BEA AquaLogic Pathways 1.5 White Paper

BEA White Paper

BEA AquaLogic Pathways 1.5Extend Knowledge Discovery Everywhere

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BEA White Paper – BEA AquaLogic Pathways 1.5

Table of Contents

Introducing BEA AquaLogic Pathways . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

BEA AquaLogic Pathways 1.5: Extending knowledge discovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Key capabilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Application Programming Interface (API) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Portlets and pagelets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

Browser plug-In . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Search agents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

Bookmarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

BEA AquaLogic Pathways 1.5 in action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8

BEA AquaLogic Pathways and BEA AquaLogic Interaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

How to get started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

About BEA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

Join the BEA community . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9


Introducing BEA AquaLogic Pathways

BEA AquaLogic Pathways is a knowledge and expertise discovery system that provides personal and collabo-

rative management of enterprise content. It is used to discover and classify information stored in any corporate

repository-from Documentum to Microsoft Exchange and SharePoint to Lotus Notes or Windows file systems.

AquaLogic Pathways helps users discover information and expertise based on how information is actually

used. Put simply, the system combines search, content tagging, bookmarking, and activity analytics, delivering

a better way to discover information and experts.

In a single system, BEA AquaLogic Pathways serves the diverse needs of both IT and business users.

• For IT, BEA AquaLogic Pathways delivers “search that works,” as well as a platform for building new and

innovative search-driven applications—from a research database or an expert location system. BEA

AquaLogic Pathways builds its collection by scanning diverse enterprise content systems—SharePoint,

Documentum, OpenText LiveLink, Lotus Notes—allowing IT to get more out of what’s already there.

• For business users, BEA AquaLogic Pathways provides highly accurate search results, pointing directly tothe most valuable and relevant content and people. Users “tag” items, describing them to the system in away that is personally meaningful. BEA AquaLogic Pathways assembles views of content collections, providing apersonalized view based on a user’s own tags, as well as customizable views based on the activity of otherusers.

BEA AquaLogic Pathways is based on an innovative ranking engine, ActivityRank, that ranks relevance based

on the explicit and implicit connections between information and the people using it.

BEA AquaLogic Pathways 1.5: Extending knowledge discovery

Today’s knowledge workers across the enterprise require access to data from multiple repositories. They need

to access data from the various applications they use, and for different situational needs. BEA AquaLogic

Pathways 1.5 provides several powerful tools that extend the functionality of the knowledge and expertise discovery

system across and more deeply inside the enterprise.

Businesses understand that knowledge management is a key success factor in today’s globally competitive

environment. Companies have unique situations with regard to how employees work, collaborate and use

knowledge. The common thread to these situations is that knowledge must be accessible in ways that fit workers’

daily lives. From that starting point, each company then determines its own approach for improving workers’

information productivity. The critical thinking that goes into managing and implementing this approach is a

source of competitive advantage for each company.

A one-size-fits-all approach to knowledge management tools fails to address the innovative thinking that

occurs in companies every day around the world. Companies need the flexibility to start with tools that improve

information productivity, and then customize them to reflect their unique ways of managing knowledge.

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While organizations have different ways to manage knowledge, users have different work styles. Productivity

improves when knowledge discovery is extended to the points where users work. For some employees, this

might be the portal project page. Some may work primarily from their community page. Others favor direct

access to a separate application. And still others want knowledge updates sent directly to their email. The one

thing they all need is a way to access knowledge in real-time, conveniently from where they are working.

Once the BEA AquaLogic Pathways capabilities are extended to fit workers’ styles, companies have the opportunity

to turn each employee into a market researcher. Every day in their work employees come across valuable information

on the Web about their industry, competition and customers. Unfortunately, this knowledge ends up only as

bookmarks in their browsers or on consumer bookmarking sites. By making this information accessible to the

enterprise at large, a business can gain a competitive advantage.

With BEA AquaLogic Pathways 1.5:

Companies can innovate to improve information productivity. BEA AquaLogic Pathways 1.5 provides an

application programming interface (API). The API lets companies customize BEA AquaLogic Pathways, allowing

them to create their own knowledge discovery experience.

Knowledge discovery is distributed throughout the enterprise. BEA AquaLogic Pathways 1.5 provides

portlets that can be embedded through the enterprise portal. The portlets support the core BEA AquaLogic

Pathways functions: search, results, tagging and the tag cloud. These same portlets can be pagelets embed-

ded in non-portal applications, using BEA AquaLogic Ensemble. Users can also subscribe to email notifications

and RSS feeds when new content matching their search criteria is added to the corporate knowledge base.

Workers can easily add content to the corporate knowledge directory. BEA AquaLogic Pathways 1.5provides two ways for employees to easily submit Web content. They can add Web pages on-the-fly, andthey can import their valuable Web site bookmarks as well.

