As any Webmaster can tell you, one of the most difficult tasks facing the implementation of a successful Intranet is document management and publishing. Managing a growing Intranet takes planning, followed by best practices with the right tools to make distributed publishing a reality. Even successful Intranets can run into trouble when departments, workgroups and individuals take the initiative to add their own content.

A simplistic management approach is to funnel all documents and data through a single Webmaster. This may work in the beginning, but is a sure formula for problems down the line. Successful webs rely on the "freshness" of their data; nothing frustrates users more than stale information. The key to keeping things current and well-organized, without hiring an army of librarians, is to leverage distributed publishing tools. That's where Net-It Central from San Francisco-based Net-It Software Corp. fits in.

Net-It Central is a document sharing application for Intranets that allows for the automatic collection and publishing of documents. Because HTML is so limited with regard to page layout and white space control, it is rarely the best solution for displaying graphically complex documents on the Web. Net-It Central gets around the Web's markup limitations using a Java-based technology called jDoc.

jDoc works by taking a source document in native format -- say, a newsletter written in Microsoft Word -- and wrapping it in a Java-based "document delivery container." The result is that virtually any displayable document can be viewed with near-perfect fidelity on any Java-capable Web browser, without the bulk and delay of plug-ins, viewers, or helper apps. The jDoc viewer itself is a tiny Java applet, barely 30 Kbytes, downloaded the first time you access a jDoc object.

 
Document Central

Net-It Central is a server-based, platform-independent publishing solution. The software itself runs on Windows 95 or NT 4.0, but is capable of publishing to any Web server platform. (Thanks, Java.)

Documents to be published can reside anywhere on the corporate network - from file servers to network drives. Directories can be setup to mirror the directory structure on the Web server or in any way that makes sense for the organization. Once the software is configured, users need only drag and drop documents into the appropriate directories to have them automatically published. Moreover, Net-It Central can be set to publish data automatically at predetermined times or intervals, allowing for truly automated content management. As a webmaster, I confess that this makes me very happy.

One constraint, understandable but potentially complicating, is that the authoring application for any document to be converted must reside on the machine running Net-It Central. This is because Net-It Central uses the authoring app's print-to function to create the jDoc version of the document.

(Because it is not always practical or desirable to have every application running on one machine, a second option exists. A utility called Quick View Plus, by Inso Corp., can be loaded on the conversion platform and is capable of displaying and printing over 200 different file types.)

 
Out of the Box

The User Guide is well written and clearly explains the steps necessary to publish documents to an intranet. Installing Net-It Central was straightforward. It took only a few minutes to complete, and I encountered no problems loading the software on both a Windows 95 and NT 4.0 system.

The first step after installation is creating a new project. For testing purposes, I chose to make a small collection of folders and documents to serve as the source of my data. I made sure to include files in a variety of formats: MS Word, PowerPoint, and Excel, as well as Adobe PDF documents. Creating the project was as painless as coming up with a name and clicking an "OK" button.

Next, it was time to define the site properties. The software allows you to manage most of Net-It Central's functionality from four tabs within the properties menu: locations, template, document conversion, and filters.

The locations tab allows you to define where documents and folders are coming from and where they are to go after processing. After letting Net-It Central know where my test documents and folders were stored (namely, on a shared network drive), the next step was to define where the files were to be published and a method for transfering them there. There are two options. Files can be copied to another network drive or sent via FTP to a remote server. Net-It Central accomodates uploads to non-anonymous (i.e., password-protected) FTP servers by allowing the user to specify login information. Of course, you need to ensure that Net-It Central has write permission on the target drive or server!

Once the collection source and destination information has been entered, you can define how the document collection will be represented on the actual site by choosing the templates tab. The templates tab gives you five predefined template styles to choose from. The pages can be customized by adding a logo, title information and footer information. Advanced users will be happy to know that these templates are fully customizable and that new ones can be created from scratch to suit any developers needs. The templates tab also allows you to have Net-It central mark items as "new" if they have been added within a pre-defined period of time.

 
Bonus Points

A feature that seems to be unique to Net-It Central is its ability to integrate with most any search engine. Through the templates tab, document searching can be enabled for the site. Collections created with Net-It Central are fully searchable and treated by the search engines as standard HTML documents. This implies that almost any document type can be searched with engines that support only HTML and text files. Net-It Central claims to have been tested using Netscape's, Microsoft's, and Excite's search engines. This I had to see for myself. It worked: I successfully integrated Verity's Search'97 (through a Cold Fusion 3.0 interface) with my test site.

