Groupware Servers Interview Questions & Answers

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What is the role of SQL in groupware servers?
What is a RPC?
What is DHCP?
What is the use of SSL?
What is an HTTPS port?

What is a proxy?
What is a proxy server and what are their functions?
Explain the function of an object server?
What is a transaction server?
What are super servers?

What is a file server?
What is a calendar server?
What are database servers?
What is an alias in reference to servers?
What is a server port?

Explain the conceptual model of the NSTP?
What is centralized state sharing?
What do you understand by place browsing?
What is the difference between email and BB`s?
What is a structured message system?

How groupware servers are different form middleware server?
What do you understand by 3-tier architecture?
Explain 2-tier architecture.
How is load balancing implemented in a server?
What is NSTP?

What the difference is between centralized and replicated in reference to groupware?
What is middleware?
What is a service specific middleware?
Explain the fat server model.
Explain the fat client model.

What functions does a groupware server perform?
What are the prerequisites of hosting a groupware server?
Explain the client server architecture used in groupware servers?
What are feedback and network delays?
What are the different architectures in groupware?

What are the different types of permissions that can be defined for a groupware?
How is data integrity maintained in a groupware severs?
What are the standard data formats used in a groupware servers?
What do you understand by asymmetrical protocols?
What is LDAP in reference to groupware servers?

What is WebDAV?
What is BSCW?
What is DReSS?
Explain a groupware connector?
What are the components of a groupware framework?

What is groupware?
How can groupware be classified?
What are the advantages of using a groupware server?
What are the shortcomings of a groupware server?
Name a few groupware solutions?

Address handling of contacts is not an easy task as it requires quite up and down from the server. It requires the data to be transferred from server to client and this is simple. The data that is sent to client is overwritten or if it is not already created then it gets created at that time. The transaction from client to server is complex procedure as the contacts that are being given from client to the server requires ample amount of time and it requires the server to accept the messages from the client as well. This requires the server to be having the information regarding the client location and the services through which the transfer of the addresses are happening.
• To handle the addresses for contact, the client makes a request and the server responds to it.
• Server then searches its repository and tries to find out regarding the client’s request.
• If found successfully the result is returned to client, if not then error message is sent to the client regarding his request.

To detect the changed objects there are some rules that has to be followed or else the result can be unwanted. The rules are as follows:
• All the entities that is being mentioned in the objects must have a flag of “LastModified” through which the system can recognize the time at which it has been changed and the changes can be detected very easily. If the date of the object is newer then it gets stored in the history, and it has to be changed as the later object comes into action.
• The reaction to a reminder gets stored in the object usually in groupware systems and record is made to notice the changes that is being done leading to a re-synchronization of the tasks that has been done but not in sync.
• The change in any of the object series will be treated as the change that leads to synchronization and it occurs in time frame.

The entities that are new or deleted can be identified by groupware just be seeing the history that consists of all the records and the data for the entry. The entry in the history usually is having a missing entry on one side and it is to be deleted. The appointment can be checked in this case by moving the timeslot that is not included in the current time frame. The new or deleted entries can be identified by looking at the ID and have a search for the entries in the database. If the exact result is being met then it shows the result and from there the status of the entries can be found.

Groupware Appointments are synchronized using mapping techniques, whereas the CRM activities are getting class or category appointments using the CRM techniques.
CRM activities don’t include the exception that has occurred in the meeting series, whereas all the logs and exceptions are maintained in Groupware system.
CRM activities are present in different category but they are represented in task based list and then they will be synchronized to the groupware. Whereas, the category that is being transferred to the groupware will be synchronized but it can’t be returned back to the original state.

Contacts are synchronized using the business partners and their co-operation in synchronizing the contacts, whereas the accounts are not synchronized using this method.
Contacts consists of the individual listing of all the clients associated in groupware, whereas accounts consists of the consolidated list of all the contacts in total that are present in the overall groupware management panel.
Contacts are synchronized using the company information that includes address and contact number, whereas accounts are synchronized using the contacts that are stored in the panel.

The program below shows all the appointments in a folder that is consolidated and filter is being used to sort out the result:

http://user_server/sgs/bin/index.php
?folder=/Workspace/System/Events/
&view=display
&export=rss
&today=01/11/09
&markdate=year
&username=demo
&password=demo
&filters=handle|eq|this is used to get all appointments together

The appointments are good way to remain organized and allow the data to be maintained in an orderly manner. The filters are used to handle the appointments and using to find out the result according to the query that is being entered.