BEA AquaLogic Pathways 1.5 extends knowledge discovery everywhere.

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Figure 1

BEA AquaLogic Pathways—Extending knowledge discovery everywhere.

BrowserPlug-in

Bookmarks RSS

World Wide Web

BEA AquaLogic Pathways 1.5Extending Knowledge Discovery Everywhere

SearchAgent

Email Inbox

BEA AquaLogicPathways

Portlet

API

PortalHomepage

BEA AquaLogicInteraction Portal

API

Pagelet

Third PartyApplications


Key capabilities

BEA AquaLogic Pathways 1.5 extends the powerful functionality of AquaLogic Pathways for corporate developers

and business users. The following is a detailed overview of the release and its major features.

Application Programming Interface (API)The BEA AquaLogic Pathways API offers the ability to develop custom applications using the Pathways

functionality. Companies that are creating innovative strategies for improving knowledge and expertise

discovery for their workers now have the tools to execute on these strategies.

Developers can integrate AquaLogic Pathways with the leading content management applications and platforms,

including Microsoft SharePoint, EMC Documentum, and Lotus Connections, as well as Windows file systems

and websites.

The API is built on representational state transfer (REST) architectural principles. REST relies on basic HTTP

requests for its interaction framework. REST provides several advantages that make its principles well suited for

an integration architecture, including:

• Reducing the amount of client-side software development, since a browser can access any application

or resource

• Minimizing dependency on vendor software because it does not require a layer of additional messaging

frameworks on top of HTTP

• Improving long-term compatibility of any integration, due to the capability of applications to support fornew content types without dropping or reducing support for older content types.

The API exposes the powerful functions of AquaLogic Pathways, as shown in Table 1. The API meets the

needs for flexibility required by business while providing the security and scalability that enterprises require.

Table 1. AquaLogic Pathways 1.5 functions supported by the API.

Action Description

Query Any valid query, including general term search or search by metadata. Query returns the search term and number of results.

Create tag Tags can be created without associating them to specific content.

Apply tag Apply tags to content items for a specific user.

Delete tag Remove tag association to a specific content item.

Add/remove favorites Add or remove content items as favorites for a specific user.

Add/remove contacts Add or remove contacts maintained by Pathways for a specific user.

Specify view Specify a view in which results should be displayed.

Specify object type Define the types of objects to be queried.

Number of results Specify the number of results to be returned per page.

Number of tags Specify the number of tags returned in a result set.

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Portlets and pageletsBEA AquaLogic Pathways 1.5 can be deployed as either a portlet on the BEA AquaLogic Interaction portal, or

as a pagelet embedded on a separate application. Through portlets and pagelets, companies improve access

to information by putting AquaLogic Pathways functionality on the interaction points where employees work.

Accessing corporate knowledge and expertise becomes much more part of the flow of workers’ daily activities.

BEA AquaLogic Pathways is accessed from each user’s portal homepage. With portlets, knowledge discovery

can be added to other areas of the portal. For example, users can directly search for knowledge and expertise

from portal communities. The distribution of BEA AquaLogic Pathways functionality throughout the enterprise

enhances the value of the portal as the platform used to deliver unified, collaborative, and context-based

user experiences.

Pagelets are an innovative approach to extending BEA AquaLogic Pathways beyond the enterprise portal.

Different parts of organizations work primarily from different applications. These applications provide functions

specific to the roles of the workers. However, these workers share a common need to access the knowledge

and expertise of the company. Pagelets allow work to continue on a separate application while providing easy

access to enterprise knowledge and expertise.

Portlets and pagelets can be configured to access only specified locations of data. This works well when the

search and discovery is intended to be only within the context of the host page or application.

Pagelets and portlets can be considered to offer identical functionality in terms of extending BEA AquaLogic

Pathways. Portlets work natively with the BEA AquaLogic Interaction portal, while pagelets require integration

to third-party applications. The integration of pagelets works through BEA AquaLogic Ensemble, a powerful

system for managing Web-based resources.

Portlets and pagelets support the major functions of BEA AquaLogic Pathways: search, results, tagging and

tag clouds.

SearchPortlets and pagelets support any valid search query. Queries can look for instances of a search term on all

elements of content, or only in specified metadata. Queries can be restricted to only specified locations within

the portal: knowledge directory folders, AquaLogic Interaction Collab Projects, and admin folders. These restrictions

can be set such that queries return only content that is relevant to a portal community or third-party application.

Searches can be further restricted to only recent content created within a specified number of days.

ResultsResults are returned, as specified by the administrator, when users perform any one of these actions:

• Run search queries via the search portlet or pagelet

• Click on tags in a tag cloud portlet or pagelet

• Execute a pre-configured search query

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TaggingUsers apply tags through the search results portlet or pagelet. Existing tags are displayed by search results,

along with the ‘Apply Tags’ button. Tags applied via a portlet of pagelet are visible to other instances of

AquaLogic Pathways inside the enterprise.

