Alongside its Domino web application server, Lotus Development Corp will also try and proliferate Notes across the internet by offering web-enabled versions of its current OCX- and ActiveX-based Lotus Components application building blocks from next year. The idea is that web developers will use the Components – current examples include Chart, Comment, Draw/Diagram, File Viewer, Project Scheduler, Spreadsheet and Component Template Builder – within web applications. Users will activate a Lotus component with their browsers to access and run the application. Lotus says a brokerage house could use the Components to create an internet application which queries investment portfolios. When posted to the web site customers would be able query their portfolios and use the Spreadsheet and Chart components to analyze and display their data. Meantime Lotus says it’s now shipping ActiveX versions of the six core Components (not web-enabled) in a starter pack at $50 per client seat. Later this year it will offer Lotus Components Product Warehouse, a Note 4 application allowing for distribution of Lotus Components and license monitoring within an organisation. The next version of Lotus Word Pro, which will ship as a part of SmartSuite 97 in the fourth quarter, will include a container for Lotus Components.
