OVERVIEW
Document Transform Server (DTS) is part of a family of products
designed to overcome the problem of incompatibilities between Lotus
Notes CD-RTF format and IBM DCA-RFT formats. It provides
bi-directional conversion of word processing documents between Lotus
Notes and IBM OfficeVision, giving open availability of information in
a mixed environment.
TECHNICAL OVERVIEW
The DTS is made up of three components
i) the DTS Mail grabbers; which use rules based on user names and
domain names to identify and tag the mail items that should considered
for transformation, allowing all other messages to be routed on by
Notes without delay.
ii) The DTS Addin task; which queues messages, extracts and
validates the body text or attachments, runs the transformations,
manages any problems and records logs and statistics.
iii) The DTS transforms; which recognize and transform document
files.
DTS MAIL GRABBING
DTS provides two Mail Grabbers - one for messages going to the
HOST, one for messages coming from it.
The rules contained in the DTS configuration database determine
which mail messages are processed by the transforms.
Mail Grabber for messages going to the HOST (Outgoing). All
mail going from the local Notes server to the HOST is selected and
marked as dead mail temporarily, so that it is not routed to the host
by Notes immediately. A special, hidden DTS Transform field is added
to each message which identifies the mail for transformation.
Mail Grabber for messages coming from the HOST (Incoming). All
mail coming from the HOST to the local Notes server is selected and
marked as dead mail temporarily, so that it is not routed by Notes
immediately. A special, hidden DTS Transform field is added to message
which identifies mail for transformation.
TRANSFORMATION
The Notes mail.box is constantly searched for dead mail with the
new DTS Transform field identifying it as requiring transformation.
Each of these messages is processed in turn by the DTS Notes Add-in
task.
To the HOST (Outgoing)
- the Body field contents are extracted and saved to disk
- the CD-RTF to RFT transform is executed
- the original Body field (of the messages from Notes) is removed
- the new RFT file is attached to the Body field
- the DTS Transform flag field is removed
- the field marking the mail as dead is removed.
- the temporary file(s) on disk are deleted
- a log of transform error messages are added to a Notes field if
the transform failed
- a single line of statistics for the transformation is recorded
in the Notes log and the DTS log database along with any
transformation error messages
- Finally, mail is saved and closed ready for the Notes server
router to deliver the message to the host addressee.
From the HOST (Incoming)
- the Body field contents are searched for an attachment.
- Optionally, the file can be checked for an RFT filename
extension or maximum size before being extracted.
- if appropriate the attached file is extracted and saved to disk.
- the file is validated as RFT
- if the file should not be transformed the Cleanup phase is
started as described below
- the RFT to CD-RTF transform is executed
- the original Body field (of the message from the host) is
removed
- the original RFT attachment is optionally removed
- the new Body field is created in the Memo
* Cleanup phase is started :
- the temporary RFT and/or CD-RTF file(s) are deleted
- the DTS Transform flag field is removed
- the field marking the mail as dead is removed.
- a log of transform error messages is added to the DTS log
database if the transform failed, and optionally added to a hidden
field in the Memo
- a single line of statistics for the transformation is recorded
in the DTS log database
- Finally, mail is saved and closed ready for the Notes server
router to deliver the message to the addressee.
USER CONFIGURATION
Enables single or bi-directional message transformation Mail for
which the transform fails may be returned to the originator as a
"Non-delivery report" with a failure reason, or it can be
sent on to the addressee in an untransformed state (default).
User defined rules are used to select the messages that are to be
transformed so that only appropriate messages are queued for
transformation and other messages continue to the destination without
delay.
Levels of logging can be set to provide terse or verbose messages,
and to record full transform logs or not.
RFT documents can be transformed and the original kept as well if
required.
A maximum document size for RFT files can be set.
PLATFORM REQUIREMENTS
Document Transform Server v1.0 requires the following hardware and
software :
- Industry standard PC with Intel Pentium processor @ 133Mhz
or higher
- At least 32mb RAM
- 8Mb of disk space for installation purposes
- 1Gb of working disk space
- IBM OS/2 Warp version 4
- Lotus Domino/Notes Server for OS/2 version 4.5x.
The operating environment is subject to change. Please check when
ordering.
Evaluation downloads are available
with a 25 document limit after which only the first page
will convert. Each of these products can be installed on single Client
machine or on a Server for multiple clients machines to share. If
installed on a server, customization (eg: font types, default printer,
dictionary, paper size etc.) can only be done globally for all clients
that access the system.
