Oracle Data Sheet - PDF

							                                           ORACLE COLLABORATION SUITE 10g ORACLE CALENDAR DEVELOPMENT PLATFORM




ORACLE COLLABORATION SUITE 10g
CALENDAR DEVELOPMENT PLATFORM
ORACLE CALENDAR


                                        Oracle Calendar is powerful time management built for today’s
KEY FEATURES

Calendar SDK:
                                        enterprise. Oracle Calendar 10g delivers a set of powerful
• Choice of interface: C/C++,           development tools that allow for the extension of time and location-
  Java
• Cross -platform support:
                                        based information across Oracle Collaboration Suite and other
  Windows, Macintosh, Unix,             enterprise applications, to optimize business processes throughout
  Linux
• Standards based: iCalendar,           your organization.
  VTODO, VCARD
• Integration with other                One of the challenges organizations face today is trying to integrate
  Collaboration Suite applications
                                        communication and collaboration information across mission-critical applications
Web Services Toolkit:
                                        such as CRM, ERP, and other business systems. Increasingly, businesses are
  SOAP / XMLP support
  Java client-side classes              looking to Web services and a Services Oriented Architecture as a way to extend
  Integrated test tool                  and customize applications, link heterogeneous environments, and offer services
  Integration with any Portal           both within and outside their corporate firewall. Oracle Calendar’s standards-based
      environment
                                        infrastructure and development tools provide an answer. Oracle delivers a wide
                                        breadth of integration services out
KEY BENEFITS
                                        of the box that allow you to grow
• Integrate time management
                                        and adapt to a changing IT
  functionality into mission critical
  CRM, ERP and other                    environment, and get higher return
  applications                          on IT investment, making time
• Connect heterogeneous
                                        management information available
  environments
• Leverage time management
                                        and reusable across the enterprise.
  information across the                A simple example might be the
  enterprise                                                                      Figure 1- Oracle Calendar Portlet (example)
                                        delivery of a Calendar Portlet
• Deploy a customized portal
                                        within a corporate Portal. A more complex example might be synchronizing Oracle
  using the Calendar “portlet”
  with the Web services toolkit         Calendar data with a third-party customer support rotation scheduling application.

                                        Oracle Calendar Development Platform
                                        Oracle Calendar Development Platform comprises a Web Services Toolkit - using
                                        XML and SOAP based mechanisms to allow access and the transfer of calendaring
                                        data to other applications, and the Calendar SDK - using the iCalendar standard for
                                        data representation to facilitate data interchange.

                                        Oracle Calendar SDK
                                        Oracle Calendar SDK (CSDK) is a C-based API that can be used to build custom
                                        applications, allowing them to have direct access to the Calendar server.

                                        The CSDK package includes:

                                                  A shared library implementing the APIs

                                                  Java functions (JNI)



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                      C header file

                      Oracle Calendar ACE (authentication, compression, encryption) modules

                      Sample/Demo programs

            The Calendar SDK supports objects such as VEVENTS, VTODOs, and VCARD.
            (RFC 2445 & 2426). The iCalendar data is mapped to our native data structures in
            order to preserve property values from the iCalendar object. When retrieving data, it
            is possible to specify which properties are required.

            The CSDK functions can be grouped into a few categories: Configuration,
            logon/logoff, Events (iCalendar) , Tasks (Vtodo), Contacts (Vcard), result parsing.

            Highlighted CSDK features
            Connection pooling: Connection pooling is the establishment of a shared set, or
            pool, of connections that can be used by all the entities sharing the pool. This type
            of construct is used in cases where multiple processes each wish to reuse
            connections to avoid the expense of opening a new ones.

            Connection pooling adds configuration options for the connection model used by
            the CSDK. This will greatly enhance resource usage and efficiency when
            implementing various applications in web-based or multi-threaded environments,
            and promote reuse of existing connections.

            We also offer this feature in a multi-node deployment environment.

            Sysop and Designate access: With Sysop credentails, you can access anyone’s
            agenda and perform bulk operations, while maintaining a secure environment. We
            also offer a funtion to set your identity to that of any user on the system, allowing
            the developer to act as a designate and greatly anhance the automation of certain
            scheduling operations, such as meeting updates based on specific criteria.

            Oracle Calendar Web Services Toolkit
            The Oracle Calendar Web Services Toolkit (OCWST) includes a collection of
            existing and emerging technologies that provide a means of integrating calendar
            data into application environments using Web-based technology.

