most cases the Driver Class field is automatically populated. The most common database driver configurations are already included in the drop-down selection; however you can also edit these fields if you are using a JDBC class that is not listed. Continue to edit the placeholders in these fields with your specific database configuration values, such as the host, port or database identifier. Enter the Login and Password for your database account. Click the Test Connection button to test the values you have entered for your database configuration.

After Test Connection is successful, continue to build your BizComponent and access your database tables and procedures, using the XAware Designer. For more information on deploying your database drivers to the XAware Server, please see the XAware Designer Help section under "Working with Database Drivers and External JARs".

When invoking a BizComp (or BizDoc), use the xa:input instruction on the Bizcomp reference to select the XML that you want to pass into the BizComp. Use the appropriate XAware axis and XPath expression to specify the XML to be sent to the BizComp. If you are passing all, or a subset, of the InputXML sent into the BizDoc, you would use the xa-input:: axis. Another common situation is executing a BizComp to read data from a data source, and return it to the BizDoc. You can then use the xa-doc:: axis with an XPath expression to select the XML to be passed into another BizComp. (You can also use the xa-current:: axis to reference XML within a BizDoc, using a relative path expression). Please see the XAware Designer Help section on "Path Expressions In Designer" for more information.

When passing XML into a BizComp/BizDoc, the xa:input XPath expression may select one node or repeating nodes, or might not match any nodes at all. If the xa:input attribute is present on the reference, the BizComp will be executed once for each matching node (0 times if no matching nodes). This allows you to iterate over a set of repeating elements, processing each XML fragment matching the XPath expression in the BizComp/BizDoc.

If the xa:input attribute is not present on the reference, then the BizComp/BizDoc is executed exactly once. This is typical when calling a BizComp/BizDoc that does not require InputXML to process, such as reading a flat file, or executing a SQL Select operation.

A path expression contained within bounding '%' characters, represents a value expression. The expression is evaluated as a string and that value is substituted in place of the expression. (If the substitution cannot be resolved, the original expression is returned as if no substitution occurred - a "failed substitution".) Substitution expressions can be contained within a larger XPath expression, but currently substitutions cannot be nested within other substitution expressions.

A path expression without bounding '%' signs is a node expression, and returns a node or set of nodes, indicated by the XAware axis and XPath expression. Node expressions are used in contexts where XML is to be specified such as an xa:input or xa:copy instruction.

Custom functoids are implemented as a Java method with String input parameters, returning a String result. You can use the Eclipse environment running XAware Designer to also develop your Java functoids, compile them as classes, and/or package them into a .jar file. To use your custom functoid in Designer, simply copy the classes (or .jar file) into the xaware.home/dynamic/classes (or /jars) directory. When using the Apply Functoids... option, select the All Functions tab to Browse, locate and apply your custom functoid. (You can optionally add the functoid to the Predefined Functions tab.) See the XAware Designer Help section "XAware Functoid Reference" for a more complete description and additional features.