Apache
Apache is a freely available web server that accounts for more than half of all installed web servers. Later versions run on most Unix based operating systems such as Linux and Sun Solaris. The Apache server can be integrated in the stakeholder infrastructure with the use of a Metatude Channel Integration Component (MCIC).

Attribute
In a database or a directory the term attribute refers to a field. Especially in directories fields are referred to as attributes. In directories attributes typically hold information such as email address, telephone number, country and the department where persons work. Metatude software can use these attributes to define target groups. This way, for instance, you can easy create a target group of all employees working in the marketing department.

Directory
In computer terms a directory refers to a list of users and network resources. This list can be used by humans and applications to identify people and resources. Metatude uses directories to identify stakeholders.

Dialogue
The concept of a dialogue is to gather information from stakeholders in an interactive session. Metatude has developed a file format in XML which can hold all kinds of interactive information of dialogues. These dialogues can be used to communicate with stakeholders.

DTD (Document Type Definition)
A Document Type Definition is a specific definition of an XML file. This DTD specifies what the XML code means and what information the code may contain. A DTD is used to check if an XML file holds the right information.

HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language)
Hypertext Markup Language is a language that consists of mark up codes for internet pages. Every browser reads HTML. To ensure that Metatude software can communicate with each browser, all the intelligence is stored in the server and dialogues are translated to plain HTML.

HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol)
HTTP is the protocol that is used for transferring web pages from a web server to a browser over the internet.

IIS (Microsoft Internet Information Server)
IIS is a popular web server from Microsoft. The IIS server can be integrated in the stakeholder infrastructure with the use of a Metatude Channel Integration Component (MCIC).

IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol)
IMAP is a protocol for transferring e-mail messages from a mail server to an e-mail program such as Outlook Express. It has more features than the POP3 protocol.

JBDC (Java Database Connectivity)
JDBC is an application program interface specification for connecting Java programs to data in relational SQL databases. For all major database systems there are JDBC drivers available. The Metatude Dialogue Server is a Java application and therefore uses JDBC to connect to databases.

LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol)
LDAP is a protocol to locate people and resources in organizations. There are special LDAP server products, but also other products support the protocol, like Lotus Notes, Microsoft Active Directory and Novell’s NDS eDirectory. This means that other applications can access the user information stored on these platforms via the LDAP protocol. Metatude uses the LDAP protocol to directly connect to stakeholder information.

MCIC (Metatude Channel Integration Component)
A MCIC is a component that is installed on the web server. It communicates with the central Metatude Dialogue Server. The function of the component is to translate the XML dialogues with style sheets (XSL) into HTML. Vice versa, the submitted results are translated from HTML into XML. The use of these components makes the infrastructure very flexible. When organizations want to collect data via other electronic channels, we only have to make MCIC’s for these channels.

POP3 (Post Office Protocol version 3)
POP3 is a protocol for transferring e-mail messages from a mail server to an e-mail program such as Outlook.

PostgreSQL
PostgreSQL is an open source software database, supporting almost all SQL constructs. Several tests indicate that the latest releases (from version 7 and up) are performing very well.

Relational database
In a relational database data is organized as a set of tables from which data can be accessed in many different ways without having to reorganize the database tables. The relational database is the most widely used database. Metatude stores results in a relational database. Currently Oracle, Postgres, Microsoft SQL and Microsoft Access are supported.

TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol)
TCP/IP is the communication protocol of the internet, that is also commonly used in private networks. Different computers in a network can communicate using this protocol. Metatude uses the TCP/IP protocol to connect to different elements in the network. This way the software can access databases, directories and web servers that are located in a different location on the network.

Servlet
A servlet is a program written in Java that runs on a server. A version of the Metatude Channel Integration Components for web servers is a servlet. This servlet communicates between the web server and central Metatude Dialogue Server.

SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol)
SMTP is a TCP/IP protocol used for sending and receiving e-mail. Organizations typically have SMTP servers that handle all incoming and outgoing email messages. The Metatude Dialogue Server connects to an external SMTP server to send out personalized email messages to stakeholders.

SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol)
SOAP is a protocol for sending XML messages from one application to another. It is an emerging standard for exchanging information. One of the advantages of the SOAP protocol is that it uses HTTP. Most firewall servers are set up to accept HTTP requests. The components in the Metatude architecture are sending XML messages using the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP). This way messages can get through firewall servers. This allows for the different Metatude components to be deployed in different places inside and outside the network.

Stakeholder
A stakeholder is someone with a relation to the organization, for example: employees, management, shareholders, customers and suppliers.

Styles sheets (XSL)
XSL stands for Extensible Style Language and is a language that describes how XML data is presented to the user. The Metatude architecture uses style sheets for the layout of dialogues. This means that organizations have easy control over the layout of dialogues. The layout can even be different for different projects.

SQL (Structured Query Language)
SQL is a language for getting information from and writing information to databases. SQL is the most common way to address relational databases. Different database vendors however use slightly different versions of SQL. Applications that want to be interoperable with different types of databases should incorporate these different ‘dialects’ of SQL. The Metatude platform hides the intricacies of these different SQL implementations to administrators. Once the type of database is chosen, the right version of SQL is used by all components of the Metatude architecture.

XML (eXtensible Markup Language)
XML is a language for describing the contents of a document. By ‘tagging’ contents in a predefined way, applications know what content is described in the file. XML is a flexible way to create common information formats. Metatude uses the XML standard to describe the contents of dialogues.