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The Java"" programming language presents many new opportunities for application developers and users. Lotus eSuiteTM uses Java to provide an environment for the deployment and execution of business applications from the corporate intranet Tools such as spreadsheet, calendar, chart, e-mail, and database access, among others, bring the benefits of network computing to the end user. This paper discusses the eSuite functions and the principles and goals that guided their development.
The Java* * programming language presents many new opportunities for application developers and users. Its reach, nearly ubiquitous given nowwidespread support for Java Virtual Machines and the truly global connectivity provided by the Internet and Java-enabled browsers, permits lightweight pieces of software to be efficiently downloaded and executed anywhere in the world.
In the summer of 1996, engineers at Lotus Development Corporation began to design and create a new class of application software designed to take advantage of Java. This product line, initially codenamed Kona, and now officially named eSuite**, was announced formally in November 1997 and is now generally available.
This paper presents a technical overview of eSuite. It begins with a discussion of the principles and goals motivating the creation of eSuite. Next an overview of the architecture underlying each of the eSuite components is presented, including an exposition of the user interface frameworks and of the InfoBus, a key Lotus innovation enabling easy data transfer between software components. A brief overview of the eSuite component applets is then presented in order to illustrate these technologies in use. An example showing the components working together in a customized application concludes the paper.
eSuite goal
The overarching goal of the e Suite effort was to provide the tools by which the corporate intranet, and to some extent the broader Internet, could be transformed into an environment for the deployment and execution of business applications. With such tools as spreadsheet, calendar, chart, e-mail, database access, and others, we intend that the Internet-and more specifically, the World Wide Web-evolve from a medium hosting primarily statically published documents to one featuring much more interactivity. In a sense the goal was to bring the benefits of network computing to the end user.
However, to anyone attempting to create software for the Internet, it quickly becomes apparent...