Developer Pointers
Articles and Tips: article
01 Mar 1995
Sources of information and help for Novell developers.
In this Issue
- Telephony Services: Security Database
- Telephony Services: Compiling Sample Code
- Novell Developer Support
- NEST 1.0 SDK Ships
- OpenDoc Developer Release Scheduled
- TUXEDO/Borland Agreement Announced
- TUXEDO/JYACC Partnership Reached
Telephony Services: Security Database
NetWare Telephony Services requires that you set up a Security Database (SDB) for setting up users and the extensions they will use. But didn#39;t you already configure two separated databases? Can't that information serve this same purpose? This SDB actually ties together two databases that have already been set up, as will be described here. The whole process of setting up the databases can be generalized into three steps:
Set up the phone system.
Set up the network.
Tie the two together.
Setting Up the Phone System
It all starts when you install your phone system. One of the first things you have to do when you install your phone system is configure the device extensions. This includes the "first digit table," which describes which numbers are prefixes to different types of features. It also includes setting up a database of actual phone extensions, "vectored" or redirected extensions, ACD groups, etc. Of course, which features you need configure and how you do that depends entirely on which phone system you are installing, and which features or options you have available to you with that system. Regardless of the phone system, however, you will have to have some type of database, in one form or another, listing which phone extensions belong to which users (after all--wasn-t that the primary purpose to invest in the system?).
Whew! Now your phone system is all set up. All done, right? Well, you're all done if all you need to use at your business are phones. However, like the majority of us, in order to work as efficiently as possible, you have several computers.
Setting Up the Network
Installing and setting up a network is not a task for the weak of heart. It involves configuring all of the workstations, as well as setting up a central computer, the NetWare file server, which will be shared among the workstations.
One of the key components of NetWare is security. You have the ability to set up user accounts and restrict or grant rights that those users have to any component of the network. This is done through some type of network administration tool. You can use SYSCON in NetWare 2.x and 3.x, and NWADMIN (for Windows) or NETADMIN (for DOS) in NetWare 4.x.
Just as in the phone system, you set up users and what devices they had rights to, in the network you set up what users are available and what network resources they have rights to.
Tying the Two Together
Well, we have one set of users on the network and another set of users on the phone system. Now your boss tells you he'd like to be able to dial his phone from his computer. (Actually, he'd like all kinds of cool stuff, like tracking incoming calls, status reports on phone system usage, third-party call control, and all kinds of other features.). And he doesn't want to wait five years for the functionality, either. You decide that NetWare Telephony Services is the right tool for the job.
NetWare Telephony Services is a set of NLMs that run on the file server, taking advantage of some type of a hardware link between the File Server and the phone system switch box. Where you had two separate networks before, they are now connected and work together. At last! Your telecom and data networks area living happily side by side!
That's what your boss sees. Really, you are going to go through one more configuration step before it will all work. You have previously configured the phone system and the NetWare security database. Now you configure one more database. This is the NetWare Telephony Services Security Database (SDB). And this is probably the least complex of the three to set up.
You use the tool TSADMIN from a Windows workstation, when logged in as the NetWare Supervisor user. Using this tool you set up a database that contains a username from the NetWare system, and the phone extension from the phone system database. Note that the username you enter must be identical to the NetWare username, and the phone extension must be identical to the phone extension in the phone system.
This is the simplest configuration of the NetWare Telephony Services SDB. You just enter the username from NetWare and the phone extension from the phone system. (It can be more complex than this, if you decide to give users rights to first-party control from other phones than their own, or other such configurations.)
Now you=re done! You've been through all three of the configurations, and you lived to tell about it!
Summary
The NetWare Telephony Security Database (SDB) is used to tie together the two networks you have now: the telecom and the data networks. Use the TSADMIN utility to configure the SDB.
Telephony Services: Compiling Sample Code
If you look out on CompuServe (in the NDEVSUP forum) or on the Novell Developer Support BBS (801 429 5836), you will find several sample code files in the Telephony Services section. Among these are a few written for Windows 3.1, a few in ANSI C for Windows or NLMs, and an NLM.
