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But intranet sites have a hidden cost--it takes time and effort to physically publish documents to a Web server. It's not as simple as adding a Web server and dropping documents in a folder. A Webmaster most likely coordinates the efforts of running the Web server, managing the documents and customizing the site to guide users through the volumes of information.

DataChannel's Rio 3.0 handles this management burden by letting users easily publish documents to the server in a collection of "channels" of information. In the lab, Rio automated the process of putting documents online in an intranet and used Internet Explorer channels to update the desktop clients automatically.

Rio's publishing client, Save to the Web, is a desktop Java applet that walks users through the process of placing documents on the intranet server. A user publishing a document literally drags and drops the document into a folder, publishing it to a Rio information channel. Once installed, Save to the Web appears as an icon on the user's desktop. Similar to the Windows95 Explorer interface, channels are represented as folders, and publishing a document is as simple as dragging and dropping a file into the appropriate folder.

I tested Rio in Network Computing's Syracuse University Real-World Labs®. It relies on Windows NT's Internet Information Server (IIS) 3.0 or higher and a back-end database server. (I used Microsoft Corp.'s SQL Server on a remote database server, but Rio ships with a run-time copy of Sybase SQL Anywhere.) Using a 233-MHz Pentium II Windows NT server, I put Rio to the test, publishing and managing various documents in our lab.

Rio was somewhat confusing at first; it requires a back-end RDBMS (relational database management system), but stores all documents on the Windows NT file system under a shared folder. This approach lets Rio store large amounts of structured data about files in the database, while quickly serving documents via a standard Web server. In this way, you don't have to make any SQL calls to retrieve the actual document. I had no problems using a remote Microsoft SQL Server, and Rio's install ran an SQL script to automatically configure and populate the appropriate database tables.

As an intranet publishing tool, Rio lets organizations easily create and manage information channels much like a customizable version of PointCast or other "push" technology. It not only makes managing a channel as easy as dropping documents into a folder, but handles access control (through the security functions in the ChannelManager applet) and supports three methods of document delivery to end users. Clients can access the channels through a simple HTML interface (for all Web clients), through a Java-based channel viewer and as XML-driven Active Desktop Channels (Internet Explorer 4.0).

Internet Explorer 4.0 clients had no trouble adding the Rio channels and also correctly handled the Java and HTML interfaces. However, I ran into problems with Java support on a Solaris version of Netscape Navigator 4.04 when testing the Java interface. (Problems with the interface were limited to this single Unix-based client.) Luckily, DataChannel included the plain HTML interface as a lowest common denominator for client access.

So What Does It Do? Rio's primary role is managing metadata on each document. Unlike other intranet publishing tools that we've tested, such as Hummingbird Communications' Common Ground (see www.NetworkComputing.com/820/820sp3.html), Rio is content-neutral. It doesn't attempt to convert desktop files, like Microsoft Word or Excel documents, to a common viewing format, such as Adobe Acrobat PDF or Hummingbird's Digital Paper. It also adds the capability of supporting push clients using Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0's XML-based channels.

In addition to its three delivery options, Rio includes a utility for nontechnical users to painlessly manage channels of information. But it's important to note that Rio simply distributes files--the desktop client is expected to correctly interpret any downloaded file format. For instance, you can download an Acrobat PDF file using Rio, but you'll still need a locally installed Acrobat viewer to read the file. I uploaded documents of various types to the Rio server and found that the server was indeed neutral to the document type, relying solely on the client to correctly read each file.

Rio manages documents using the metaphor of channels, similar to what you'll find in so-called "push" products for the Web such as PointCast or Microsoft's Active Desktop Channels. Instead of relying on directories and HTML pages to locate files on the server, Rio adds the convenience of multiple entry points for clients to access and browse documents on the server.

An HTML client lets generic non-Java browsers log into the Rio server and browse available channels, while a Java-based client uses applets to create a richer channel-viewing interface. The Java-based client is also the basis for the Rio administration utility (ChannelManager). Finally, users with Internet Explorer 4.0 can employ Active Desktop's channels to present Rio's document archives. An attractive option for up-to-date Windows desktop clients, Rio's intranet documents become an integral part of each subscribed user's desktop.

DataChannel was quick to point out that Rio's ease of use for the content provider is its main strength. A Webmaster administering an intranet site might accept documents via e-mail, locate an appropriate directory on the Web server and write a descriptive link to the document in a Web page--all of which are somewhat mundane tasks to devote to a full- or part-time employee. Rio handles these tasks automatically, letting users upload documents directly to information channels on the server. Since all content management is performed via a desktop Java application, the publisher doesn't have to worry about managing a Web site--he or she simply drops a document into a folder corresponding to a managed channel.

Rio handles back-end details, like creating a browsable interface to locate files and channels on the server. It also handles security by enforcing access-control lists as to who can create and view information on the server. In the lab, the administrative utilities (which ran through a Web browser via a Java interface) were quite functional and easy to use. As a Windows NT service, Rio correctly imported user and group information from our local Windows NT domain, so I could use it to determine which channels users may publish to or access.

Written entirely in Java, the late beta version I tested is designed to install on Windows NT, taking advantage of Internet Explorer's HTTP service. But DataChannel claims that the release version of Rio should run on nearly any operating system with a Java VM and ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) or JDBC (Java Database Connectivity) support.

Dan Backman can be reached at dbackman@nwc.com.