Need Information on Browser Edition

I have an office with two satellite locations, one in the United States and one in Europe.  We have faced some challenges in getting our remote sites integrated with the main office Time Matters database.  I won't go into those issues here, but I am trying to determine whether the World Server/Browser Edition might be an option to explore.  Unfortunately, I do not see much documentation on the Lexis-Nexis website and the latest post in the Browser Edition forum. 

Can anyone give me some advice on the Browser Edition?  Given the lack of coverage on the L-N website, is it still a viable option?  Where might I go to get additional information?

I am posting this on both the Time Matters and Browser Edition message boards because I do not see too much readership in the Browser Edition forum. 

Thanks,

Mike

Michael D. Rigg

Counsel, Navy Exchange Service Command

Virginia Beach, VA

757-631-3611

michael_rigg@nexweb.org

The browser edition is certainly an option to explore.  It gives you substantial functionality of Time Matters from a remote computer.  It may make sense where the satellite locations are really "mobile" laptops that are constantly moving, but need real access to a central database.

That said, there are a number of other options to explore:
(1) SQL Synchronization between multiple servers, one at each location.
(2) Setting up one office as the "MAIN" and using Terminal Services or Citrix Terminal Server to push out the applications to the remote or satellite offices.

Hope that gives you a start.

Seth

(1)

Thanks, Seth.  That is helpful.  We currently use the Citrix server to support one of the satellite offices.  It seems that there are a lot of problems with the connection and that's why I thought I should explore some alternatives for our IT department to investigate further.  I am hoping to give them a list of pros/cons and issues about the browser edition to see if that is a better approach for us.

Regards,

Mike

Mike...for someone to provide a pro/con and issue list, they would have to know more (and perhaps a lot more) about your configuration..both internal and external to Time Matters.

Time Matters requires IIS to host a web site and pass information. It does require modification to the allow the Browser edition to run. It is faster to use a high speed port, but it can run on port 80. You also have to allow the web site to pass files to the client computer. Time Matters is a java application that is installed on the client computer and in some instances require the use of an exe. The Office integrations are a good example.

So in general, Browser was developed for the low bandwidth environments and has the same core functionality as Time Matters. An exact defintion is not written somewhere, but you can post specific questions here.

To end, it is a web based application, so if you are using documents, those documents are passed to the client computer and you edit and changed those documents locally from the client computer. A citrix implementation, the documents are edited on the server and not passed to the local machine.

Feel free to post any questions that you have in as much detail as you want.

Matt 

Thank you, very much.  This information is helpful.  I will pass it to my IT Department to see if it is something that will be worthwhile pursuing. 

Where is the web site hosted?  Will it be on our server or elsewhere?  We are especially sensitive about storing data elsewhere.  Also, I assume that we can limit access to the website to those selected individuals entitled to have access. 

Are there problems associated with having some users on the "regular" Time Matters and some on the browser edition?  Or, must we have everyone on one or the other?

Best regards,

Mike

You setup and host the information so it is important that your IT department understands IIS, etc.
You can setup who has access to the site and you also have security for the Time Matters data, similar to the regular version. You can have people who use regular Time Matters and others who use the browser edition, you just need to obtain the right number of licenses of each for your needs.