If you are interested in these sample programs, you download the ones that demonstrate the desired functionality, run the program, and look at the source code. You might even try to compile the sample code as it is and try to run it.
In a few of the cases, all you will get when you run the Windows program is a lockup. Why is this? Well, the four programs that are written ANSI C for Borland EasyWin just include the source code. Some customers (thanks for finding this, Tielens) have discovered that if they just compile the code, and use the compiler defaults for .DEF file settings, the program will hang when run.
What's the solution then? Use the following .DEF file, which was copied from deep inside of the Borland directory structure:
EXETYPE WINDOWS CODE PRELOAD MOVEABLE DISCARDABLE DATA PRELOAD MOVEABLE MULTIPLE HEAPSIZE 4096 STACKSIZE 8192
If you use this .DEF file, you should be able to compile the ANSI C Telephony Services programs for EasyWin and have them work fine.
Summary
When compiling the EasyWin ANSI C Telephony Services sample code from Novell'S Developer Support BBS or CompuServe, use the above example as the .DEF file for the application.
Novell Developer Support
The developer story at Novell has experienced significant change since last year's closure of the Austin office. In addition to relocation of the activities that took place in Austin, there have been a number of personnel change as well. Though the corporate wide Developer Program, with the integration of Novell, WordPerfect and USL, is still being defined, let's at least review the Developer Support situation.
Developer support is headed up by Jared Blaser. Our management team consists of John Stewart, Doug Durfey, Richard Smith, and Bob Hathaway. We operate according the following:
Our Purpose: We help our partners develop solutions that promote human interaction and information sharing.
Our Vision: We will provide support that enables our partners to successfully deliver network applications, enhancing the growth of pervasive computing.
Our Mission: We will provide industry leading developer support to Novell's 100,000 software partners by 1997 through innovating the support process, pro active problem solving, and enhancing the product development process.
Novell Developer Support provides assistance and advice to software developers using a number of products developed by Novell for these developers. These products include SDKs, development tools, and programming libraries for the following:
NetWare NLMsUnixWare Server / Client
DOS / Windows Client
OS/2 Client
Macintosh Client
TUXEDO
Telephony
LAN Workplace
ALMs
NEST
NASI
IPX / SPX / TLI
SAP
NDS
Other general NW APIs
Other general UW APIs
Our support is available to both third party developers as well as Novell in house developers.
(Developer support of the SDKs for NetWare for SAA, NetWare MHS, OpenDoc, NMS, and PerfectFit is being provided by their respective product development organizations within Novell.)
(Novell Labs, under the direction of Dave Owen, provides assistance to developers of drivers, i.e., NetWare LAN drivers, host bus adapter drivers (storage devices), and video drivers for UnixWare.)
Contacting Developer Support
If you are looking for some information or assistance in the use of any API that you may not be familiar with (perhaps you are building a mail gateway and need some information on CLIB or NLM development) you may contact Developer Support by telephone, e mail, or facsimile. All three methods are useable, some are more efficient in one aspect of the process than the others. It's up to you. Using any of the methods, and only on the initial contact, you will obtain a Personal Identification Number (PIN). You will need to provide your name, company, address, phone number, and fax number.
You will also be asked for a brief description of the problem you are experiencing. This information will be entered into our call tracking system by a customer service representative (CSR) and you will be passed onto an engineer who will help you resolve the issue.
Listed below are the contact points for developer support.
Telephone: 1 800 REDWORD (1 800 733 9673) option 1, option 2, option 2 1 801 429 5281 option 1, option 2, option 2 1 800 NETWARE (1 800 638 9273) option2 1 801 429 5588 option 2 1 801 429 5570 CSR hunt group (useful if you don=t yet have a PIN)
E mail: GroupWise: devsup (devsup devsup) Internet: Devsup@Novell.com
Facsimile: 1 801 429 2990
BULLETS
Developer Support provides to its developers a monthly technical journal called Novell Professional Developer Bullets. It contains the latest news from Developer Support pertaining to any of the Novell Software Developers Kits. Many of our developers depend very heavily on this timely technical information.
