BackWeb Foundation Technologies
Polite Communications
With Polite Communications, BackWeb has introduced
bandwidth-sensitive delivery. As a result of the unique architecture of
BackWeb Foundation, Polite Communications provides the capability to
efficiently transmit data through networks by dynamically adapting the
transmission to match the bandwidth that is available. Polite
Communications is comprised of a suite of features and components that
address communications traffic at every level of the network.
The Polite Agent™ monitors the network activity of the client
workstation and communicates with BackWeb Servers only when the
connection is idle. The Polite Proxy dynamically provides for wide area
network, or WAN, connections in the same manner, depending upon
the WAN activity at specified control points. Polite Neighborcast™
frequently eliminates the need for proxy servers by enabling BackWeb
Clients to intelligently redistribute information to neighboring BackWeb
Clients. In this manner, BackWeb communications make use of ample
network connection time without slowing down other applications using
the network.
To further improve the efficiency of transmission, Polite
Communications features various techniques for reducing the amount of
data to be transmitted, including data compression, byte-level
differential updating, and interruptible communications.
Attention Management and Flash Notifications
Attention Management is an intelligent system that effectively alerts
users to the delivery of business-critical information through a variety of
display techniques including tickers and Flash notifications.
Flashes are a graphical multimedia display technique that can be
programmed to include multiple levels of interaction from merely
notifying a user, to requiring the user to acknowledge the Flash, to
requiring the user to immediately launch and interact with a designated
application before continuing.
In addition, BackWeb Flashes can be programmed to autoplay
according to specific scheduling and expiration parameters, after which
the information and associated data can be automatically purged. Our
attention-capturing technologies create a unique mechanism by which
critical information finds users rather than requiring users to find critical
information.
Closed Loop Delivery
Closed Loop Delivery technology uses Polite Upstream to allow
enterprises to track, manage and survey the effectiveness of their
messages. Companies can track the progress of any delivery or generate
reports on the overall usage of the system on a per-user or per-content
item basis.
BackWeb Foundation Components
The BackWeb Foundation has been designed to be integrated with a
company's existing application environment and therefore, leverage the
enterprise's existing information sources. Information is collected from
the Internet, intranet sites, databases, applications and legacy systems to
enable automated distribution of customized information to designated
users.
Servers
BackWeb Server
The BackWeb Server receives connections from BackWeb Clients and
sends data via channels to the clients. The server is optimized to support
a very large number of concurrent clients and is built from the ground
up to be extremely scalable. The BackWeb Server is extensible, and can
be connected to various back-end systems, such as databases and other
types of information stores. It also enables the Channel Profiler tool
which allows the creation of web agent channels, Workgroup
Configuration Manager which provides the ability to create custom
workgroup clients and provides the ability for robust targeting.
BackWeb Server Console
The server is managed by the BackWeb Server Console, an easy-to-use
point-and-click interface that allows distributed remote management of
the BackWeb Server.
BackWeb Polite Proxy/Repeater Server and Proxy Server Console
Clients can also communicate to the server through a chain of BackWeb
caching proxy/repeaters (when using HTTP protocol, any HTTP
caching proxy will function as a BackWeb caching proxy). The
BackWeb Polite Proxy/Repeater Server can serve as a caching proxy for
organizations with a large number of clients on a single network. It can
also be dedicated to a single channel to be used as a repeater server for
channels that want to distribute the communication load over multiple
servers or locations, while maintaining a single server. The
Proxy/Repeater is managed by the Proxy Server Console. The Proxy
Console combines filtering, caching and time controls which gives IS
the ability to allow/block access to and cache external channels for users
on a timed basis (time of day, days of week).
The BackWeb Polite Proxy Server supports several key features that
make it more powerful than regular proxy servers. It has the ability to
limit amount of bandwidth it consumes dynamically based on how busy
the network is. In addition, an administrator can set channel priorities
on the proxy server so that certain channels take priority in situations
where bandwidth is limited. This ensures that higher priority content is
delivered before lower priority information.
BackWeb Server Extensions API
In addition to creating channels with agents via the Channel Profiler,
channels can be created using extensions to the BackWeb Server called
"hooks." These extensions are programmed to the BackWeb Server API
and can be programmed in any language.
BackWeb Development Tools
BackWeb provides a robust set of development tools to aid in the
creation of the BackWeb solution.
BackWeb Automation SDK and Editor
In addition to creating automatically updated/maintained channels with
the Channel Profiler (described above), customers can automatically
maintain channels with custom-written routines. The Automation SDK
is a library of PERL routines (built for the Server API) that facilitate the
creation of custom routines for automatic retrieval and presentation of
information from web sites or databases.
BackWeb Forms Editor
The Forms Editor uses a graphical interface similar to Microsoft's
Visual Basic for quick and easy generation of channel registration and
configuration forms, allowing a company to easily create their own
personalized registration pages for workgroup clients.