The groupware system architecture is a generic architecture that is common for all the people and parties that is using it. It includes the following three layers:
1. Infrastructure: This is the lowest level in the architecture. It includes:
a. Content exchange mechanism that allows users to exchange the data that they are working on and communicate with another party using this.
b. Authentication services that allow more than one user to be communicating with each other at the same time.
c. Directory services that allow the recording of the addresses that are communicating at that moment of time.
2. Communication: This is the layer that is on top of infrastructure and allows user to communicate through electronic mail with each other.
3. Collaboration: This is on the top of communication layer and allows real time conversation to take place and enhance the communication to the next level where the video chats are also a possibility. This includes:
a. Calendaring and Scheduling
b. File and printer services
c. Electronic document management

Groupware systems are classified on the basis of the functions performed by them at higher levels. The functions those are included:
• Computer mediated communication- this includes direct communication with one another and have in implementation the meeting and decision support system to understand the nature of the conversation.
• Shared applications- this includes the applications that are shared over the network like the objects that are required for the communication. The shared applications can be taken by anyone who is associated in the network and allow everyone to share more and more applications.
• Artifacts that are used by the clients support the interaction of clients with one another that uses the shared work objects.

The classification of groupware system is based on the time-space matrix. This time-space matrix includes different scenarios like:
• Same place same time: this includes the face to face interaction and doesn’t require anything complex. This is one of the easiest scenarios.
• Same place different time: This includes asynchronous interaction. The complexity that is involved with this is not that much but to create the interaction one has to be synchronized with another person.
• Different place different time: This includes of synchronous distributed interaction. This includes example of recording of a certain lecture and uploading it on the website so others can view and use it according to their time and place.
• Different place same time: This includes synchronous distributed interaction. This includes the example of a website that is visited by the many people at the same time and the resources are also available for them to use.

Changing of contact or creation of it requires some steps to change few settings to allow it to be synchronized with the groupware system:
• If there is any change in the contact then for the private data there won’t be any special handling that has to be done.
• If there is any business related data that includes account name, work address and phone number, etc. then a request is sent to the server to synchronize all the addresses and it links the changed account with the server. A search is made on the server to find out the exact match of the account on the server.
• Any list that is returned from the server gets evaluated and the exact matching account is used.
• If there is no exact matching then the possible addresses are added to the contact and a list of all the possible results will be sent to the client, from which it can select the combinations that is matching his account.

It is not easy to transfer the records from client to server as it requires lot of handling of the data and the node has to be ready that is going to make this transfer possible. There are two main issues that come while transferring from client to server and they are as follows:
• Client side consists of account data that compromises of name and address/phone data. It doesn’t have an ID through which the data can be transferred. So, for every transaction there will be a search to, find the exact matching of the account on the server.
• The business address is another issue that includes the business related data of the contact and doesn’t have an ID. So, it becomes difficult to locate the address on the server and try to find out the existing one.

The problem that arises due to the synchronizing the same file on different machines will have an impact on the overall system. This will happen due to outdated file on one system has to overwrite or an error might occur when trying to overwrite the file due to signature problem. The process that can be followed is as follows:
1. Load history files that consist of the information regarding the server’s transaction.
2. Check with the server that the new entries exist when the other machine’s history file will be copied. If there is no history file then all the data gets copied successfully.
3. The history information that is added will be stored in the internal collection and it will be written in the local file. Add history data returned from server to internal collection.

There are two different reasons that are required to have a backup mechanism to store the history information. These reasons are as follows:

1. If any file is deleted from the computer or the file gets corrupted, stolen or lost due to server error or some particular reason then it is very hard to compute it without having any previous knowledge in this regard. The effect of this will come on the linking of the two entities which is no more available so the synchronization will take more space.
2. If the user synchronizes the same information on two different machines and having the same user in both different machines then the history information that is store on both the machines will be different. There will be a mismatch of the history and one will over write another one.

There is a history that is maintained to store the information of the two entities that are related to each other and are already synchronized. This also keeps the information about the entity that is last updated on the server. This information is required to keep the link between the two always synchronized. This will help in not loosing any data and maintaining tasks, appointments and contacts as synchronized entities. It is very necessary for a large system to keep the data preserved. The syntax of the history file will be given as follows:
<ProfileName>his<EntityName>.syc
Where EntityName in {“app”,”tsk”,”cont”}

This is a property that consists of the relationship between the contact and the employee that is associated with the company and it is used to build synchronization between the two.