BULLETS generally consists of a feature article and several short articles along with technical information documents. All of which, are related to Novell's SDKs. It also contains sections on Developer Education, ways to contact Developer Support, Developer Relations, and Novell Labs, and what the currently shipping developer products are.
The BULLETS mailing list is maintained by the Developer Relations Program Desk Administrator, Kerry Esquivel, (801 228 5070, E-mail "Kerry Esquivel"). If any Novell employee would like to get on this list please contact her directly. If Novell customers would like to be added to the list, please direct them to 1 800 RED WORD.
We welcome ideas for BULLETS. Articles may be submitted using the Bullets Submission DB on the Lotus NOTES server NTS_CLIENT. Or, contact the BULLETS publisher John Stewart (801 429 3766, E-mail "John_Stewart") and he"ll send you the procedures for BULLETS article submission via GroupWise.
SDK CD
Developer Support is also responsible for building the Novell comprehensive Software Developers Kit Compact Disk (SDK CD). This CD provides many of Novell's SDKs to developers who purchase it as an annual subscription product.
The latest quarterly release had a first customer ship date of March 3, 1995. It contains approximately twelve different SDKs. The single jewel case will contain three individual CDS. For the first time, this single product will provide to our developers SDKs for UnixWare, NetWare, and the Applications Group. In the future, this SDK CD will contain as many as twenty two different SDKs. This expands the possibilities and opportunities for our developers as they discover more and more of Novell's SDKs with which they may enhance existing applications or develop new applications for their customers.
NDS
NetWare Directory Services is a new technology and even newer to developers. Developer support is able to assist the developer in understanding the API syntax for NDS calls. This includes expertise for both client and server applications. Some of the topics that you might need assistance with are schema architecture and development, architecture and design of your product, object and attribute manipulations (create, delete, modify, etc.), authentication, external synchronization, snap in code for the NetWare GUI administration utility, replication, elimination of SAP, etc.
Also, determining what your product should store in the Directory, how it should store that data, how to build client applications for ease of lookup and retrieval, integration of products, etc. For help as you develop your product, call us. We have available sample code for every NDS API, and for common processes that developers want to build with NDS.
If you need assistance in understanding or correcting problems within your NetWare 4 NDS test tree, contact us for assistance with the NDS tree itself. This would include understanding when to run DSRepair, how to install, etc.
Summary
We have come a long way since relocating the Developer Support to Provo. We have developed a great deal of technical expertise during the last half year and are anxious to help developers design the best networked applications possible.
NEST 1.0 SDK Ships
Novell recently shipped a new technology that will deliver the communications, collaboration and information delivery power of network computing to a whole new group of users both at work and at home.
The Novell Embedded Systems Technology (NEST) 1.0 Software Developer's Kit (SDK) gives Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) a way to build network technology and services directly into electronic devices such as printers and copiers, security systems, building controls, and home appliances. NEST expands the power of networking by making everyday information more accessible to the business person and consumer alike.
The NEST SDK is a key step in delivering the power of the network to more users and contributing to Novell's goal of building a billion-node network by the year 2000. By focusing on providing customized solutions for these environments, Novell and its partners are enabling easy access and control of existing and new types of devices, not just computers, to the network. Early NEST adopters include Ricoh, Fujitsu, Lexmark, Digital Products, QMS, Canon, Andover Controls, Xerox, IC Card, Securicor Telecoms, and Castelle.
Simplified Development
By providing modular source code, extensive documentation, training, test tools and support, the NEST 1.0 SDK minimizes the cost, complexity and overall development effort of connecting devices to a NetWare network. NEST devices can plug directly into Novell's large installed base and take advantage of NetWare services, security, and management facilities. NEST is hardware, processor and operating system independent; it is open and extensible by both Novell and its partners, and it is small, portable and modular so it can scale from small devices to large scale systems. Developers can leverage the latest NetWare technology and take immediate advantage of new features such as enhanced security, directory services and the latest protocol enhancements.
