Lotus Expeditor enables client integration
Features and benefits
BM Lotus Expeditor software is IBM's client integration framework. It assists developers in integrating a wide variety of client and server applications to optimize the information that your employees need to accelerate your business processes. Expeditor is used, in production; by bank tellers, call centers, government employees, insurance adjusters, and in other customer care applications, worldwide. Use it to extend your IBM Lotus or IBM WebSphere or other legacy applications such as Microsoft .NET. Lotus Expeditor software supports laptops, desktops, kiosks, branch office integration hubs and mobile device clients. It provides the flexibility of service oriented architecture (SOA) and a standards-based programming model from the OSGi alliance and the Eclipse foundation. The Lotus Expeditor 6.2 software, also includes Lotus Expeditor integrator software which provides a local concentrator and integration hub for transactional messaging for satellite locations of an enterprise such as retail outlets or remote offices.
Benefits
- Helps improve customer care employee responsiveness and productivity by providing a composite client desktop that integrates and aggregates multiple applications - including Microsoft ActiveX, Java Swing, SWT, IBM WebSphere Host Access Transformation Services, and Lotus Forms software. Composite applications which are integrated on the client desktop and optimized for the task at hand can help can cut seconds or minutes off of business processes.
- Helps increase employee productivity by providing access to business applications, anytime, anywhere - with or without network connectivity.
- Helps enhance developer productivity by allowing the re-use of program assets and developer skills.
- Eases application extension to clients with a familiar programming model.
- Helps prevent vendor lock-in by employing a standards-based programming model from the OSGi Alliance and the Eclipse Foundation. As an alternative to Microsoft client software, Lotus Expeditor software provides flexibility from service oriented architecture (SOA) and open standards based on the Eclipse platform. (Eclipse is an open source community committed to implementation of a universal development platform.).
- Enables faster solution development and deployment of managed client applications through IBM Business Partners tools and services.
- Helps reduce administration cost by enabling administrators to deploy and manage applications remotely.
- Provides, with Lotus Expeditor integrator software, a local concentrator and integration hub for transactional messaging for satellite locations of an enterprise such as retail outlets or remote branch offices
- Platform support: Works on a wide variety of operating system platforms, including Windows, Linux, AIX, Citrix and (on client only) Windows Mobile. Support for Nokia Symbian and Windows Mobile 6.1 devices was added in Lotus Expeditor 6.2.1 software.
Features
IBM Lotus Expeditor software provides a desktop client integration solution to build composite applications and extend managed clients to a variety of devices. It also provides an integration hub for distributed locations. Built on Eclipse and OSGi technologies, Lotus Expeditor is an open, standards-based alternative to Microsoft .NET clients. Lotus Expeditor software augments the Eclipse Rich Client platform with security, middleware, and an integration framework to provide customers with a supported product that has been proven in production on millions of desktops. The software toolkit plugs into your existing Eclipse or IBM Rational Application Developer environment to help developers rapidly build and deploy applications. The software can be used to extend other IBM offerings like IBM Lotus Sametime, IBM Lotus Notes, IBM Lotus Symphony, IBM Lotus Forms and IBM WebSphere Application Server software.
Lotus Expeditor software provides client and the corresponding server-side connectors for the following capabilities:
Composition: Provides support for building and deploying composite applications containing components of virtually all types - from Java Foundation Class Swing, text terminal, Microsoft Visual Basic and ActiveX and applets to native or Web views like Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (Ajax), Adobe PDF, Java Server Pages, and IBM Lotus Forms components. As a result, you can create a visually integrated view and integrated workflow within the composite application - using processes contained in your back-office applications. The Lotus Expeditor toolkit includes many composition functions to help simplify and speed the development and deployment of composite applications developer productivity. See the developer productivity page for details.
Client integration: Helps bring information to your users' fingertips by enabling access to multiple data sources through the managed client using various technologies such as:
- Transactional Messaging with the Lotus Expeditor Microbroker component, which provides publish/subscribe messaging
- Web services with security features
- Updated Web container that supports Servlet 2.5 / JSP 2.1
- Synchronized databases with IBM DB2 Everyplace and with Apache Derby
- Portlets with support for the Struts Framework (JSR 168)
- IBM WebSphere Business Integration Adapter (and SCA client proxy) software
Transaction integration hub. Provides, with Lotus Expeditor Integrator software, a lightweight local concentrator and integration hub for transactional messages at each remote location and then provides intelligent routing and filtering of business events and data to the IBM WebSphere Message Broker software at the central site.
Disconnected access support: Help increase productivity by providing offline access to applications through local business logic and data.
