Practical Internet Groupware

An innovative guide for programmers, IS managers, system administrators, and other advanced computer users explains how to build Internet groupware applications that organize the casual and chaotic transmission of online information into useful, disciplined, and thoroughly documented data. (Advanced)

Foreword; Preface; Who Should Read This Book; Organization of This Book; Part I; Part II; Part III; Part IV; Part V; Conventions Used in this Book; Comments and Questions; Acknowledgments; Using Internet Groupware; Chapter 1: The Conferencing Dimension; 1.1 What Is Internet Groupware?; 1.2 Shared Versus Annotated Data Stores; 1.3 What’s Wrong with Email?; 1.4 Groupware Nirvana and Reality; 1.5 The Conferencing Dimension; 1.6 Why Conferencing Matters; 1.7 Lotus Notes, Web Bulletin Boards, and NNTP Newsgroups; Chapter 2: Public Online Communities; 2.1 Advent of the Promiscuous Newsreader; 2.2 The Dynamics of Site-Specific Public Newsgroups; 2.3 Online Focus Groups in Action; 2.4 Managing Online Discussions; 2.5 Hybrid Web/NNTP Discussion Systems; 2.6 Public Discussions in Perspective; Chapter 3: Intranet Collaboration with NNTP and HTML; 3.1 Using Local Newsgroups: An Overview; 3.2 Conferencing and Email; 3.3 The Quest for a Read/Write Web Server; 3.4 Aggregating Web Content in Newsgroups; 3.5 HTML Authoring Strategies; 3.6 Reaching your Audience; Chapter 4: Information-Management Strategies for Groupware Users; 4.1 Understanding and Using Scoped Zones of Discussion; 4.2 Effective Packaging of Messages and Threads; 4.3 Using Messages to Conduct Polls; 4.4 Ask Not What the IT Department Can Do for Us; Groupware Docbases; Chapter 5: Docbases as Groupware Applications; 5.1 The Essential Simplicity of Internet Software; 5.2 How Docbases Are Groupware Applications; 5.3 Groupware Aspects of the BYTE Magazine Docbase; 5.4 Groupware Aspects of the BYTE Virtual Press Room; 5.5 Groupware Aspects of the BYTE Public and Private Newsgroups; Chapter 6: Docbase Input Techniques; 6.1 An Overview of the Docbase System; 6.2 Anatomy of a Docbase Record; 6.3 A Docbase Form Template; 6.4 Using the Docbase Form Generator; 6.5 Receiving and Validating Docbase Records; 6.6 Previewing Docbase Records; 6.7 Storing Docbase Records; 6.8 Assigning Reports to Analysts; 6.9 Docbase Input in Perspective; Chapter 7: Docbase Navigation; 7.1 Introducing the Docbase Navigational Controls; 7.2 Zen and the Art of Docbase Maintenance; 7.3 Implementing HTML Tabbed Indexes; 7.4 Implementing Sequential Navigation; 7.5 A Static Implementation of the Navigational Controls; 7.6 Using Docbase::Indexer; 7.7 Docbase Navigation in Perspective; Chapter 8: Organizing Search Results; 8.1 A Docbase’s Web API; 8.2 A Search Engine’s Web API; 8.3 Multiple Engines, Multiple Docbases; 8.4 Exploiting URL Namespaces and Doctitle Namespaces; 8.5 When URL and Doctitle Namespaces Don’t Suffice; 8.6 An Implementation Plan; 8.7 Generating the Results Display; 8.8 Plugging in SWISH-E; 8.9 Plugging in the Microsoft Index Server; 8.10 Docbase Search in Perspective; Groupware Applications and Services; Chapter 9: Conferencing Applications; 9.1 Example 1: A Reviewable Docbase; 9.2 Transforming an XML Repository into Reviewable Web Pages; 9.3 Instrumenting a Docbase for Collaborative Review; 9.4 Uses and Limits of the Docbase Review Application; 9.5 An Alternate, Email-based Comment Mechanism; 9.6 Example 2: A Conferencing-Enabled Helpdesk Application; 9.7 Uses and Limitations of HelpDesk; Chapter 10: Groupware Servlets; 10.1 Why Server-Side Java Matters; 10.2 The Polls Servlet; 10.3 The GroupCal Servlet; 10.4 GroupCal as a Web Component; 10.5 Groupware Servlets in Perspective; Chapter 11: Membership Services; 11.1 The Case for Internet Directory Services; 11.2 The LDAP Consensus; 11.3 A Subscriber-Based Notification System; 11.4 Working with Users and Groups in the NT Accounts Database; 11.5 Working with Users and Groups Using LDAP; 11.6 Group Membership in Perspective; Chapter 12: Authentication and Authorization Techniques; 12.1 HTTP Basic Authentication; 12.2 Basic Authentication for Apache; 12.3 Basic Authentication for IIS; 12.4 Protecting Scripts in Apache; 12.5 Protecting Scripts in IIS; 12.6 Attribute-Based Access; 12.7 An Authenticating Script for Apache; 12.8 An Authenticating Script for IIS; 12.9 A Pass-Through ISAPI Authentication Filter; 12.10 An Attribute-Based Authorization Script; 12.11 Scripted Authentication Using Netscape Directory Server; 12.12 An Authorizing Docbase Viewer; 12.13 Using Cookies to Authorize Access; 12.14 Setting a Cookie; 12.15 What to Put in a Cookie and for How Long; Chapter 13: Deploying NNTP Discussion Servers; 13.1 News Server Alternatives; 13.2 Deploying INN on Linux; 13.3 Deploying the Microsoft NNTP Service; 13.4 Deploying Netscape’s Collabra Server; 13.5 Deploying the MS Exchange NNTP Service; Advanced Internet Groupware; Chapter 14: Automating Internet Components; 14.1 The Object Web and Internet Groupware; 14.2 Using Web APIs as Automation Interfaces; 14.3 XML-RPC: a Next-Generation Web API; 14.4 Using Web APIs to Monitor and Test Groupware Applications; 14.5 Aggregating and Repackaging Internet Services; Chapter 15: Distributed HTTP; 15.1 A Perl-Based Local Web Server; 15.2 Networked dhttp; 15.3 Data Retrieval with dhttp; 15.4 Replicating Data; 15.5 Putting dhttp in Perspective; 15.6 Replicating Code; 15.7 Secure dhttp; 15.8 dhttp in the Windows Environment; 15.9 Groupware and dhttp; Chapter 16: Epilogue; 16.1 Today’s Internet Groupware Opportunities; 16.2 The Dynamics of Discussion; 16.3 Building Web Docbases; 16.4 Integrating Web and Messaging Components; 16.5 Applications, Components, and Services; 16.6 Data Prototyping and Object Persistence; 16.7 Advanced Techniques; 16.8 Next-Generation Internet Groupware; Appendixes; Example Software; Kit for Chapter 4; Kits for Chapter 6 and Chapter 7; Kit for Chapter 8; Kit for Chapter 9; Kit for Chapter 10; Kit for Chapter 11; Kit for Chapter 12; Kit for Chapter 14; Kit for Chapter 15; Internet RFCs: A Groupware Perspective; Email: Core Infrastructure; Email: Fetching and Managing Messages; Email: Semistructured Documents; Email: Encryption and Authentication; News Infrastructure; Web: Core Infrastructure; Web: HTML; Web: URL Schemes; Calendaring/Scheduling; Chat; Security; Public Key Infrastructure (PKI); Directory Services; Metadata and Resource Discovery; Miscellaneous; Colophon;