Hello everyone,
thanks Rich for starting this discussion thread, allowing us to tell you more about Webtop.
So, first of all, I would like to clarify that Webtop is not a new product.
We started development of the very early versions of Webtop in 1999, as a replacement for desktop mail and calendar applications like Outlook, Exchange, Lotus Notes: the aim has always been a Web Desktop, zero install, cross platform, extendable, all inside a unique web dashboard.
Secondly, let me say that Webtop is not only a collaboration or groupware application, but a full development platform and framework where you can plug your new services and applications inside a common dashboard, and using the other services as ready to use facilities.
I don’t want to dive into questioning about java vs php, solaris vs linux, or whatever.
At Sonicle, Java has always been our language of choice because of its elegance and portability server side, the web browser as the only deployment, Unix as the hosting OS, be it Linux, BSD or Solaris, or whatever.
From then on, we evolved Webtop in 15 years moving through 3 huge refactorings to keep pace with the evolving technologies, both on server side Java, and expecially the web with javascript, ajax and html5.
During these 15 years we deployed to our customer base hundreds of end users, mainly on Solaris and Linux servers.
The enterprise and our customers has always been the focus, so the interface evolved with features solving real world solutions, and always trying to mimic to our best what they’re used to on a normal desktop application.
Current Webtop 4.5.x is now largerly deployed to around thousands of end users both on premise and on our own cloud solution, and being used 24x7 from browsers, and through active sync on tablets and smartphones.
Sonicle and Nethesis are now working tightly together to evolve Webtop again: Webtop 5.
You can start using Webtop 4.5.x today, with added features Nethesis requested us to introduce during this year of collaboration, and go 5 tomorrow.
Because the focus is always the end user, I want to summarize some unique features of Webtop you won’t easily find elsewhere:
- Ability to plug in other pre-existent services as Webtop services, no matter the language they’re written server side
- Ability to write new Webtop integrated services
- Theming, with some predefined themes (Outlook, Thunderbird, Lotus Notes), and the ability to plug in your own themes with few images and css coding.
- ActiveSync support works with both iOS and Android, and some supported BB
- Visibility of your connected devices through your Webtop account
- Native integration of Webtop cloud with Google Drive and Dropbox, plus support for VFS urls to control visibility of remote file systems
- OTP (One Time Password) can be enabled per user and/or networks to allow for additional security
- Personal and/or centralized mailcards management, with tags substitutions from personal infos
- Integration with external archiving systems (document management) and/or Webtop internal DRM
- Mail service includes also support for fax specifics, cloud links for large attachments, workflow management of mails
- Extended calendaring with enterprise fields for time qualification and ERP integration
- Extended contact management with ERP integration
- Ability to customize the login page and public areas to match the company image
- For Windows users, ability to install an integrated assistant for native system operations (send to, system tray alarms, etc)
Last but not least, while the base Webtop platform consists of common collaboration services like mail, calendar, contacts, tasks and cloud, we already developed and continue developing new services addressing specific needs, like newsletter management, document and relationship management, etc.
Also we have customers that already developed and deployed their own additional services, like full Webtop ERP views to their legacy systems, backoffice services to public product catalogs, and more.
We understand that 4.5.x misses documentation, but we and Nethesis are working to fill this gap.
Meanwhile, Webtop 5 is being built with documentation and APIs in mind.
Also we understand that any software may carry bugs and problems, and we’re working with Nethesis to solve any discovered one, so we will absolutely appreciate your help in finding any possible one.
Feel free to ask any more question.
Gabriele.