Interaction with a Lotus Sametime server

Lotus® Sametime® is real-time collaboration software -- with online awareness, instant messaging, application sharing and virtual meetings.

Sametime consists of client and server applications that enable a community of users to collaborate in real-time online meetings over an intranet or the Internet. Members of the Sametime community use collaborative activities such as presence, chat, screen sharing, a shared whiteboard, and real-time audio/video capabilities to meet, converse, and work together in instant or scheduled meetings.

Sametime "presence" technology enables members who have logged in to the Sametime server to see all other members who are online (logged in). The names of online users display in presence lists (also known as buddy lists) in Sametime applications. From these presence lists, members of the community can converse through instant messaging sessions or start instant meetings that include chat, screen-sharing, whiteboard, question and answer polls, the ability to send Web pages, and audio/video collaborative activities.

To allow the IBM® Welcome Page V1.1 application and the IBM Telephone Directory V5.2 application to integrate Sametime functions, it uses the Sametime Links optional toolkit for Lotus Sametime. The Sametime Links toolkit is used for enabling Web applications and with Sametime awareness and instant messaging using an HTML or JavaScript™ API.

Note: The IBM Welcome Page V1.1 application is used to configure the location of the online Sametime Links (STLinks) package, such as server name and URL, in the user's environment. When configured, the Sametime chat links and Sametime presence list support (also known as buddy lists) features can be enabled. These features use the Sametime Links toolkit APIs on HTML screens in the IBM Telephone Directory V5.2 application.

When a user logs in to search for directory entries, results are returned on HTML pages. The pages display information obtained from the directory for each matching entry. Results always contain the name of each entry and may also contain email addresses, telephone numbers, and a list of job responsibilities. When Sametime chat links are enabled, results also include awareness icons for each entry (provided by the Sametime Links toolkit). Awareness icons are used to indicate whether the other users are online (logged into Sametime). If they are logged in, users can click on the awareness icons to initiate chat sessions with other users using Sametime technology.

Another feature of IBM Welcome Page V1.1 is the Sametime presence list support (also known as a buddy list). The IBM Welcome Page V1.1 application is used to configure Sametime buddy list support. When configured, an Add to Buddy List icon is displayed in the navigation bar of the IBM Telephone Directory V5.2 application. When this icon is clicked, the directory entry that is displayed is added to the user's Sametime buddy list. IBM Telephone Directory V5.2 provides the ability to add listings to a buddy list. Sametime client software, or other Sametime software, must be used in order to use and manage the buddy list.

Interaction with the Sametime server for chat sessions and buddy list support is handled by the Sametime Links toolkit APIs that runs in the client browser. IBM Welcome Page V1.1 does not provide the toolkit, rather, it adds what is needed on the HTML pages for the toolkit package to be downloaded from the Sametime server.

See Administer IBM Welcome Page V1.1 for more information on how to set up and use Sametime integration in the business applications:

See the following Web sites for more information on Sametime technology and the optional Sametime Links toolkit (Note: Lotus Sametime is also known as Lotus Instant Messaging and Web Conferencing and the Sametime Toolkit is also known as the Instant Messaging and Web Conferencing Toolkit):