A presentation deployment solution

PageBox is a mean enabling the hot deployment and update of presentations in Application Servers.
A PageBoxed Application Server (PAS) behaves as a browser, it downloads a presentation from a repository just like a browser downloads an applet and like a browser a PAS runs the presentation in a Java 2 sandbox with rights based on the presentation signature.

PageBoxes can run in standalone mode with an HTTP administration or in constellation of unlimited size that can spread world-wide. In the latter case, Pageboxes are combined with repositories. A PageBox can subscribe to one or many repositories. When an author publishes a Web Archive to a repository, the repository automatically deploy the Web Archive on subscribing PageBoxes.

The size of a constellation is illimited because it is only a logical and security entity. Provided it is authorized, everyone can add PageBoxes or repositories to a constellation.

We developed a PageBox Open Source implementation under GNU Lesser General Public License named JSPservlet.
You can download it on this site. It is available in different versions:

1. For J2EE application servers. You can download compiled version for Tomcat and Resin.
2. For OSGi embedded servers. This version exists in two flavors normal and diskless. You can download a version compiled for Sun JES2.

We also developed:

• A comprehensive repository tool, Publisher.
• A requestor location dependent routing. A mapper component finds the location of a requestor based on its IP address.
• A support for Publishing frameworks. JSPservlet has been tested with Cocoon and SOAP. It means you can write PageBox presentations in XML/XSL to access UDDI services.

1. The central system no longer hosts presentation. It needs less resources.
2. You can host PageBoxes on user sites and/or cheap ASPs. As PageBoxes are highly redundant, you don't need anymore expensive fault-tolerant mechanisms.
3. Traffic between PageBoxes and central system uses client/server protocol and requires less bandwidth than HTML.
4. The presentation being closer to the user,
   1. The response time is enhanced.
   2. You need to run less scripts on browsers.

Cuckoo

• Because it is a Word plug-in, it has been simple to write. We provides the source and explain how it works. If you know Word VBA, you should be able to adapt it to your needs. It is free and Open Source (GNU LGPL as usual on this site).
• If your content is mostly textual, Cuckoo can be the best choice. With Word you can check your spelling. We also wrote a macro to show statistics on Word use.
• Cuckoo is flexible. It supports tables, mouse overs and forms. The deliveries also include many XSL style sheets to generate the content in HTML and for ASP, JSP, PHP, Cocoon and Resin.

PageBox for PHP

PageBox for PHP is a complete rewriting of PageBox for PHP 4.
Because PHP is not Java, PageBox for PHP cannot implement sandboxes and is less secure.
On the other hand, it is simpler to install and customize. It allows deploying presentations and also to run batchs on PageBox sites.

The first versions already allow creating constellations and include:

• The PageBox itself
• The Subscriber and the Publisher

PageBox for .NET

PageBox for .NET reuses the design of PageBox for PHP 4.
It is written in C# and use XML for configuration and serialization. It uses SOAP Web services for deployment and retry and includes a Windows service

The first versions already allow creating constellations and include:

• The PageBox itself
• The Subscriber and the Publisher

Reservation is an example of distributed application allowing defining and booking resource slots.

PageBox is also hosted on SourceForge.