The document conversion tab allows you to choose from a predefined list of navigation bar/button options for the site. Options for allowing downloading of the original file, showing documents that fail conversion, and printing of files are all configurable here.

Let's dwell a moment on printing. Those familiar with Java and its so-called "sandbox" security model may wonder how Net-It Central overcomes Java's inability to print (or otherwise access client resources). Fact is, it can't. Net-It Software has instead come up with a satisfactory workaround that lets Web browsers print Java-generated output. Unfortunately, it consists of loading a small, platform-dependent plug-in -- precisely the kind of lock-in jDoc so elegantly transcends. Chalk it up to Java's immaturity. Net-It Central makes available clear instructions for downloading and installing the appropriate plug-in when users first click the Print button.

Net-It Central's final properties tab is the filters tab. The filters tab allows you to decide which file types should be included in the collection but not converted and which file types should be excluded from conversion altogether. File types for inclusion/exclusion are identified by their extension.

 
Publish or Perish

Once all of the configuration information has been entered, it is time to build the site. A click of the mouse ... and my first attempt to convert my test site hit a hurdle right off the bat. It appeared as though MS Word was requesting a password for each Word document Net-It Central tried to convert. After checking out the configuration of Word and a few of the documents, I decided it was time to send an e-mail to Net-It's tech support team.

Net-It's technical support people are to be commended. I received a prompt reply, and through a few e-mail exchanges was able to correct the problem -- which was due to a configuration problem with the Word virus protection macro, not Net-It Central. I'm glad it happened, because it gave me a chance to experience the kind of prompt, courteous technical support that earns product loyalty.

With this obstacle removed, I was again on my way to building my test site. Net-It Central behaved exactly as it was supposed to. The source collection consisted of four folders, each representing the content repository of a fictitious department. The folders each contained a number of subfolders, which in turn contained a sampling of files for conversion. In all, there were a total of 15 folders and 30 files. Total conversion time for the entire project was 15 minutes and resulted in no errors being generated in Net-It Central's log file.

Opening the newly created site in my Web browser was a real surprise. An index page had been created listing the department folders. Clicking on the folders expanded the tree to show the subfolders, clicking which revealed the documents contained within.

This was the decisive moment. I clicked on a document that had been converted from a MS Word file ... and was amazed to see it rendered exactly as it had been created, graphics, tables, layout and all! I repeated the process with the other files, and am pleased to report that everything came out well, with one important exception.

Because Net-It Central's jDoc technology uses Java to render documents, it is limited to using only fonts currently supported by Java: Arial, Times New Roman, and Courier New. Documents containing fonts other than these are automatically rendered in the Java supported font that is the closest match to the original. It's a decent but clearly imperfect approach. True to form, Net-It Central offers a workaround. By modifying one of its configuration files, it is possible to have Net-It Central convert unsupported fonts to GIF images. This improves font rendering but also enlarges the jDoc files considerably. Presumably, as Java matures broader font support will make this a non-issue.

Last but not least (from a developer's standpoint, anyway) is the custom API included with the PRO version of Net-It Central. Using this interface, developers can integrate jDoc technology with their applications to create custom document management, groupware and workflow solutions. The jDoc Automation API can be called from any application extensible via Visual Basic or OLE.

This feature alone should be enough to entice developers, as Net-It Central's core technology has virtually limitless potential.

 
The Ante

A server-side solution, Net-It Central isn't inexpensive. Fortunately, it comes in three flavors to suit a variety of budgets. Net-It Central Standard Edition sells for $4995. A Pro Edition for $6995 is available and comes with the custom API. For those wishing to start small, Net-It Central Starter Edition is available for $1995 and allows for a maximum of 100 documents to be managed. All versions can be purchased by calling 1-888 Net It Now ext. 646, or directly from company's Web site at www.net-it.com. About the Author

>Rob Bilson is a freelance writer and the Senior Webmaster at Amkor Electronics, the global leader in semiconductor IC packaging, assembly and test. In addition, he can of ten be found doing consulting work for the Hard Drive Cafe, a Delaware based Internet/Intranet consulting firm.