"Then came the Internet. Microsoft CEO Bill Gates called it the 'Internet tidal wave.' After the initial hype by the popular press, it soon became clear that the Internet's biggest immediate impact would be on the corporate workplace. Internet technology makes it easy to publish and share information with colleagues, whether in the same office or in branches overseas. Intranets , as these internal networks are called, seem to promise all the capabilities of Lotus Notes, and they are easier to set up and cheaper to maintain." "But in fact, the Internet may have been what Notes needed all along. Since it launched Notes in 1989, Lotus's biggest challenge has been getting people to understand its purpose. The Internet, the World Wide Web, and intranets give people a window into the world of collaboration across a network. Eric Schmidt of Sun (at that time) says: 'Notes will offer more of the pieces for intranets than any other solution.'" ” Fortune , July 8, 1996 When Lotus introduced Workplace, its open -standards-based, modular collaboration platform built on J2EE, there became two Lotus options for J2EE: Workplace and the traditional Lotus Notes/Domino products combined with WebSphere. Lotus has produced a Domino upgrade road map through 2005 that shows the path to J2EE. The portal-like interface offered in Notes/Domino R6.5 is designed to bring Domino users to "the same ultimate destination" as Workplace. Notes/Domino R7, due out late in 2004, will move even closer to Workplace. It will give businesses the ability to use DB2, rather than the traditional NSF database, as the Domino data store. (Workplace runs atop DB2 and WebSphere.) Ultimately, the option of using a relational database with Domino should mean a faster e-mail client, letting end users benefit from improvements in maintaining views, and clearing caches. Notes/Domino R7 will also feature changes to Domino Designer and WebSphere Studio, including better rapid application development capabilities. Plus, it will deliver disconnected mail support for managing e-mail data off-line. Notes/Domino R8, not due for delivery until 2005, will feature the ability to integrate third-party J2EE-based applications, such as customer relationship management software in Domino. In the meantime, we still have many ways to build Domino applications using J2EE-based functions. This chapter deals with the currently available J2EE access from Domino R6 to the WebSphere Application Server (WAS) V5 product. |
