From...

January 24, 2000
Web posted at: 12:35 p.m. EST (1735 GMT)

by Jason Meserve

(IDG) -- Portals and Linux have been all the rage recently, and now Hummingbird is bringing the two hot commodities together with this week's release of its new Enterprise Information Portal (EIP) software for Linux.

Hummingbird's EIP is said to tie multiple data sources within a company (such as enterprise resource planning systems, databases and mail servers) into a single browser-based view, says Kate Atherley, director of strategic marketing for the Toronto-based company. The EIP takes advantage of technology developed in Hummingbird's business intelligence, data warehouse and connectivity lines of business. "It's a growth path that makes sense ... to provide access to everything in an organization."

MESSAGE BOARD Linux   ALSO Adobe brings desktop publishing to Linux

Hummingbird uses e-Clip technology to provide access to various application data. E-clips are modules that use a Java-based scripting language to interact with other applications. The portal uses XML to exchange data between modules. Customers can map proprietary data sources to the EIP using a published data-type definition, which maps what fields correspond with what data.

The portal can be customized to fit individual or group user needs. Hummingbird ships "skins" that define what the portal interface looks like and how the application behaves, Atherley says. For instance, the company is working on a skin for palmtop computers that will take into account the size of the unit's display in addition to its limited connectivity to a corporate LAN.

MORE COMPUTING INTELLIGENCE

IDG.net home page

The big business of Linux

Top 10 portals

LinuxWorld: Porting from Unix or Windows to Linux

IDG.net's network operating systems page

Reviews & in-depth info at IDG.net

E-BusinessWorld

Year 2000 World

Questions about computers? Let IDG.net's editors help you

To help simplify browsing and searching corporate data, Hummingbird is taking advantage of technology it acquired when it purchased PC DOCS. The software can create "cluster maps" of related data and concepts then provide a hierarchical view of all related data. Users can even search structured and unstructured data simultaneously, Atherley says.

Other features include green-screen access to mainframe data and a "Unified Inbox" that can combine e-mail from internal and external mail sources.

In addition to supporting Linux, the Hummingbird EIP also ships for Windows NT and Solaris. It supports Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator, Versions 4.0 and greater, on the client side. The portal ships with its own internal data store for metadata, though it can be plugged into an external Oracle database. Pricing starts at $100,000.