BALI Editor
The BALI (BackWeb Authoring Language Interface) Editor is a simple
tool for creating Flash notifications. Companies have complete control
over the look, feel and behavior of their Flashes.
BackWeb Client Options
BackWeb provides a variety of flexible interfaces for users to interact
with information. The BackWeb Client interfaces are a part of the
BackWeb Foundation and allow users to receive information from the
BackWeb Server.
BackWeb Lite Installer
For making deployments of the BackWeb Client simple and easy
BackWeb provides the Lite Installer. This component consists of a
single file that is less than 100K. Once a user receives this file, via the
web, email or floppy disk, they can run this executable and it will
automatically install the BackWeb Client in the background over the
network.
BackWeb Infocenter Client
The BackWeb Infocenter Client provides users with multiple ways of
viewing, manipulating and searching information that has been
received. Using the Infocenter Client, the user can configure client
settings, subscribe to channels, view content received (title, summary
and entire file or story), search all received content, and establish
criteria (rules) to determine if information received should be filtered
out or tagged as a high priority "alert."
BackWeb InfoExpress Client
The BackWeb InfoExpress Client has the full capabilities of the
BackWeb Infocenter but is different in that only a single channel can be
seen or viewed at any time.
BackWeb Infocenter for Microsoft® Outlook™ Client
The BackWeb Infocenter for Microsoft Outlook Client allows users to
view content provided by Outlook (email, schedules, tasks, etc.) and
BackWeb content (corporate files, database queries, software updates,
competitive monitoring, external news and information) within one,
familiar interface. All features found within the Infocenter Client are
accessible within the Outlook integrated client. In addition, BackWeb
content can be easily previewed using Outlook's convenient
auto-preview view and forwarded using standard email methods.
BackWeb Infocenter for Microsoft Internet Explorer® 4.0 Client
The BackWeb IE4 Integrated Client is an extension of the BackWeb
Client that allows BackWeb channels to be viewed and controlled in the
Microsoft IE4 channel user interface. This means users of the Microsoft
IE4 channel user interface can have a consistent channel interface for all
IE4/CDF and BackWeb-delivered channels. This also means that
BackWeb can be used as an alternative delivery agent for
IE4/CDF/HTML channels from a web server to the IE4 browser.
BackWeb Client Components API
The BackWeb client engine, which handles all communication and
operation, is exposed via an ActiveX™ interface called the Client
Components API. Programming to this interface allows companies to
integrate BackWeb-delivered information into their own existing or
custom written applications.
BackWeb Notifications
BackWeb Notifications are alternatives or complements to the BackWeb
Client user interfaces for scanning or viewing received information in
ways that can coexist with the concurrent use of other, non-BackWeb
applications as the primary application on the desktop. These include:
Flashes – customizable desktop notifications that can automatically
appear and move unobtrusively on top of the desktop no matter which
application is active, without taking focus away from the active
application. The autoplay of Flashes is configurable by users and can be
automatically enabled or disabled at specified time settings and with
specified applications.
Ticker – can be configured to run anywhere on the desktop and display
any channels.
Newstitle – turns the title bar of the active window into a ticker,
allowing ticker functionality without using any desktop workspace.
Screensaver – screensaver that can display any channel and run on a
schedule set by the user.
Optional Add-Ons
BackWeb offers several add-on modules that further enhance the
BackWeb solution. Each module utilizes the BackWeb Foundation and
can be used with the BackWeb Sales Accelerator application.
BackWeb-IP Multicast Connector: StarBurst®
This is an optional add-on to the BackWeb Server that allows the server
to communicate with clients via StarBurst's IP multicasting protocol.
This requires clients have been enabled with the BackWeb-StarBurst
connection. It is available for all platforms supported by the BackWeb
Server.
AutoFile Update Manager
This add-on for the BackWeb Foundation allows a company to
effectively deliver software patches and updates using the BackWeb
Foundation technology. This powerful component is both scalable and
flexible to allow large files and/or large quantities of files to be
delivered to users irrespective of the speed of their network to whatever
destination on their hard drive set by an administrator.
BackWeb Content Connectors: NewsEdge® or Reuters®
These connectors give companies the ability to provide high-value
external newsfeeds as part of their BackWeb solution. Not only does
this provide an additional vehicle for delivering news for current
NewsEdge and Reuters customers, it also provides very specific,
detailed information about topics.
BackWeb Enhanced Extranet Security: RSA® and VeriSign®
This connector provides RSA and VeriSign support, for data
authentication and encryption of content. All content downloaded from
a BackWeb Server to a BackWeb Client is encrypted during transit.
Content can be "signed" so that users can verify its origin before
executing. Content that is not "signed" can be denied access to the
BackWeb Client. User profiles can also be encrypted for additional
protection and privacy. |
