• The Four Hundred
  • Subscribe
  • Media Kit
  • Contributors
  • About Us
  • Contact
Menu
  • The Four Hundred
  • Subscribe
  • Media Kit
  • Contributors
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • IBM Buoys Workplace Development with New IDE

    August 30, 2005 Alex Woodie

    IBM filled out its Workplace portal strategy last week when it released Workplace Designer version 2.5, a new script development environment for creating composite applications that run on the recently released Workplace Collaboration Services and Workplace Services Express portals. With support for iSeries and other platforms, Workplace Designer is a key component of IBM’s Workplace strategy to combat Microsoft‘s Exchange juggernaut, while providing a Java-centric roadmap for Domino programmers.

    You can take your pick of studies that show IBM losing market share to Microsoft in the e-mail server and collaboration marketplace–IDC and Gartner have recently come out with them. While the two rivals have historically had similar sized install bases that number in the tens of millions, Microsoft has begun to put distance between it and Big Blue in the last several years. Workplace is central to IBM’s key to competing in this market, which is increasingly focused on portals that offer an integrated assortment of features like e-mail, instant messaging, Web logs, RSS feeds, file sharing, calendaring, and “presence awareness.”

    IBM throttled down on its Workplace development effort earlier this year with the release of Workplace Collaboration Services version 2.5, its enterprise-strength Workplace offering, and Workplace Services Express version 2.5, a scaled-down version aimed at small- and medium-size businesses. Both of these Workplace portals run on OS/400, although Workplace Collaboration Services requires the latest i5/OS release (see “IBM’s Workplace Collaboration Suite Is Almost Ready” for more on the portals).

    With the release of Workplace Designer 2.5, organizations now have the tooling to start building applications that will run in these portals. While Workplace Designer is based on the Java-based Eclipse IDE, it does not require a Java genius to use. In fact, while IBM’s collaboration strategy appears to be headed toward Workplace and Java, IBM has done its best to make Workplace attractive to Domino Designer users by supporting Domino scripts and Notes constructs within the Workplace Designer IDE.

    Workplace Designer development is handled through a variety of editors, including a JavaScript editor, a forms editor, and an XML schema editor. In addition to people familiar with JavaScript and Domino development, it can be used by people with Visual Basic and VBScript skills, IBM says. (This Visual Basic support could provide a lifeline for Visual Basic programmers, particularly considering Microsoft’s stated intention to drop support for Visual Basic 6 move those developers to the Visual Studio .NET product.) Even people with a relatively modest skill set can get started by dragging and dropping items in the forms editor.


    The product is primarily used to build role-based, document-oriented applications, such as expense report, change request, or project management applications. In any event, Workplace applications, which are deployed through a Web browser or the “smart client” Workplace interface, feature an array of collaboration capabilities. Applications and portlets built with Workplace Designer are deployed as loosely coupled “composite applications,” in-line with today’s service oriented architecture (SOA) development trend.

    While the current release is based on JavaScript, HTML/CSS, and XML, a future release of Workplace Designer in the works for 2006 will reportedly contain AJAX functionality. AJAX, or Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, refers to the popular stack of tools used to build interactive Web applications. AJAX applications typically make better use of XML for forms processing and can result in a more responsive application, according to the Wikipedia entry.

    Workplace Designer requires a Pentium-class workstation running either Windows or Linux. Licenses start at $649 per developer. For more information, see www.lotus.com/products/product5.nsf/wdocs/workplacedesigner.

    Share this:

    • Reddit
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Email

    Tags:

    Sponsored by
    Focal Point Solutions Group

    Comprehensive Data Protection from Focal Point SG

    Your organization needs to be thinking differently about your backup & disaster recovery strategy

    Concerns of the Industry

    • Inefficient manual backup processes
    • Effectively storing data offsite
    • Developing and testing a concrete disaster recovery plan
    • Efficient access to data in a disaster scenario for necessary users
    • Risk of cyber security attack
    • Declining IT staff and resources

    The true cause of the above concerns is an organization’s status quo – 80% of IBM i users currently backup to tape and 40% of companies have no DR plan at all. Don’t wait for a disaster to take action.

    The new way to ensure cost-effective safety

    • Automated cloud backup
    • Two (2) remote sites – redundant storage, power, internet pipe, firewalls, etc.
    • Data encryption at all times – in-flight and at-rest
    • Fully managed remote hardware DR, including remote VPN access for necessary users
    • Regularly simulated phishing tests and cyber security training

    Potential “landmines” in solutions to avoid

    • Single point of storage – no redundancy
    • Misleading data analysis, compression/de-dup ratios, sizing of necessary computer resources for backup and DR
    • Large-scale cloud storage with difficult recovery
    • Inability to meet RTO/RPO

    Don’t get caught like the many organizations we’ve seen with inefficient exposed backup data and no DR plan!

    What VAULT400 has to offer

    Backup

    • Native software agent schedules backups to the Focal Point SG cloud based on your retention scheme
    • Client data is backed up to two data centers in US or two data centers in Canada
    • 256-bit AES encryption in-flight and at rest – only the client has the encryption key
    • Detailed data analysis to ensure proper sizing

    Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS)

    • Focal Point SG provides “hands-off” DR – fully managed recovery
    • 60 days of remote VPN access available to unlimited users in event of a disaster
    • Documented reports to ensure defined SLAs are met

    Managed Service Cyber Security Training

    • Fully managed phishing tests
    • Detailed reporting of results
    • Fully managed administration of custom online cyber security training

    VAULT400 Cloud Backup & DRaaS is an IBM Server Proven Solution.

    VAULT400.com/proposal for FREE analysis & proposal

    813.513.7402 | ContactUs@FocalPointSg.com

    Share this:

    • Reddit
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Email

    Admin Alert: Common Things to Do When Installing Third Party Products Let’s See Those Command Parameters

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Volume 5, Number 34 -- August 30, 2005
THIS ISSUE
SPONSORED BY:

Aldon
Centerfield Technology & IBM
TeamQuest
Bytware
Twin Data

Table of Contents

  • Trustgenix and IdentityForge Put iSeries, zSeries at Center of SSO
  • IBM Buoys Workplace Development with New IDE
  • CabledSoft Delivers Graphical Cross Reference Tool for OS/400
  • DataMystic Provides iSeries Data Transformation Services

Content archive

  • The Four Hundred
  • Four Hundred Stuff
  • Four Hundred Guru

Recent Posts

  • IBM i Has a Future ‘If Kept Up To Date,’ IDC Says
  • When You Need Us, We Are Ready To Do Grunt Work
  • Generative AI: Coming to an ERP Near You
  • Four Hundred Monitor, March 22
  • IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 25, Number 12
  • Unattended IBM i Operations Continue Upward Climb
  • VS Code Is The Full Stack IDE For IBM i
  • Domino Runs on IBM i 7.5, But HCL Still Working on Power10
  • Four Hundred Monitor, March 6
  • IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 25, Number 11

Subscribe

To get news from IT Jungle sent to your inbox every week, subscribe to our newsletter.

Pages

  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Contributors
  • Four Hundred Monitor
  • IBM i PTF Guide
  • Media Kit
  • Subscribe

Search

Copyright © 2023 IT Jungle