Mobile access support: Enable employees to access enterprise information when away from the office, through laptops, PDAs and smartphones that are supported by the Lotus Expeditor client for devices. With Lotus Expeditor software you can extend SOA-based composite applications to a managed client environment on various supported devices. In addition, Expeditor 6.2.1 software enables location APIs that developers can use to provide geographic-specific information in their applications.
Server-managed deployment: Help reduce deployment and maintenance costs by enabling client applications to be remotely deployed and managed from the server.
Rich client and Web-based user interface support: Promote reuse of skills and help increase developer productivity by offering developers a choice of programming models. The client developer environment includes managed client software and a servlet container, enabling developers to write Eclipse - and OSGi - based software or Web-based applications that run locally.
Client access via a Web browser: Citrix Presentation Server environment support in Lotus Expeditor software means that users can use a browser from existing lower-powered workstations to access Lotus Expeditor software based applications.
Security features: Lotus Expeditor software also includes many client security features including credential (key) store, enterprise single sign-on, two-factor authentication, enhanced Web services security, RSA encryption and integration with eTrust SiteMinder and Tivoli Access Manager for e-Business (WebSEAL) for authentication. Lotus Expeditor 6.2 software also supports is Signed Features, is FIPS 140-2 compliant and provides local encryption of the Microbroker software. Lotus Expeditor 6.2.1 software adds time stamping for signed plug-ins.
In addition, the software includes a Platform Builder Tool, which allows an IT shop to select just the Lotus Expeditor features needed for the enterprise development environment.
Here are examples of how Lotus Expeditor software can be used to extend your existing and future IBM Lotus, IBM WebSphere or Eclipse infrastructures to a managed client environment.
For companies using... | Lotus Expeditor software can help... |
---|---|
IBM WebSphere Message Broker | Integrate transactional data more quickly from remote offices or to enterprise systems at near realtime, rather than waiting for batch data transfers. |
Extend WebSphere transaction processing into satellite locations at low cost. | |
Provide a low-cost and near-zero maintenance infrastructure to enable local terminals and equipment to communicate with each other and with the central site. | |
Other WebSphere and Eclipse applications | Extend the WebSphere programming model with a flexible user interface on managed clients on various supported devices for access of Web applications in poor connectivity or occasionally connected environments |
Deploy the Lotus Expeditor client to a Citrix XenApp environment to extend the productivity of Lotus Expeditor software-based applications via browser access from existing, lower-powered workstations. | |
IBM Lotus Forms software | Streamlines the submission process for offline forms completed with Lotus Forms software |
Include forms components in composite applications | |
Extract data from e-forms and integrate it into business processes | |
Manage e-forms with existing enterprise systems, such as relational databases, IBM Lotus Domino solutions and host systems | |
IBM Lotus Sametime software | Incorporate real-time communication into line-of-business workflows by using Lotus Sametime with Lotus Expeditor or by using the Sametime features embedded in Expeditor. (Note: A Sametime license must be acquired to use these features). |
Provide a server to centrally deploy, manage, and update Lotus Sametime software. | |
Provide a toolkit to add or extend new capabilities in Lotus Sametime through plug-ins. | |
IBM Lotus Notes 8 | Provide a universal client; subsets of the Lotus Expeditor function are planned to be included in several Lotus products, including IBM Lotus Notes 8 software. |
Add - with the full Lotus Expeditor software license - a relational database in the client, transactional messaging, and mobile device support. | |
IBM Lotus Symphony | Provide a server to centrally deploy, manage, and update Lotus Symphony software. |
Provide a toolkit to add or extend new capabilities in Lotus Symphony through plug-ins. | |
3270 and 5250 terminal applications | Provide a client for terminal applications that have been transformed with a GUI using IBM WebSphere Host Access Transformation Services (HATS). |
Lotus Expeditor can be complemented by mobile and wireless connection software for seamless roaming and security extensions for employees who use devices such as laptops, smartphones and PDAs. This software is currently available as IBM Lotus Mobile Connect, which is the follow-on release to IBM WebSphere Everyplace Connection Manager.
All products within the Lotus category
- Alloy by IBM and SAP
- Lotus Connector for SAP solutions
- Lotus Enterprise Integrator for Domino
- Lotus Domino Designer
- Content Manager Collaboration Edition
- IBM Connections - Social software for business
- IBM Web Content Manager
- Lotus Quickr
- Lotus Workflow
- LotusLive iNotes
- LotusLive Notes
- Lotus Domino
- Lotus Domino Express
- Lotus Domino Utility Server for LotusLive
- Lotus Foundations
- Lotus iNotes - Web based email software
- Lotus Notes
- Lotus Notes Hosted Messaging
- Lotus Protector for Mail Encryption
- Lotus Protector for Mail Security
- BlackBerry Client for IBM Connections
- BlackBerry Client for IBM Lotus Quickr