Re: RDBMS-based Intranet groupware products vs Notes : RDBMS vs proprietary doc. storage

Bill Gervasi wrote:

> 
> Notes versus other groupware solutions?  To me, it appears to be the
> battle of the proprietary choices: GroupWise, Collabra, Exchange (if you
> can truly call that "groupware").  Over the next couple of years I
> suspect we'll see dozens of Internet-based solutions pop up, all claiming
> to be "open" because they use Internet communications protocols, but in
> reality they'll all just be more proprietary solutions, many of which
> will die off over time.

You are correct. An internet based groupware solution has popped up claiming to be open: Radnet's WebShare. I do work for Radnet so this is definitely biased.

Here is how WebShare are more open:

• WebShare uses a RDBMS accessed through ODBC as its database. The product is bundled with Sybase's SQL Anywhere. You can replace this with the RDBMS of your choice.
• WebShare can optionally store file attachments and BLOBs like our picture field in the file system. This gives much higher performance.
• Forms and views are designed in native HTML. There is support for JavaScript built into WebShare Designer.
• The scripting language is Visual Basic compatible.
• WebShare can use several different user authentication methods to piggyback off of directory services you already have:

  MAPI directory services
  NT authentication
  HTTP basic authentication

  or you can use WebShare's proprietary method.

• WebShare can integrate with the web server of your choice. WebShare comes bundled with a Spyglass SSL server but can be used with any CGI or ISAPI compliant web server.

>What about data publishing?  Contrast the cool features of Notes with the
>brain-dead troff-wannabe that is HTML.  Java is so complex that it'll be
>years before there are robust releases of standard tools that make it
>accessible to non-programmers.

Of course there are limits to what you can do with HTML compared with a proprietary client but there is great deal you can do with HTML. We think the tradeoff is worth it to support the new universal client - the web browser.

Some of WebShare's cool features include:

• File attachments*
• Edittable Picture fields*
• Collapsable views
• Pictures in views
• A unique calendar view
• Dynamic column sorting
• Unread marks
• Private views
• All administration is done through the web browser.

*WebShare uses Form-based File Upload in HTML (RFC 1867) which is currently available only in Netscape 2.0+.

Radnet has a 60 day fully fuctional trial version of WebShare available for download from www.radnet.com. Also, the 8 starter applications that ship with WebShare can be tried out online.

Chris Wysopal
chris_at_radnet.com Received on Mon Jul 15 1996 - 00:00:00 CEST