For third-party applications, a tagging pagelet is used to tag objects. Objects in the third-party application are

crawled into the portal knowledge directory. The embedded tagging pagelet, working through BEA AquaLogic

Ensemble, interacts with the crawled-in content in the portal, returning existing tags and allowing a user to

apply new tags.

Tag CloudPowerful tag cloud functionality is available via portlet or pagelet. The tag cloud displays the top tags for a specific

user, groups of users, or everyone. The tags in the cloud adjust in response to a search query, showing only

the subset related to that query. A user can configure different views as needed.

Table 2 summarizes the common features and differences for portlets and pagelets.

Table 2. Common features and differences between portlets and pagelets.

Portlets Pagelets

Embedded In portal third party apps

Search yes yes

Results yes yes

Tagging not a separate portlet yes

Tag Cloud yes yes

BEA AquaLogic Ensemble not required required

Browser plug-inBEA AquaLogic Pathways is available as a Web browser plug-in-a toolbar that lets users run a search or add

content on-the-fly. With the toolbar, AquaLogic Pathways is readily available, regardless of where the user is on

the Web. The user does not need to navigate to a specific page containing AquaLogic Pathways.

The toolbar search experience is familiar to anyone who uses search toolbars from Google or Yahoo (Figure 2).

The toolbar provides an easy search box for users to enter terms. The browser loads the BEA AquaLogic

Pathways search results page, with ranked content and people along with the tag cloud.

The content submission process is simple, fast and easy. The user sees a Web page that is relevant to the

company. Clicking on the Submit button of the toolbar brings up a separate browser page (Figure 2). The

Submit page is pre-populated with the URL of the Web page and its name. The user indicates the folder into

which the Web page should be added, as well a description of its content. Tags can be applied right as the

content is submitted. Immediately, the content is discoverable, via the tags, throughout the enterprise.

The toolbar preferences button allows the Administrator or user to enter the location of the BEA AquaLogic

Pathways server.

The BEA AquaLogic Pathways plug-in toolbar is available for both Internet Explorer and Firefox.


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Figure 2

BEA AquaLogic Pathways browser plug-in tool-bar offers an easy-to-use search box for queries.

Figure 3

BEA AquaLogic Pathways Submit page offers the ability to tag content as it is submitted.


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Search agentsBEA AquaLogic Pathways 1.5 provides search agents to notify users when new content is added. The search

agents perform recurring searches of the enterprise content collection, looking for new content that matches

selected criteria.

When search agents uncover new content meeting pre-selected criteria, a user has two ways to stay updated:

email and RSS (really simple syndication).

For email notifications, the search agent leverages the saved search function of BEA AquaLogic Pathways.

A saved search enables a user to select search criteria and save it. When the user clicks on the saved search,

a query is run automatically on the pre-selected criteria.

The search agent extends this functionality further. Upon creating the saved search, the user has the option to

receive email notifications related to the saved search. These updates notify the user of new content that matches

the search criteria. The user can select a notification frequency ranging from 1 to 14 days.

The notifications are template-driven, allowing companies to create their own formats for the emails.

Administrators can select the time for the email notifications to be sent out.

RSS is a way to subscribe to new content. RSS distributes notifications of new content to special feed reading

applications. Called RSS readers, these applications list new content with links to it. Notifications are persistent,

centralized and searchable.

The search agent powers the RSS feeds. After a user searches BEA AquaLogic Pathways, an RSS link appears

at the top of the search results. The user can add this RSS link to an RSS reader, and subscribe to updates when

new content is added that matches the search criteria. The RSS reader needs to support basic authentication

to access the portal.

BookmarksWorkers come across interesting and valuable sites on the Web during the normal course of their work. They

bookmark these Web sites for future reference. BEA AquaLogic Pathways 1.5 enables the enterprise to benefit

from workers’ bookmarks.

Bookmarks are created by users in two common ways. Users create a list of saved Web sites in their browsers:

Favorites in Internet Explorer, Bookmarks in Firefox. In addition to browser-based bookmarks, users save

favorite Web sites to bookmark services such as del.icio.us. With del.icio.us, users also add tags to their

bookmarked pages.

Users can upload these bookmarks to the BEA AquaLogic Pathways server. Bookmark file formats are standardized

for Internet Explorer, Firefox and del.icio.us. Users simply export their bookmarks into a file. The bookmark file

can then be added to the corporate content collection, including any tags. The content is immediately available

to the enterprise for access and tagging.

