otus Development Corp. recently released the first public beta test version of its D
omino 4.6 groupware server and its Notes 4.6 client. One thing is clear from the feature set-Lotus is rushing to embrace Internet standards as the core of its product rather than just as a feature check-off. That's a welcome change and it comes not a minute too soon, as integrated intranet clients and Internet standard-based offerings from Netscape Communications and other vendors are threatening to cut into the dominance of the Domino/Notes family.
There's a lot of functionality packed into this release. Administrators will appreciate its "Quick and Easy" install, which pulls in information from the target system to fill out the configuration databases. As a result, I had an NT Domino server installed, configured, and running in less than 15 minutes.
Domino 4.6 will come in two versions-a full-blown Domino Server, and a messaging-specific Domino Mail Server. Domino Mail will include all of Domino's messaging and discussion capabilities, while the custom application and Web server capabilities will b
e part of Domino Server.
While Domino 4.5 had Web and Post Office Protocol services integrated and an add-on SMTP mail transfer agent, Domino 4.6 adds a host of additional standard protocols to the product, including support for LDAP, IMAP 4, Network News Transfer Protocol, Secure Socket Layer (SSL) 3.0 and X.509 certificate support. Additionally, SMTP is now integrated into Domino as its default mail-routing engine-replacing the proprietary mail-transfer agents previously used to route mail between Domino servers. Java support in 4.6 is extended beyond the applet support within Domino documents to almost complete integration with the Domino server.
Developers can now create agents for Domino in Java that will run on the server. The Domino agent manager will handle Java agents on an equal footing with agents written in LotusScript or with the Notes/ Domino API; agents can be triggered by events on the server or run as scheduled tasks.
Domino 4.6 also reduces the need for the Notes client.
The new release includes Java and Web browser-based administration capabilities.
Lotus continues to improve the Notes client as well. Notes 4.6 is being positioned as a competitor to Microsoft's Outlook and Netscape's Communicator. It includes some improved integration with both the Microsoft Office and Lotus SmartSuite and integration with Microsoft's Internet Explorer through ActiveX for rendering Web content.The client also includes POP mail access, though it does not yet offer LDAP directory look-up like the Lotus Mail POP client.
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otus Development Corp. recently released the first public beta test version of its D
omino 4.6 groupware server and its Notes 4.6 client. One thing is clear from the feature set-Lotus is rushing to embrace Internet standards as the core of its product rather than just as a feature check-off. That's a welcome change and it comes not a minute too soon, as integrated intranet clients and Internet standard-based offerings from Netscape Communications and other vendors are threatening to cut into the dominance of the Domino/Notes family.
