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 Corporate.Net Pushing P ast The Hype: Delivering To The Desktop Bongo lets channel deve lopers lay out interface widgets and script them using a Java-based scripting language. Even with limited Java programming expertise, we created Bongo presentations with slick interfaces, though they had limited functionality. With some solid Java programming expertise on your channel development team, you can use Bongo to design user interface elements that tie into rich back-end Java functions. The result is applications that are delivered to users and maintained without their intervention. Castanet pushes Java applets and complete Java applications, with or without a Bongo front end. Castanet Java applications are freed from some of the constraints of browser applets. They can write to the local hard drive to save user profile and channel event information. (You can now do similar things with browser applets, but they require that your applets be packaged and signed with a digital certificate.) Castanet also lets you create transmitter plug-ins to receive data transmitted from a client's local hard dri ve, such as user profile data, which the plug-in uses to tailor subsequent client updates. Although Castanet's Java security is relaxed in comparison to browser applet security, Castanet does have built-in client security features that tightly control client file I/O, limit network connections, prohibit local program execution and limit thread creation--all to protect the local operating environment. Like BackWeb, Castanet uses a proprietary protocol to transfer channel updates in a single transmission with a differential update mechanism, ensuring that only new or changed code is downloaded. Castanet also lets the developer decide which action to take when an update occurs while a channel is executing--a capability that lets Castanet dynamically update an active application. When it comes to server administration, Castanet is behind BackWeb. It lacks a real-time monitoring interface, is not designed to run as an NT service and limits server configuration to memory/disk cache and maximum/concurrent th read settings. However, the soon-to-be-released Castanet Repeater and Proxy will complement the Transmitter by providing a set of infrastructure tools that will scale channels to serve many concurrent users, both within the intranet and across the larger Internet. Andy Covell is director of information technology at the Syracuse University School of Management. He can be reached at abcovell@som.syr.edu.
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