During the bookmark upload, AquaLogic Pathways automatically checks to see if any of the uploaded Web site

URLs already exist in the content collection. If so, the existing URL is maintained, and any tags associated to

the uploaded Web page are associated to the existing URL.

BEA AquaLogic Pathways 1.5 in action

Three examples highlight the ways in which BEA AquaLogic Pathways 1.5 can benefit companies and employees.

Communities of expertise

A company operates in multiple lines of business. Each line of business has requirements that define its products

and operating model. In many cases, these requirements apply to more than one line of business. The company

wants to establish a roster of experts that others can find and use as a resource.

The company builds out communities related to the requirements of each business line. These communities

house documents, discussions, projects, events and information updates. The company wants to add a list of

internal experts to these communities.

Using the BEA AquaLogic Pathways API, the company creates a list of preset tags that reflect the different

requirements communities. Employees can go to their user profiles and declare their expertise by associating

one or more tags to their profiles. A BEA AquaLogic Pathways portlet is added to each community, automatically

showing persons tagged with the associated expertise. Clicking on a person in the portlet takes the user to

their profile page for more information.

Workers want to stay on top of updates related to their communities of expertise. They can add the BEA

AquaLogic Pathways search agent for notification of new content added to the community.

Customer and industry research conducted with the CRM application

A company’s sales team works primarily from the company’s CRM application. The company adds BEA AquaLogic

Pathways pagelets to the CRM application. A salesperson is investigating a new prospect uses the search

pagelet to learn what knowledge the enterprise has for the prospect or its industry.

First, the salesperson enters the name of company. Several results are returned, including documents showing

that the company had purchased from the prospect in the past. Another search result shows that the prospect

attended a Webinar given by the product marketing team.

Next, the salesperson searches on the industry of the prospect, sees that several Web pages have been saved,

and finds an industry presentation written by a major research firm. This combination of information provides a

quick head start for further research.

Each employee becomes a market researcher

Company employees use the Web as a part of their everyday work. Functional groups-sales, HR, marketing,

operations, etc.-have different interests in the types of sites that are relevant to their work. Collectively, the time

and effort these employees devote to finding information represents a valuable market research effort.

The company implements BEA AquaLogic Pathways 1.5, and asks employees to upload their bookmarks. This

quick and simple process immediately builds a strong collection of market research. Thereafter, employees no

longer bookmark items only to their own browsers or bookmarking service-they use the AquaLogic Pathways

plug-in toolbar to submit and tag the valuable Web content they find.

With the new content and tags, all workers benefit from a much richer set of knowledge to help them be more

productive in their jobs.


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BEA AquaLogic Pathways and BEA AquaLogic Interaction

BEA AquaLogic Pathways is a powerful discovery system for BEA AquaLogic Interaction, and for contentassembled by BEA AquaLogic Interaction into its Knowledge Directory. BEA AquaLogic Pathways uses thatsame collection, providing alternative ways for people to interact with and find information. It integrates withBEA AquaLogic Interaction in a variety of ways:

Building the collection. BEA AquaLogic Pathways uses the search and content assembly capabilities of BEAAquaLogic Interaction to build the content collection. This includes content from external applications, which isaccessed by pagelets. These capabilities manage search administration, indexing, and assembly.

Portlets. As described herein, BEA AquaLogic Pathways 1.5 portlets interact with items and people throughthe BEA AquaLogic Interaction portal.

BEA AquaLogic Pathways console. BEA AquaLogic Pathways offers users an advanced, AsynchronousJavaScript And XML (AJAX) interactive experience. The console is displayed as a community in the BEAAquaLogic Interaction portal.

Search experience. BEA AquaLogic Pathways can be plugged into the BEA AquaLogic Interaction navigationbar, providing a default search experience across the entire portal. In addition, search can be distributedthroughout individual areas of the portal, and as an always-available browser plug-in.

Tagging objects in BEA AquaLogic Interaction. All objects within the BEA AquaLogic Interaction system canbe tagged as well as objects found in external applications.

Security. BEA AquaLogic Pathways uses the user/group management and authentication system provided byBEA AquaLogic Interaction. Security and activity rights on objects within BEA AquaLogic Pathways can beadministered through BEA AquaLogic Interaction.

Administration. The BEA AquaLogic Pathways management console can be accessed through theBEA AquaLogic Interaction user interface.

How to get startedFor more information about BEA AquaLogic Pathways, please visit bea.com/enterprise or write to

[email protected].

About BEA BEA Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: BEAS) is a world leader in enterprise infrastructure software. BEA® Enterprise 360°,

the industry’s most advanced SOA-based offering, is a comprehensive approach to delivering business results

that includes technology, professional services, best practices, and world-class partners. Information about how

BEA helps customers build a Liquid Enterprise™ that transforms their business can be found at bea.com.

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BEA AquaLogic Pathways 1.5 White Paper