            The Calendar Web services toolkit includes:

                      "calendarlet.tar" with the calendarlet JAR file.

                      "javadoc.tar" with the Javadoc HTML documentation for the calendarlet.

                      "ws_testtool.tar" with the Java source for the Calendar Web Services
                      toolkit test tool.




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            The Calendar Java classes
            The web services toolkit uses an approach that leverages XML interoperability to
            allow for developers to use the included Java classes contained withn the
            Calendarlet, to create an application which can retrieve filtered information for
            display in a web environment through common queries.

            Sample classes
            Calendarlet Class: The Calendarlet class is the main access point to the
            Calendaring Web Services. This class provides a simple abstraction layer for the
            generation and processing of the calendar Object Model to XML, to and from the
            Web Services host, through SOAP.

            iCalendar class: A parent element for calendaring data returned from the Calendar
            Web Services host. This top level container provides the access to all vcalendar
            elements and mirrors the IETF xCal and iCal standards.

            The high-level steps to using the Calendarlet classes: Initialize your authentication
            mechanism, Initialize your Query, including data type and attributes, Bind the
            authentication and query object to a Calendarlet instance, Set the target URL in the
            Calendarlet instance, Make the SOAP call, and Parse through the results.

            Highlighted OCWST features
            OCWST test tool: Automatically tests all the functions of the toolkit. Simply fill
            out the fields, such as the end-point URL and account credentilas, in the test tool
            interface to run the entire test suite. A report is generated automatically with the
            results of the test.

            Security: Within the SOAP domain, there are many efforts underway to define
            and standardize the authentication, security, and encryption of SOAP messages.
            Groups such as W3C, IETF, OASIS, and WS-I are all working toward the same
            end. Unfortunately, at the time of development of Oracle Calendar Web services,
            no definitive specification had been approved. However, some general trends were
            respected when defining the features that web services supports, including SSL,
            Basic Authentication and Proxy Authentication.

            -    SSL: At the HTTP layer, there are two options: Normal or SSL. This layer is
                 handled at the Web server level, providing encrypted data between the HTTP
                 client and server.

            -    Basic Authentication: Taken from the IETF draft “SOAP Extension: Basic
                 and Digest Authentication” and based on HTTP Authentication, our basic
                 authentication will be implemented using the SOAP header.

            -    Proxy Authentication: When designing applications that authenticate to the
                 Calendar server, systems integrators may assume that a userID and password
                 will be passed through, requiring that each user supplyt their creadentials.
                 Obvisouly, this causes security concerns and a lot fo overhead to the
                 application logic. The solution is to allow the 3rd party system to authenticate
                 as itself to prove that it is a trusted source through our Proxy autnetication
                 framework.



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ORACLE CALENDAR
Oracle Calendar combines a
standards-based real-time           Summary: Basic Functionality
architecture with a wide range of   The following table outlines the basic functions and availability across the
access methods, seamlessly
                                    Calendar SDK and Calendar Web services toolkit.
integrated with other components
of Oracle Collaboration Suite to     Functionality                                                 CSDK      OCWST
provide a unified source for all
                                     Query Calendar server                                           X             X
time-based information.
                                     Meeting/appointment Create Read Update Delete                   X             X
As the most robust, intuitive and    Daily note & Event CRUD                                         X             X
scalable time management             Task CRUD                                                       X             X
system available for complex
enterprise scheduling needs,         Contact CRUD                                                    X
Oracle Calendar doesn't just keep    Reminder Support                                                X             X
people working together; it
actually changes the way people      Free/busy query                                                 X             X
think about managing their time.
                                     Recurrence (daily, weekly, monthly) CRUD                        X             X

RELATED PRODUCTS AND                 Attendee Create, Update and Delete                              X
SERVICES                             Attendee Read                                                   X             X
The following products are
                                     Web conference CRUD                                             X             X
available as part of Oracle
Collaboration Suite:                 User Preference support                                         X             X
• Oracle Mail
                                     Notification support (email, wireless)                          X             X
• Oracle Voicemail & Fax
• Oracle Mobile Collaboration                                   Figure 2- Functionality Matrix
  Server
• Oracle Real-Time Collaboration

• Oracle Content Services           For more information
                                    To see what’s new in the 10g release of Oracle Calendar, see the Oracle Calendar
                                    10g Release Preview at: http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/ocal/index.html




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