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Q. Why integrate at the desktop instead of on a server? |
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Whereas server-side integration projects are primarily aimed at integrating data between applications, OpenSpan’s approach is focused on improving effectiveness and productivity of users. The user desktop is the point of contact that connects your employees to applications, business processes and workflows. It’s also the point of contact between your company and your customers. OpenSpan has allowed customers such as Afni, Alltel Wireless, JC Penney, and Charter Communications to dramatically improve the productivity of their employees in days or weeks instead of months or years. From a technology point of view, OpenSpan enables you to integrate desktop applications, including legacy applications without an API or available adapter, with server-side applications, web applications and web services. It also enables you to improve the effectiveness and compliance of business processes by extending these processes to the user desktop. As such, OpenSpan is highly complementary to server-side approaches. |
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Q. How does OpenSpan compare to screen scraping? |
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OpenSpan works by interfacing with the presentation objects of the application directly, in very much the same way that these objects interact with the Windows® operating system. OpenSpan does not rely on coordinates, resolution, or any graphical component of the screen and as such is significantly more robust, reliable, and deterministic. |
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Q: Can OpenSpan integrate HP300 and AS/400 mainframe sessions? |
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Yes. When working with mainframe and host-like systems, OpenSpan integrates with the emulator rather than with the mainframe directly. If the emulator supports HLLAPI, then it will appear within the OpenSpan Studio. |
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Q. Does OpenSpan work within a Citrix environment? |
Yes. There are two supported Configurations: - If all applications are hosted within a Citrix session then OpenSpan Integrator is installed on the Citrix Server and no other modifications are necessary. The OpenSpan project is created just as if you were working on a single desktop.
- In a mixed desktop/Citrix session environment, OpenSpan Integrator is installed on both the desktop and Citrix server. The two copies of OpenSpan Integrator communicate through Citrix Virtual Channel to pass and control data.
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Q: Can OpenSpan integrate different Java applets/applications running on different JVMs? |
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OpenSpan can integrate two applications regardless of underlying technology, or regardless of version of that underlying technology. This includes multiple version of the JVM. Please note that the current OpenSpan Platform supports JDK1.4 and above. |
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Q. What are the technology requirements of OpenSpan? |
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Any appropriate Microsoft Windows-based PC. Minimum requirements of a Pentium 2 processor and 256MB of RAM are required for OpenSpan Integrator. Minimum requirements of a Pentium 3 processor and 512MB of RAM are required for OpenSpan Studio. OpenSpan requires Windows 2000 or above and the Microsoft .NET Framework version 2.0 or above. |
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Q: What are the memory requirements for OpenSpan Integrator when running on the desktop? |
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It is somewhat dependent upon the project that has been created. The normal memory usage of OpenSpan Integrator is anywhere between 10 and 30MB. |
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Q: How is OpenSpan Integrator installed on desktops? |
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OpenSpan Integrator is a standard Windows desktop application and is distributed with a standard ".msi" Windows installation package, which supports silent installs and command line parameters. OpenSpan Deployment Packages (solutions) are XML-based and generated by the OpenSpan Studio. These packages are typically published to a network file server, and are accessed by the runtime upon the initial startup. If automation updates are deployed to the server, the runtime will detect the version information on the network and automatically download the updated deployment package. Standard Windows procedures for distributing and installing newer versions of the software can be employed, including software distribution tools. |
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Q. How is OpenSpan deployed across a large number of desktops? |
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Changing or updating integrations are as simple as updating the solution hosted on the server, which are then downloaded and deployed automatically when the applications are deployed. This ensures that all users’ desktops deploy the most recent integration versions. |
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Q: If the original application changes, can OpenSpan detect that an automation might not function? |
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You can build into any automation a self check to ensure detection of any UI changes. Better still you can build unique automations that self detect changes every hour or every day and even automate a “change detection” email sent to someone in advance. |
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Q: What happens if I change my applications? Will I have to reconfigure OpenSpan? |
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OpenSpan interacts directly with the objects within the running application. Therefore OpenSpan automations and integrations can continue to function even if the object are moved around within the application’s UI or indeed even if the application’s UI is completely hidden from the user. OpenSpan’s integration technology is extremely robust whether you are integrating one application or multiple applications or whether you are running on one desktop or several thousand. Older technologies such as screen scraping were very reliant on applications remaining in a constant state but this is not the case with OpenSpan. In the event that a change to an application impacts the match rules (such as URL changes for Web applications, element ID or Text for Web application targets, or path changes for Windows or Java applications), you would need to re-interrogate the changed applications to modify the resulting XML solution file (match rules) as required. Note that if the solutions are created with meaningful and consistent object names, re-interrogation and de-bug matching is simple and not time-consuming. Unlike a programmatic solution where you would have to bring the original developers back to start hacking into code, with OpenSpan’s Graphical workflows, you can generally rebuild automations in a matter of minutes. |
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Q: Can I hide underlying applications? |
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Yes. OpenSpan can configure applications at an Adapter level to launch and remain hidden at all times. More granular control is also available at the individual screen, form and object levels to Show or Hide application components based upon any trigger Event or business rules logic. |
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Q. Do OpenSpan composite applications require a new user interface? |
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No. You have the choice of leveraging existing user interfaces or building new customized dashboards or interfaces with OpenSpan Studio. |
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Q: Describe the debugging capabilities available to developers? |
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OpenSpan Studio can execute and debug solutions inside the OpenSpan Studio environment prior to deployment. OpenSpan Studio provides interactive logging and inspection of data and execution. OpenSpan Studio provides robust debugger of match rules, control matching and troubleshooting analysis. Diagnostics support locally and remote publishing. |
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Q: Does OpenSpan require me to change my desktop security paradigm? |
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No. OpenSpan does not interfere with any desktop security scheme so existing role based security, policies, settings, and permissions remain intact whether local or domain based. All application based security is also not affected. If desired, OpenSpan can be utilized to keep a user in a ‘signed on’ state, but in doing so, OpenSpan does not retain user or password information in any database or file. |
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Q: Does OpenSpan work with single sign-on (SSO)? |
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Yes. OpenSpan can participate with most single sign-on (SSO) environments by simply importing a .Net component that exposes the SSO functionality graphically in the OpenSpan Studio. Where needed, additional configuration and/or scripting can also be employed to interact with your SSO environment which can span from standardized LDAP based to custom or blended models. |
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