NEST is designed to meet the stringent requirements of embedded system developers for portability, modularity, reliability and openness. Developers can port NEST software from one platform to another to maximize their market coverage with minimum development effort. NEST is written in C to be CPU independent. It is also operating system independent, so developers have flexibility in choosing their operating system, whether it be their own or one from a third party. QMS opted to use their own proprietary operating system.
Access to NDS
A significant attribute of NEST is access to NetWare Directory Services (NDS), Novell's cornerstone of pervasive computing. To reach Novell's goal of building a billion user network by the year 2000, there must be a fault tolerant, infinitely scalable registration, management, and attribute database that defines the structure and assures the security of the network. That is NDS. Xerox is an early adopter of the NEST SDK and is using Novell technology to build NetWare connectivity into printers.
Modular Design
Memory size and component overhead are critical factors in embedded systemsCmuch more so than in PCs. The NEST architecture employs a building block approach, so developers need only include those functions and software modules required by their embedded systems. This ensures the smallest possible resource requirements for the tasks at hand. The NEST SDK provides software tools for testing SPX and IPX protocols as well as printer applications. These test tools are the same ones used by Novell Labs to certify products in the Yes program.
Path to the Future
NEST allow developers to add value to their embedded systems in the form of additional services and capabilities so they can react quickly to changing market requirements.
The technology issues that Novell has mastered during the past 10 years in developing networks for the office environment Csecurity, reliability, interoperability, management, scalability, performance, ease of use, and directory servicesCare the same key issues that are facing networks in these extended environments.
Pricing and Availability
The NEST 1.0 SDK includes source code, documentation, training, test tools, and support, and is available immediately. It also includes five licenses for internal development and twenty five licenses for beta testing. Additional licenses may be obtained by signing a distribution license agreement. Suggested Retail Price for the NEST 1.0 SDK is $50,000.00 (US). For more information, contact your Novell OEM Sales Representative or call 800/895 NEST; or 512/346 3794 outside the U.S.
OpenDoc Developer Release Scheduled
Novell, Inc. announced last week that it will ship its OpenDoc for Windows Developer Release 1 (DR1) to over 3,000 developers at its Brainshare conference in March. This DR1, which incorporates Novell's ComponentGlue technology and IBM's System Object Model (SOM), will provide 32 bit Windows developers with the benefits of software componentization: lower development costs, faster time to market, and increased opportunity for innovation across the enterprise. Contributing its ComponentGlue technology to the OpenDoc standard, Novell is providing bi directional interoperability with Microsoft's Object Linking and Embedding 2.0 (OLE) and securing the future of mix and match software components.
The ComponentGlue technology in the DR1 provides developers with the ease of developing to one standard while achieving bi directional interoperability between OpenDoc and OLE. Developers will be able to create OpenDoc components which will act exactly like OLE objects or OLE custom controls (OCX) when they are embedded or edited in a document or OCX container. Similarly, OpenDoc components developed for Windows will be able to contain OLE 1, OLE 2 or OCX objects. This interoperability also includes "drag and drop," clipboard and data linking of OLE objects, and OpenDoc components within and between documents.
Additional Features
The OpenDoc for Windows DR1 also contains feature complete support for IBM's System Object Model (SOM). SOM supports multiple programming languages and complies with the Object Management Group's Common Object Request Broker (CORBA) standard for distributed object messaging. SOM based OpenDoc for Windows DR1 will enable virtually all developers to create software components that can work together on a single desktop, as well as provide them with a gateway to distributed cross platform component software development.
Interoperability with existing automation and scripting services is also included in the OpenDoc for Windows DR1. Developers will be able to control OpenDoc components with any OLE automation controller such as Microsoft Visual Basic. OSA interfaces will allow language vendors to create cross platform scripting components.
