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nextPage® Architecture

nextpage client service

The NextPage Client Service runs on each user’s computer. It consists of the following core client services: Tracking, Classification and Policy Services, which integrate with Microsoft® Word, PowerPoint, and Excel; and E-mail - Microsoft Outlook® and Lotus Notes. Together, these components perform the following functions with minimal user intervention:

Stamp files with NextPage metadata (“DNA”) when appropriate
Track stamped files in e-mail and on users’ hard drives
Confirm decisions with the Enterprise Service when they require global consistency
Populate the product interface
Enable automatic policy to be applied

From an architectural standpoint, the integration for each supported document application has been kept as simple as possible. NextPage inserts user interface elements such as a NextPage menu. It detects user operations such as file opens, saves and closes. The application then acts as the Client Service’s interface to the application’s particular method for storing NextPage metadata.

The application integrations are add-ins for Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel. They are written in C# and communicate with their respective applications via published COM interfaces. Microsoft applications store key-value pairs in OLE structured storage and expose them via published interfaces as standard and custom properties. The NextPage add-ins all use this facility to store metadata.

The NextPage Client Service’s file system integration tracks NextPage-stamped files in response to certain trigger events:

On a local file system, all file writes, deletes, moves and renames generate trigger events with a sub-second response time.
On a removable or network-mounted drive, file opens and saves generate trigger events. As on the local file system, tracking continues uninterrupted through renames and file moves. The only difference on a network or shared drive is the timing of the triggers, which do not occur immediately as files appear and disappear.

The role of the Classification Service is similar to that of the file system integration. The Client Service detects each time a document is created or versioned and stamps the document with the designated classificaiton. Classification can happen either on the first save of a document or it can be automatically classified. Once this is complete all documents that are saved to that folder will be automatically stamped with the class. Making the classification process even more seamless for users. In some cases users might not ever see a classification prompt, it all happen behind the scenes.

The Policy Service enables the client to execute policy with or without manual intervention. A policy can be created and defined in the Enterprise Service and the Policy Service on the client will read the variables and policy parameters and enforce the appropriate actions on the users' desktop.
NextPage Enterprise Service

The NextPage Enterprise Service is a collection of hosted capabilities.

Interactions between the Client Service and the Enterprise Service are fully asynchronous. This means that a client can run indefinitely while offline or with a bad network connection. Client operations execute without waiting for the Enterprise Service to respond.

Non-trivial messages that pass between the Client Service and the Enterprise Service travel securely via HTTPS/443. For compatibility with private address spaces, the Enterprise Service never initiates contact with the Client Service. Instead, the Client Service polls the Enterprise Service using lightweight queries via HTTP/80

Many of the most common causes of document risk and wasted editing cycles trace directly to a single root cause: e-mail is blind.

This service overcomes this blindness by making it possible to always know who has created the latest version of any given document. The Client Service selectively passes this awareness on to users. Users will see only versions that they physically possesses, plus the name of the author of the latest version on each row.

Unlike a centralized system, which is capable of tracking only the files that users remember to upload to a specific location, NextPage technology can track files anywhere and under any circumstances.

The NextPage Digital Thread™ maintains files’ identities and relationships, and the Proactive Tracking Service maintains the Digital Thread. The Proactive Tracking Service accumulates genetic information from every NextPage-stamped file encountered by any Client Service. This genetic information is completely anonymous. It is composed of identifiers that, like Swiss bank-account numbers, are completely opaque—they cannot be traced back to files users do not have access to, or even to specific file names. To unlock their meaning, users must have physical possession of the files to which they refer.

Because the NextPage service does not rely on a centralized repository, there are no files to protect from unauthorized viewing, modification or deletion. Users have complete control over access to their own files, and they have complete freedom to take advantage of any existing access security capabilities. For example, users can store files on personal computers and not allow access to anyone else. They can also post files on shared network drives and use built-in access controls to assign and control permissions.

With the NextPage system, the worst one user can do to another is create a file that is stamped as the next version, making another user’s version appear to be obsolete.

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