Patterns: Pervasive Portals Patterns for E-Business Series

8.8 Everyplace Client

Everyplace Client is a client application for Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) which provides a common interface that supports information updating, security, device management, offline Portal pages, offline Domino Applications and database synchronization. The Everyplace Client features the following products:

• Domino applications, which provide Lotus Notes functionality for the handheld device.

• e-mail and PIMs, which provide the capability to synchronize with e-mail and PIM data with Lotus Domino and Microsoft Exchange servers.

• Database synchronization, which supports DB2 Everyplace as the database synchronization engine. It enables the synchronization with DB2 and JDBC compliant database servers.

• Offline Portal pages, which provide the ability to view Portal content and to handle Form operation offline, using the capabilities of Web-based services. This feature is available only in PocketPC devices.

• Device Manager, which can be used to identify, configure, inventory, and distribute software to supported PDA devices.

• Everyplace Client: the Everyplace Client interface provides a simple and unified operation and launching interface for packaged applications. This interface is available only for PocketPC devices.

• Secure HTTP proxy: this supports SSL connection and basic authentication, and contributes to support the offline browsing of the static portal server, the unified user interface and configuration for all Everyplace client applications.

• Sametime Connect: Sametime Connect is an easy-to-use application that provides complete awareness and conversation features. It lets people find other members online and create personalized lists of team members and colleagues. Features for managing user privacy are also included so a member can control their own online presence. Users can also list their presence as "active", "away", or "do not disturb". Once a team member is aware of who is online, immediate communication is easy. A single mouse click lets them send an instant message to anyone . The Sametime Connect client for Palm OS is shown in Figure 8-20 on page 195.

  Figure 8-20: The Sametime Connect for Palm OS