The next release of OpenDoc for Windows 95 and NTCDeveloper Release 2 (DR2)Cwill include additional scripting capabilities and is scheduled for release in May. The OpenDoc for Windows 3.1 Developer Release will also be available in early Q2 1995.
The OpenDoc for Windows DR1 and online technical documentation can be requested by sending E-mail with your name, company address and telephone number to opendoc@wordperfect.com or by posting a request on CompuServe in the OpenDoc Forum. Interested parties can also download the OpenDoc for Windows software developer kit releases via Novell's FTP server, ftp.wordperfect.com.
Making Software Work Together
OpenDoc, the vendor neutral standard for component software is currently being developed for Macintosh, OS/2, and Windows by Apple Computer, Inc., IBM Corporation and WordPerfect respectively. Promoted by independent software vendors through Component Integration Laboratories, Inc. (CI Labs), OpenDoc will benefit the industry by delivering the benefits of component software to end users, organizations and developers alike. Supporters of CI Labs include Adobe Systems, Inc.; Apple Computer, Inc.; IBM Corporation; Lotus Corporation; Novell, Inc.; Object Management Group (OMG); and the X Consortium. For more information on OpenDoc or component software, send E-mail to info@cilabs.org or call (408) 864 0300.
TUXEDO/Borland Agreement Announced
In response to customer need for additional application development tools for its TUXEDO product line, Novell recently announced a business relationship between its TUXEDO System Division and Borland International Inc. for Delphi, Borland's new high performance visual application design tool for Microsoft Windows. TUXEDO is a flexible application development and runtime architecture for the implementation of business critical, distributed client/server applications, and a key component of the enterprise computing solution set, which includes TUXEDO, NetWare and UnixWare.
Through this agreement, Novell's TUXEDO System Division and Borland will form a business relationship for joint development and marketing programs for their respective products, and Novell will ensure that its TUXEDO product line fully supports Delphi. TUXEDO currently provides customers with a choice of 35 different platforms, and can operate with virtually all clients on the market today.
Delphi is a breakthrough product that uniquely combines a native code compiler, visual tools, and scalable database technology for the rapid development of Microsoft Windows and client/server applications. TUXEDO and Delphi together provide rapid application development and fast performance with client/server scalability to create an ideal software development environment for customers creating line of business applications.
TUXEDO System 5, the latest release of TUXEDO, enables customers to have the flexibility to deploy large distributed systems, and to easily expand or change their systems through one of TUXEDO's newest features, /Domains. With /Domains, customers can also easily manage TUXEDO servers in administratively autonomous groups called domains, and set parameters for the interactions between domains. TUXEDO System 5 also extends TUXEDO interoperability to include DCE and other non TUXEDO environments.
Novell's TUXEDO system provides an architecture for implementing mission critical business applications in distributed, client/server environments. TUXEDO is the market leading transaction processing environment which provides secure, cost effective, high performance electronic commerce for use in industries such as banking, telecommunications, finance and retail.
TUXEDO/JYACC Partnership Reached
Novell has announced that its TUXEDO System Division has signed a partnership agreement with JYACC, Inc. With this partnership, JYACC will provide their leading cross platform tool, JAM/TPi, on TUXEDO for building partitioned client/server applications. Together, these products provide customers with the framework, communications services, and development tools to rapidly and easily create and deploy high performance enterprise applications using existing hardware and software.
TUXEDO and JAM/TPi provide customers with a well managed application development environment for distributed applications and application partitioning by integrating the user interface and relational database capabilities of JAM with the distributed processing capabilities of TUXEDO. With JAM/TPi, a single graphical tool can be used to develop both client and server application components.
This agreement consists of mutual design and engineering support, training and education, seminar participation, shared beta programs, reseller channel support, and cooperative marketing campaigns. Through this agreement, JYACC also becomes a TUXEDO Consulting Partner, leveraging the resources and expertise they have acquired through supporting the TUXEDO System.
Disclaimer
The origin of this information may be internal or external to Novell. While Novell makes all reasonable efforts to verify this information, Novell does not make explicit or implied claims to its validity.