Enterprise PortalsNotes are taken from the following book:
Szuprowicz, Bohdan. Implementing Enterprise Portals: Integration Strategies for Intranet, Extranet, and Internet Resources. Charleston, SC: Computer Technology Research Corp., 2000. ISBN: 1-56607-080-5. Intranet Portal"The enterprise portal is an interactive interface between an employee and the corporation. It facilitates access to the information, tools, and advice that workers may require to perform their assigned tasks. The portal focuses on data relevant to a particular job and eliminates distracting and unnecessary content. Gathering strictly pertinent information is accomplished via centralized control of data access and the use of push technology to inform users who have been identified by predetermined user profiles."The portal also include productivity tools such as word processors, spreadsheets, and groupware systems users need to perform their tasks, communicate with co-workers, or report to management..." (6-7). "An effective enterprise portal appears to be an easy-to-use desktop interface that can be immediately used by all employees -- including those inexperienced with computers. This deceptive appearance conceals a complex combination of several technologies that typically includes content management servers, search tools, automated classification engines, content catalogs, extensible markup language (XML) tools, and directories" (6).
Extranet"Extending intranets into extranets that collaboratively and cost effectively manage business partners, suppliers, consultants, and customers brings the dream of the interactive enterprise closer to reality" (7).
"The portal must not only provide the most relevant information to its users but must also be perceived by its users as a device that facilitates the work at hand" (10). "The.. top-ranked portals also have much in common. Their home pages are simple, with well-defined directories and subdirectories and type fonts that facilitate easy reading. All items on the portal screens typically directly link to more detailed information sources. Graphics, multimedia images, blinking displays, and other graphic enhancements are rare. These portals have discovered that straightforward, well-organized directories attract the largest numbers of users; thus a simple design can be considered the most efficient portal configuration" (11).
There are two major categories of portals: decision processing and collaborative processing. "The decision processing portal integrates information across the organization" (24). The collaborative portal enables "users to establish their own virtual project areas or communities and create specific capabilities required to collaborate within such environments. They include facilities such as security, chat forums, conferencing, calendaring, workflow, document management, and forms processing" (25).
"A corporate portal architecture typically consists of several components, including taxonomy, metadata, search, integration, publishing, and presentation engines" (55).
"The terms INFORMATION and KNOWLEDGE are often given similar definitions, but they are not the same thing; instead, they are closely related to each other through the process of transforming raw data into a working understanding of that data. One begets the other---data becomes information, which in turn becomes knowledge... "When data is processed into information, its quality is increased by validation, integrity cross-references, consistency, and other tests" (58).
"TAXONOMY, also known as systematics, is the science of classification... The portal's taxonomy engine must name, characterize, and discern the relationships of many Web sites and their content" (59). "METADATA allows incompatible systems with disparate and heterogeneous data to collaborate to provide service to end users" (61). "...the portal develops value by INDEXING information" (62). INTEGRATION ENGINE -- "A portal application evaluates data and information on specific topics from various sources and combines it to create knowledge" (64). "The PUBLISHING ENGINE enables.. users to interact via a Web interface... Users can annotate business information entries in the directory and move published information [from various formats] to their own protected or shared storage facilities" (64). PRESENTATION ENGINES -- "Users click on specific links to open documents if they have the creating applications. If they do not, some products display a PDF file that was created during the indexing phase. Some also render content in HTML" (65).
"XML provides self-describing data structures indicating depth and complexity by means of document type definition (DTD) metadata, which is comparable to a database descriptor (DBD) or database schema... XML provides the capability to tag and transform information from many sources into a common format, enabling centralized access and control..." (69).
"A portal's ability to present information from diverse sources through a common interface is its primary advantage, offering simultaneous front-end and dynamic integration.." (71). Affinity Portals"Affinity portals are commercial Web sites that provide access to such specialized topics as aviation, boating, finance, skiing..."Affinity portals employ surfers and editors who are specialists, hobbyists, and enthusiasts of the activity represented. These people continuously identify and evaluate new Web sites associated with their interests and categorize them to provide easy access from their portal" (71-2). "Traditional search engines and directories enhanced with various functions are known as PORTALS. Simplicity and speed of presentation determine the portal's reach" (74). "The home pages of the leading Internet portals are remarkably similar.. Most pages are almost exclusively text with well-organized directories whose headings are almost identical... Most feature a search box and a side bar with special functions or news items. They are also simple in design and easy to navigate" (79). [Yahoo.com and AOL.com are held to be the best prototypes.] Remember that commercial portals vary from enterprise portals in their purpose. Enterprise portals seek primarily to increase the productivity of their users. For a website that measures Internet and digital media usage, see mediametrix.com.
XMLXML "will allow corporations to move data across the Web with their own customized definitions... HTML tags indicate how a browser should display various elements of a document on a Web page. XML tags specify what those elements are" (124)."Unlike HTML, XML allows document developers to create tags that describe the data and optionally create a set of rules known as document type defintions (DTDs). A standard XML parser reads, decodes, and validates such text-based, self-describing documents and platform-independently extracts data elements, enabling applications to access data objects through the document object model (DOM) standard" (128). "Communities with shared interests can create their own XML dialects. For example, the wireless equipment makers are developing wireless XML (WXML). Web sites using WXML will be able to detect the memory, modem, and display limitations of user telephones or portable communications devices and will adjust transmission content accordingly. Cellular phone companies AT&T, Lucent, and Motorola have also developed voice XML (VXML) which converts XML text into speech for car phone delivery" (130-31).
Integration of Massive Legacy Knowledge Bases"The powerful linking capabilities of XML systems enable the integration of more sources. XML includes new linking technology using various hypertext standards that allow bidirectional, multidirectional, and links to a span of text (rather than to a single point) within internal and external documents..."Detailed description of XML linking capabilities are contained in XML linking specification (XLink) and XML extended pointer specification (XPointer) documents" (131).
XML ToolsArborText (http://www.arbortext.com/) produces EPIC, the first XML management solution. Enterprise Product Information Chain (EPIC) manages the creation, collaboration, presentation, and updating of vital corporate information.Icon Information Systems (http://www.xmlspy.com/) produces the XML Spy editor, a professional validating XML editor for XML, XHTML, and XSL structures. Written in C++ for speed and maximized for the Windows environment. OASIS (http://www.oasis-open.org/) Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards "provides a registry and repository for the access and management of XML schemas, DTDs, and other XML information" (138). * SoftQuad Software (http://www.softquad.com/). "XMetaL authoring tool, a user-friendly XML editor with a familiar word processing UI. XMetaL includes an XML parser and sample files, DTDs, style sheets, and macrosets.." (138).
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